Extreme Makeover: A Novel

Beauty companies are always out for the next big thing, and Lyle Fontanelle believes he has found it. Rather than simply masking imperfections, he has developed a lotion that erases wrinkles by helping the skin to create more collagen. However, something goes terribly wrong, and the lotion begins replicating whatever person it touches first on any subsequent person it touches. The beauty company, NewYew, believes it has a way to help people who want to be prettier by offering models of various ethnic backgrounds, but the government sees it as the best method for espionage countries have seen in decades. Lyle just wants to use it to cure cancer and other health problems. Easily as good as Wells’ John Cleaver series, this science fiction thriller is both satirical and scary at the same time and will make readers look at beauty products, especially lotions, differently. Each chapter counts down the days to the end of the world, relating the change from hope to despair for this beauty-product-turned-government-weapon. It begs the question about how much change, how much power, should be put into the hands of a few and if anyone could overcome the attraction and do what’s right.