BE WELL: Coming June 23, 2026

About the Novel

BE WELL

Fresh out of college and faced with the Great Recession of 2009, Ann Ward takes increasingly desperate measures to avoid moving back home while being drawn into a maybe-cult. What could go wrong? 
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Summer 2009: Brand-new college graduate Ann Ward has sent out nearly three hundred job applications, but nobody will employ her. The last thing she wants to do is leave Los Angeles, return to her desert hometown, and live in the shadow of her fame-hungry televangelist father–and it's starting to look like that's her fate. Thankfully, Ann's luck turns after a humiliating failed job interview, when she meets the magnetic founder of upscale holistic wellness collective Sagebrush. She's quickly drawn deep into the privileged, demanding world of Sagebrush, inventing Anneliese - a dubious new persona - to fit in.

But when her funds run out and her lies blow up, Ann must choose between facing reality or doing whatever she has to do in order to get the future she wants. Both a "funny ha-ha-" and a "funny oh no" read for anyone who survived the Great Recession, Be Well explores just how easy it is to believe in something unquestioningly–and lie to ourselves and others–when everything feels uncertain and the future isn't guaranteed.

Coming June 23, 2026 from Heliotrope Books. Pre-order information coming soon! 
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Praise for Be Well

Some kind words from smart people.

"Reading Be Well feels like living inside the world’s most devastatingly accurate Reductress headline. With razor-sharp humor and an uncanny eye for millennial absurdity, Sarah Flocken captures the particular cocktail of hope, humiliation, and existential dread that defined coming of age in 2009. A hilarious, addictive novel that will make many readers feel thrillingly—and terrifyingly—seen.

Candice Wuehle

Author of Monarch, an NPR Best Book of the Year

"Sarah Flocken's debut novel brilliantly captures the chaos of what it's like to be an unprepared college graduate desperate for a slice of solid ground in a ruthlessly shaky world. As someone who also came of age in the late aughts — and who may or may not have gone through a deeply misguided crystal phase of my own circa 2009 — Ann's character arc made me laugh, cry, and shriek in recognition. Calling all elder millennial book clubs: Be Well is a must-discuss for your next meeting!"

Nicolas DiDmoizio

Author of A Murder Most Camp 

“Sharp, funny, and fast-paced. Be Well is an unflinching look at the sticky, alluring world of wellness and of a young woman’s search for direction and meaning as she attempts to answer the question: where do I belong? Steeped with humor, heart, and candor. A must read!”

Deborah Hemming

Author of Goddess

"Be Well paints a nostalgic portrait of coming of age in late-2000s Southern California. Sarah Flocken crafts a relatable heroine you can’t help but root for, even as her life spirals out of control by her own doing. Ideal for readers drawn to stories of messy ambition, complicated daughters, and the seductive pull of communities that promise to make everything better."

Holly James

Author of The Big Fix

"Be Well is a blazing debut that skewers the ‘wellness’ industry with wry humor and delicious irony. Packed with mid 2000s nostalgia and post-recession desperation, it builds and builds until…well, you’ll have to read to find out."

Charlee Dyroff

Author of Loneliness & Company

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