A review by bookishmelody
Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans by Jane Marie

3.0

I would listen to the podcast over the book—even with it having the updated perspective of the COVID MLM boom. While this is a good primer and history to MLMs, it did not go nearly as deep as someone who has recommended the first season of the Dream podcast *a lot.* Additionally, it lacked a lot of the storytelling through lines the podcast had to give it more narrative shape and I was actually shocked the podcast’s attempts at making a business “work” with Limelight were never even brought up. For someone not deep down the rabbit hole, I don’t know how engaging this is because, even while it calls of the commonalities, it doesn’t call on them consistently. And for those who are deep down the rabbit hole, it doesn’t particularly provide new information, though it is nice to have some the history written down more formally. 


Maybe it’s just that I’m not going to find that one book that touches on everything. Nor do I expect it to as a book should have focus—but the focus, the “so what”— felt somewhat lacking here in comparison to other projects. Not a waste of time by any means, but definitely a borrow over a buy.