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Oligarchy
Oligarchy: A Novel | Scarlett Thomas
8 posts | 9 read | 12 to read
From the author of The Seed Collectors comes a darkly comic take on power, privilege, and the pressure put on young women to fit inand be thinat their all-girls boarding school Its already the second week of term when Natasha, the daughter of a Russian oligarch, arrives at a vast English country house for her first day of boarding school. She soon discovers that the headmaster gives special treatment to the skinniest girls, and Natasha finds herself thrown into the schools unfamiliar, moneyed world of fierce pecking orders, eating disorders, and Instagram angst. When her friend Bianca mysteriously vanishes, the world of the school gets ever darker and stranger. The halls echo with the story of Princess Augusta, the White Lady whose portraitsfeaturing a hypnotizing black diamondhang everywhere. She fell in love with a commoner and drowned herself in the lake, and her ghost is said to haunt the dorms. But the girls dont really know anything about the woman she was, much less anything about each other. Hilariously dark, Oligarchy is The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for the digital age. Scarlett Thomas captures the lives of privileged teenage girls seeking to be loved and accepted in all their triviality and magnitude. With the help of her diet-obsessed classmates, Tash must try to stay aliveand sanewhile she uncovers whats really going on.
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review
Ruthiella
Ruthiella
Oligarchy: A Novel | Scarlett Thomas
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Mehso-so

A short novel with a Russian teen attending a low ranked English boarding school. No midnight feasts, instead the girls featured are obsessed with dieting and weight loss. I feel like Thomas was going for satire here but it didn‘t quite land for me. There was also a mystery aspect, but it felt underdone.

I‘m counting this for the Frenemies category for #Booked2021 Fall Edition. That wasn‘t the theme of the book but there were instances of it.

tagged users iconCinfhen, BarbaraTheBibliophage, alisiakae
Cinfhen Excellent!! I like when a “random” book fits a challenge prompt 👍🏻 3y
Ruthiella @Cinfhen Me too! 😀 3y
BarbaraTheBibliophage Any boarding school always has frenemies! (I went to one for five years …) 3y
Ruthiella @BarbaraTheBibliophage Yes, it seems like it would be a given among teens! 3y
49 likes4 comments
review
Bookalong
Bookalong
Oligarchy: A Novel | Scarlett Thomas
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Pickpick

4🌟This twisted tale reminded me of Heathers a bit except in the digital age. The boarding school setting was intriguing, and it set up well to showcase the toxicity of diet culture and the strive for perfection among young girls, tieing in social media's pressures too. Theres a lot going on under the surface in this novel.Thomas has written a terrifying approach on power and manipulation that I wont soon forget! #bookreview #bookstagram #bookblog

11 likes
blurb
GidgetsTreasures75
GidgetsTreasures75
Oligarchy: A Novel | Scarlett Thomas
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9-27-20: My 76th finished book of 2020! Another story I just couldn‘t get into. Shallow girls at a boarding school, eating disorders, social media....there was a mystery that could have been very interesting if it had been fleshed out more. ⭐️⭐️ #oligarcy #scarlettthomas 📖#️⃣7️⃣6️⃣

8 likes
review
BookishTrish
BookishTrish
Oligarchy: A Novel | Scarlett Thomas
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Panpan

Fizzy, intelligent writing. Flat somewhat interchangeable characters. Nearly no plot.

Birdsong28 Her other books are excellent especially The End of Mr Y and Pop Co were so rich and detailed. 4y
68 likes1 comment
blurb
BookishTrish
BookishTrish
Oligarchy: A Novel | Scarlett Thomas
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On cold rainy days we read orange books #happyaccident

51 likes
review
Birdsong28
Birdsong28
Oligarchy | Scarlett Thomas
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Pickpick

Good. Shows the effect of social media and peer pressure on teenage girls to be thin. Even though this story has a powerful message to portray it lacks plot and structure. This is not the Scarlett Thomas I know and love as her other stories such a The End of Mr Y and Pop Co were so rich in story and detail that were well researched that this book lets her down.

#lockdownlist
#Cannongate

jhod I read this recently, it hasn't really stayed with me... I've not ready any of her others so maybe I should take a look... 4y
Birdsong28 @jhod Glad I am not the only one not to like it. Pop Co and The End of Mr Y are so clever and deep and so well written that you should definitely check them out 4y
Birdsong28 @jhod The covers are so deceiving to the wonderful story underneath. 4y
37 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
Mitch
Mitch
Oligarchy: A Novel | Scarlett Thomas
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Scarlett Thomas is a really interesting author - excited to read she has something new ....

https://lithub.com/scarlett-thomas-on-the-tricky-work-of-writing-the-unsayable/

StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego Thanks for sharing. I'd never heard of her or her books before. 4y
WildQuibble I really like her writer‘s guide, based on the Uni course she teaches. 4y
64 likes4 stack adds2 comments
review
jillrhudy
jillrhudy
Oligarchy: A Novel | Scarlett Thomas
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Mehso-so

“Oligarchy' is about girls in their mid-teens in an English boarding school. Natasha, or “Tash,“ has a wealthy Russian father whom she only recently met, and she has been sent to this odd school in England. Takes a hairpin turn into horror at the end and Thomas doesn't quite manage to pull it together. #arc #Netgalley Full review at https://www.librarything.com/work/23154454/reviews/177117486

Aimeesue Oh, that's disappointing. Hate when those ARCs don't live up to the expectations. The Phillips ARC is cracking my up, though - just all these Kit Marlowe/ Wm Shakespeare bits tossed in occasionally, just offhand- like. 😂 4y
jillrhudy @Aimeesue sounds like a lot of fun! 4y
22 likes2 comments