Faber has acquired Amara Sage’s second YA novel, GIRL, ULTRA-PROCESSED, which is set to publish in January 2025.
As announced by Faber this week, GIRL, ULTRA-PROCESSED is the “exceptional second YA novel” following Amara’s debut, INFLUENTIAL (also Faber), which was praised by The Observer for Amara’s “keen eye for the realities of contemporary teenage life”.
GIRL, ULTRA-PROCESSED is a searing look at diet culture and all its ugly consequences, exploring what it’s like to be a teenage girl in a body-obsessed world. The story follows Saffron Saldana, who can’t stop comparing herself to the other women in her life and she only feels good when she is catfishing boys online. She welcomes in the New Year wishing she was as desirable as her best friend Poppy or as confident as her SlimIt coach mother. But when Saffron takes on an alter ego, Sydney, an impossibly beautiful AI-generated Instagram model, she finds she has control over how others perceive her for the first time in a long time, and she likes the power. Pretending to be Sydney seems like a bit of harmless fun, but suddenly Saffron finds she is in too deep, with no idea how to stop what she has set in motion.
‘To see GIRL, ULTRA-PROCESSED hit shelves in January – during what its protagonist, Saffron, calls diet culture Christmas – will ignite an especially personal glow of pride within me. This book is not only a celebration of my own self-acceptance, but of society’s slow embracing of body diversity too. I’m excited for readers to meet Saffron and journey with her as she questions everything from body image and diet clubs, to online dating and lying online. I’m so proud that I get to tell people my novels are published by Faber and I’m so excited to be working with their stellar team again.’ says Amara.
Alice Swan, Associate Publisher at Faber, said: ‘Only an author as brave and brilliant as Amara Sage is able to hold a magnifying glass up to diet culture in this way. Her ability to be truly, deeply honest about what it means to have a body at a time where we are constantly blasted with ads and information telling us to be better, fitter, slimmer, different, has produced a book that everyone should read with urgency, especially our vulnerable teenagers. Amara is one of the most exciting, current authors writing contemporary fiction for teens today and we are so proud to be publishing her on our list.’
Jessica Hare, Amara’s agent here at The Agency, said: ‘I am ridiculously proud to be Amara’s agent and in awe of what she has achieved with GIRL, ULTRA-PROCESSED: deftly getting to the heart of our complex relationship with our bodies and making me long for this book to have been around when I was a teenager. GIRL, ULTRA-PROCESSED is the book young adults need – now.’
The announcement has been made via Faber’s news page here and picked up by BookBrunch.
GIRL, ULTRA-PROCESSED will publish 16th January 2025.
