Author: Taika Mannila
Finnish original: Drömhotellet
Publisher: S&S 2026
Genre: upmarket fiction
Number of pages: 310 pp.
Reading material: Swedish original, Finnish translation, English sample
What happens to an It girl when she ages?
A young woman calling herself Spacebaby checks into the glamorous, nearmythical Dream Hotel where the surface is glossy but mould is spreading behind the façade. Three of her friends are already staying there, each afflicted with the same life-threatening condition: an all-consuming obsession with the elusive heartbreaker JB.
Their prescribed cure? Healing positivity baths. Endless Martinis in the hotel’s lavish themed bars. Generous doses of heart-shaped pills. But what exactly is the Dream Hotel? A sanctuary – or a beautifully disguised institution?
In this merciless sad-girl saga, Mannila delivers a biting satire of a culture intoxicated by youth, validation and instant gratification. She dissects a world ruled by social media and the beauty industry, laced with bowel illness, financial ineptitude and self-destruction and made just barely tolerable by friendship and self-expression.
The It Girl Cure is a glittering fever dream and a tender love letter to all the girls who grew up online – and to anyone who has ever mistaken obsession for love, or survival for living.
About the author
Taika Mannila