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

Geoffrey Froggatt

** spoiler alert **
           “There are two kinds of people in the world: the people you can fool into liking you, and the ones clever enough not to fall for it."

Downtrodden wage slave meets rich soulmate and is swept up into their wild life: With Social Creature, Tara Isabella Burton presents a decadent portrait of wealthy, young New Yorkers and the lengths one might go to become one of them. Louise scrapes by in New York City juggling her barista gig, remote work for GlaZam, and SAT tutoring. Louise has nothing. Lavinia has everything. After a chance encounter, the two spiral into an intimate, intense, and possibly toxic friendship. This seductive story takes a classic tale of obsession and makes it irresistibly new. I love how this book depicts a dark, cynical look at the social scene in New York during the modern digital/social media age. I was confused with the actual year this novel takes place, as we have the characters criticize a character for using “BAE” and then those same characters later choose to post their party photos to Facebook of all places, but I easily dismissed this as a story taking place in a world similar to our own but not exactly the same. I loved the unique voice and how it reminded me of a feminine (and less dense) version of Brett Easton Ellis’ prose. I love how certain parts of the early chapters vaguely mentions where the story will end up, those pieces of foreshadowing and impending doom gave an ominous weight to the story and kept my interest throughout the quieter moments. I’ve heard many reviewers claim that this book is a rip-off of The Talented Mr. Ripley, but I haven’t read that book yet (despite it being on my TBR), and I don’t think being a retelling will turn anyone off this book. I loved how cynical and sometimes bleak this book was. When a shocking event happens halfway through the book, we expect the protagonist to be caught after she covers it up, but we slowly begin to see that she might get away with it, and somehow that seems more cynical and depressing than anything else. At first I wanted our protagonist to be caught and to watch the unravelling of her plan be a shocking revelation with dire consequences, and while I was a little disappointed with that not happening, I completely understand why the author chose to not go in that direction. It was far more interesting to have our protagonist simply walk away from this whirlwind of a life that she had infiltrated. Louise had always been an imposter and a visitor to this crazy social scene, and her shocking crime that nobody noticed proved how shallow and dark this world that she had so previously coveted always was. I think it was interesting having the main character be a passerby to this cynical social scene and become such a big player in it because it was something she always desired, only for her to realize she wasn’t happy with it and leaving forever, just as unceremoniously as she had arrived. I love how this book showed how the characters moved on so quickly from the disappearance of one of their own, how things move so fast in this social scene that people get left behind and forgotten as if they were never there despite seemingly being such integral parts of their friend groups. This book was dark and cynical, and while not a lot happened in the long run, it gave an interesting look into the upper crust social scene of New York’s elite in a way that the Gossip Girl novels never did.

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.)

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

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