Sanjena Sathian’s sophomore novel “Goddess Complex” takes readers on a disorienting journey through the labyrinth of modern womanhood, fertility anxiety, and the high-stakes business of reproductive technology. Following her acclaimed debut “Gold Diggers,” Sathian returns with a narrative that skillfully blends psychological thriller with dark satire, creating a fever dream of doubling and self-discovery that feels both timely and unsettlingly prescient.
At its core, this is a novel about choices—specifically, the fraught decisions surrounding motherhood—and the ways those choices can haunt and define us. But Sathian elevates what could be a straightforward exploration of reproductive autonomy into a hallucinatory gothic tale that will leave readers questioning their own perceptions until the very last page.
An Anthropologist Adrift in a Sea of Expectations
Our narrator Sanjana Satyananda finds herself in limbo—a 32-year-old anthropology PhD candidate on medical leave from Yale, separated from her actor husband Killian Bane after rejecting his sudden fervor for parenthood. While her peers advance through the prescribed milestones of adulthood—marriage, mortgage, motherhood—Sanjana remains stubbornly undefined, a condition both liberating and isolating.
When strange text messages begin arriving from unknown numbers congratulating her on a pregnancy that doesn’t exist, Sanjana’s quest to finalize her divorce from the ghosting Killian leads her to a fertility retreat in India run by her uncanny doppelgänger: Sanjena Sathian, a self-proclaimed “pregnancy influencer” who has seemingly usurped Sanjana’s identity and possibly her husband. What follows is a mind-bending exploration of identity and desire that defies easy categorization.
Sathian demonstrates remarkable control over her narrative, which grows increasingly surreal as Sanjana falls deeper under the influence of her double’s “mirroring” therapy. The lines between reality and delusion blur as Sanjana confronts not just her own ambivalence about motherhood but the very nature of selfhood.
Standout Literary Elements
Unnerving Psychological Depth
The novel’s most significant achievement is its portrayal of Sanjana’s shifting consciousness as she recovers from a concussion at the “God Complex” retreat. Sathian masterfully captures the disconcerting sensation of watching oneself be remade from the inside:
“I somnambulated through those days, time occasionally punctuated by an awareness of the outside world… I remember an awareness that my life was branching in two directions. I remember acknowledging that I could leave. Then Sunny turned to me, calling my name, a little bell of welcome ringing in her voice: ‘Sanjana, aren’t you coming?’ and I trailed after her in the waning daylight, overtaken by a vision of my many possible selves assembled like dryads in the phosphorescent green forests.”
The prose here achieves a hypnotic quality that immerses readers in Sanjana’s dissociative state. We never quite know what’s real and what’s hallucination—a disorientation that mirrors the protagonist’s own confusion.
Sharp Social Satire
Despite its psychological intensity, “Goddess Complex” maintains a biting sense of humor, particularly in its skewering of contemporary wellness culture and fertility entrepreneurship. The compound’s “womb regression” room and color-coded wristbands (blue for “receivers,” pink for “helpers”) offer a sardonic take on how capitalism has colonized even our most intimate biological processes.
Sathian is equally incisive in her portrayal of performative feminism and the commodification of female solidarity. When Sanjana’s friend Lia hosts a baby shower filled with “angel eggs” (deviled eggs adorned with marshmallow angels) and “onesie decoration,” the scene becomes a pitch-perfect satire of the infantilizing rituals that surround pregnancy.
Cultural Identity and Belonging
Though less explicitly focused on Indian American identity than “Gold Diggers,” this novel explores the particular pressures placed on South Asian women regarding marriage and reproduction. Sanjana’s strained relationship with her mother reveals generational divides about duty and fulfillment, while the commodification of ethnically “matched” egg donors adds another layer to the novel’s examination of identity.
Strengths and Weaknesses
What Works Brilliantly
- Atmospheric tension: The God Complex retreat becomes increasingly claustrophobic as Sanjana loses grip on her autonomy.
- Thematic depth: Sathian explores reproductive choice without simplified political positioning.
- Character dynamics: The relationship between Sanjana and her doppelgänger Sunny evolves with disturbing complexity.
- Cultural commentary: Sharp observations about wellness influencers, fertility anxiety, and the commercialization of reproductive technology.
- Prose style: Lyrical yet propulsive writing that shifts seamlessly between psychological realism and dreamlike surrealism.
Where It Occasionally Falters
- Resolution: The novel’s ending, while thematically appropriate, may feel abrupt to readers seeking more concrete closure.
- Secondary characters: Some supporting players, particularly in the retreat setting, remain somewhat underdeveloped.
- Plot mechanics: Certain coincidences strain credibility, even in a narrative that intentionally blurs reality.
- Pacing: The middle section occasionally feels repetitive as Sanjana cycles through similar revelations.
Comparable Works and Literary Context
“Goddess Complex” joins a growing canon of novels exploring reproductive anxiety and female identity, including Sheila Heti’s “Motherhood” and Avni Doshi’s “Burnt Sugar.” Yet Sathian’s psychological thriller elements recall the dissociative doubling of Dostoevsky’s “The Double” and the identity-blurring horror of Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca” (which Sathian explicitly references in her epigraph).
Like her contemporary Mona Awad (“Bunny,” “Rouge”), Sathian blends literary fiction with elements of gothic horror to examine female relationships and societal expectations. And similar to Ling Ma’s “Severance,” she uses semi-surrealist elements to comment on late-stage capitalism’s commodification of personal identity.
Who Should Read This Book
This novel will particularly resonate with:
- Readers navigating decisions about parenthood and feeling the weight of societal expectations
- Fans of literary psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators
- Those interested in contemporary feminist fiction that tackles complex biological and ethical questions
- Readers who enjoyed Sathian’s debut “Gold Diggers” and its exploration of cultural identity
- Anyone drawn to stories about doppelgängers, identity theft, and the malleability of self
Final Assessment
“Goddess Complex” is a disquieting, thought-provoking novel that lingers in the mind long after reading. Sathian has crafted a narrative that feels simultaneously timely and timeless—addressing contemporary anxieties around reproduction while tapping into ancient fears about doubling and self-loss.
Though occasionally uneven in its execution, the novel’s ambition and psychological insight make it a significant contribution to contemporary literature. It asks difficult questions without offering easy answers: What defines us when traditional markers of womanhood are rejected? How do we reconcile biological potentiality with personal choice? Where is the line between empathy and identity theft?
Most powerfully, “Goddess Complex” captures the peculiar terror of confronting alternate versions of oneself—the lives not lived, the choices not made, the selves we might have become. As Sanjana reflects near the novel’s end:
“I pictured myself banging my head against the rock until I knocked myself out. I could not be trusted with myself. ‘I want to be someone else,’ I said. ‘No. Not someone else. A better you,’ Sunny said.”
This tension—between transformation and authenticity, between potential and actuality—forms the beating heart of a novel that defies easy categorization but rewards careful reading. In Sathian’s hands, the goddess complex becomes not just a satirical jab at fertility entrepreneurship but a profound meditation on female agency in a world still struggling to separate womanhood from motherhood.
