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  • Published: 6 May 2025
  • ISBN: 9781761346699
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $34.99

Rytual





I support women’s rights, but more importantly I support women’s wrongs.

Marnie Sellick is adrift when she lands a job at the coveted, mysterious beauty brand rytuał cosmetica.

The enigmatic founder and CEO, Luna Peters, takes a liking to Marnie, and as the two grow closer Marnie becomes intoxicated by the life that Luna, and rytuał, can offer her.

But all is not what it seems at rytuał. Luna has a cult-like hold over the all-female staff, and that’s not to mention what happens at their weekly Friday Night Drinks.

As Marnie edges closer to the darkness at the centre of rytuał’s millennial-pink facade, cracks begin to show. Luna is hiding something, but will Marnie uncover the truth – and the role Luna has cast her in – before it’s too late?

Both a darkly funny deconstruction of the beauty industry and a gripping examination of identity, beauty and desire, Rytual asks the question: what if your favourite cult beauty brand … was actually a cult?

  • Published: 6 May 2025
  • ISBN: 9781761346699
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $34.99

About the author

Chloe Elisabeth Wilson

Chloe Elisabeth Wilson is a writer, former horse girl and avid Nicole Kidman fan based between Los Angeles and Naarm/Melbourne. Chloe graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Master of Screenwriting (First Class Honours) in 2019. Since graduating, she has had projects shortlisted for the Stan & VicScreen Comedy Fund, and longlisted for the AWG Monte Miller Awards. Chloe participated in the VicScreen Originate Writers’ Seminar, the Australian Writers’ Guild’s First Break Victoria program, and was a 2022 AiF Charlie’s resident in Los Angeles. Her work has been published by Refinery29, the Guardian and ABC Everyday. She currently works as a researcher for Shameless Media, where she assists in scripting some of Australia’s most popular podcasts. She also runs a monthly-ish newsletter called tall tales. Rytual is her first novel.

Praise for Rytual

High-concept and psychologically rich, with the dark, compulsive pull of a Black Mirror episode . . . ideal for book clubs and readers drawn to provocative fiction.

Jess Lomas, Books + Publishing

Outrageously funny, superbly plotted and deeply psychotic. I gorged myself on it.

Virginia Gay

Hilarious and deft, Rytual satirises both the mythical girlboss and the glossy world of beauty brands, while taking the reader on a breakneck journey filled with gasp-worthy twists and turns. Chloe Elisabeth Wilson is one hell of an exciting new talent.

Amy Taylor, author of Search History

Rytual is the hottest item in the Shameless Media office right now … It’s so f*cking good. If you love the beauty industry and psychological thrillers, this is the book for you.

Michelle Andrews, Shameless

Rytual is wild in the most perfect way. It’s the page-turner of the year, a literary thriller with a taste of modern sci-fi and horror, and also breathtakingly sexy. Every sentence is constructed like a work of art. I will be telling every woman I know about Rytual – oh, and also, looking twice at all my beauty products from now on.

Eilish Gilligan, Shameless Book Club

Sexy as hell, funny as sin. I’ve never devoured a book so quickly.

Michelle Brasier, author of My Brother's Ashes Are in a Sandwich Bag

Rytual is absolutely unhinged in the best way possible, with elements of dystopian thriller in a story that's somehow also terrifyingly relatable. How does she do it?! Probably by way of being an excellent writer, and also simply existing as a young woman in the world. Wilson's debut is sharply observed, exposing the fine line between feminism and misandry; #girlboss energy and a toxic workplace; wellness culture and straight-up cult. Rytual is gripping, smart and incredibly salacious.

Amy Lovat, Secret Book Stuff

A deliciously addictive, dream come true debut that left me wanting more.

Gretta Ray

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