An Interview with Allie Rowbottom

There is a type of young woman, often dismissed as vapid, who rarely receives much more than passing—or parodic—consideration in literature. They are not favoured with consciousness outside of how they are perceived. The protagonist of Aesthetica (Soho Press)—the debut novel by Allie Rowbottom—is one such young woman. The book tells the story of Anna Wrey, a former influencer. The narrative slips between Anna at 35 and at 19, as she was compulsively cultivating her online following. Young Anna is a shapeshifter, adapting her body and values with varying degrees of agency. At 35, Anna is on the brink of a final shift: Aesthetica™, an operation that promises to reverse all of Anna’s previous cosmetic procedures and restore her to her “natural” state. It will dissolve fillers, undo augmentations, and imitate how her skin might have stretched and faded if it had aged without intervention.