Sheer

Named Most Anticipated by Bustle, LGBTQ Reads, Autostraddle, Book Riot, and Electric Literature

“Lawrence’s clean writing moves the action quickly . . . The book’s setting is undeniably compelling, and Lawrence’s eye for detail and industry knowledge […] feel spot-on for the period.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Vanessa Lawrence so vividly traces her character’s personal history that you might almost forget (like I did!) you’re reading a novel, not a memoir.”
—Bustle

“Lawrence nails the beauty world and how its trends speak to so many layers of culture, which all makes for a vibrant and sharp read.”
—Booklist *starred review*

“Engrossing . . . A well-crafted tale of a striver’s fall from grace.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Tightly plotted and full of insider detail, the novel shimmers with complicated truths about women, beauty, and betrayal.”
—Kirkus

“Vanessa Lawrence is a marvel. Biting, shocking, illuminating, and whip-smart, her sophomore novel, Sheer, exposes the brutality behind the beauty industry, as it gives us the confession of canceled makeup mogul Maxine Thomas. Maxine bares all, revealing the layered pressures of gender, sexuality, race, and class at play on a made-up face, all the while telling us a gorgeous and unforgettable story. Lawrence pulls it off perfectly: she shows the awful system behind the beautiful woman, then the woman at the heart of the system itself.”
—Julia Phillips, bestselling author of Bear and Disappearing Earth

“Incisive and absorbing, Sheer examines the opacity at the heart of capitalist systems, showing us the price of disclosure and ambition. Vanessa Lawrence gives us the indelible narrator Maxine Thomas, a beauty founder whose confessions reveal a dark side of inspiration. I could not turn the pages fast enough.”
—Carrie Sun, author of Private Equity

“Sharp and propulsive, Sheer is a morally complex examination of the rise and fall of an innovative beauty founder who has been trained by society to hide her sexuality. At what cost will she hold onto her power? Who is the victim and who is the perpetrator? Through narrator Maxine’s confessional tone, Lawrence crafts a compulsively readable story about ambition, beauty, power, and race.”
—Crystal Hana Kim, author of The Stone Home

“In Sheer, Vanessa Lawrence gives us something we rarely get to see: a queer point of view on the beauty industry, and on female ambition therein. It’s a complicated portrayal of power, desire, and how the two are intensified by an industry with no room for lesbianism, brought to life by a voicey narrator confessing it all. I couldn’t read it fast enough.”
—Gabrielle Korn, author of Yours for the Taking