Tara Isabella Burton

"Part THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, part Bret Easton Ellis's THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, about a small-town girl trying to survive in New York and become part of the city's literati, who forms an intense friendship with a troubled socialite, leading to extreme consequences"--

A Novel

Social Creature

Abigail Mills

arwen

Solid addition to my growing list of books centered on modern women losing their marbles. Sometimes it hit close to home, sometimes it was beautifully tragic in a way that other books in this niche genre aren’t. Refreshing change in writing style from everything else I’ve read recently 

Jacque

Callisone Dozier

I could never decide who i pitied or loathed more. Louise and Lavinia both were selfish and insane.

Ruth Parker 

Ok so the characters in this book are awful. The plot is clearly a rip off of The Talented Mr Ripley. There is no retribution for anyone. 

But I loved this book. The writing was amazing. I fell in love with the writing style. If it didn’t have modern up to date name drops this is the kind of book that could be set at any time. I believed in the characters and believed the situation. It was raw and vile and honest. 

I hated Genuine Fraud which ripped off The Talented Mr Ripley but this one was alright haha!

Tanya Sutton

I'm obviously in the minority with this rating but I absolutely hated this book. 

First, when you compare something to The Talented Mr Ripley, you're basically giving away the plot from the get-go. For readers like me, who loved that book, it might not make a difference because we'll read it anyway, but then you need to write a book that stands up to the original. Unfortunately, for me, this one was not successful in that regard. 

Louise, the "Ripley" character in this book, is not only obnoxiously unlikable but isn't at all sympathetic. She leaves home for unknown reasons and refuses to go back for unknown reasons, so she does whatever is necessary to stay in NYC, despite seeming to hate her life there. She meets Lavinia, a spoiled rich girl who seems to have endless amounts of money and no adult supervision or responsibilities. Fine - that's easy enough to believe. All of the characters, however, seem to live in this pseudo-Gastsby-esque world of drugs, drinking, and parties without any explanation as to why they are doing what they do. There's no motivation given for these characters, just their endless whirl of parties and operas and new dresses and expensive drinks. Everyone says they hate their parents but no reason is given for hating their parents. Everyone says they hate their friends but no reason is given for hating their friends. As a reader you're forced to take everything at face value but it's hard to do when you don't trust any of them and you hate all of them. At the end I found myself not caring much about what happened to anyone. Live...die...move to California and live on a commune...I did not care one whit. 

The writing style made it difficult to read as well. It was a slowly paced book that consisted almost entirely of one drug-fueled outing after another (again, think Gatsby here), but with nothing interesting happening or substantive character development occurring in between, so the book dragged on endlessly. However, the narrative was almost entirely Louise's thoughts in a stream-of-consciousness form and it was frenzied in style, with endless run on sentences and abrupt changes in topic. It was just a deeply uncomfortable book to read without a clear reason to be that way. It took too much work and didn't feel worth it in the end.

The *only* interesting thing happening in this book is the author's use of social media to keep the plot moving, but in the end it wasn't enough to rescue this book from itself. It was an ambitious novel that just fell short for me. 

(Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.)

Dominic

Allison Dempsey

Taous Merakchi

Caitlin Moore

Anne 

Ariana

K. Qua

Liam Byrne 

Michelle Miller

Jordan Robinson

Een 29-jarige vrouw verhuist naar New York om schrijfster te worden en geniet daar van de vriendschap met een rijke 23-jarige vrouw, totdat beiden hun ware gezicht laten zien.

Social Creature A Novel

Reviews

Highlights