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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
Glamorama started pretty slowly and I found the first section to be tedious and obnoxious; but, after the second section started the story got more exciting and I realized the tedium of the beginning was intentional and very symbolic of the drama that happens later in the story. Overall, a very intricate and disturbing book but worth the effort in the end.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"The better you look, the more you see."
I'm usually a big fan of Ellis' work, but this one was just much too long. The book is divided into 6 sections, and truthfully section one could've been cut out completely or at least half the size. It follows the normal Hollywood lifestyle of drugs, sex, and name-dropping of celebrities, but it just goes on for too long in the beginning. I found myself skipping over big chunks that were just lists of celebrity names, and it really didn't add anything to the story. If you can get through that first section though, this turns into the wildest acid trip of a story and I was not expecting one bit of it. Somehow it becomes a terrorist/spy/murder/thriller and I'm not even sure how it did, but it did. Once things started to take a turn for the worst for Victor, our main guy, I couldn't put it down. Victor is truly a garbage human being so in a way it was nice to see things not going his way for once. I really couldn't wrap my mind around a lot of what was happening, but it was a thrill ride for the last few sections that took my breath away. Still not really sure what I read, but if nothing else, it was ambitious.
I understand why people hate this book, I do. It’s snide and searing and condescending, all at the same time. It indicts the cult of celebrity in a way that I, an avid celebrity gossip hound, found delightfully twisted. I laughed and gasped and squirmed and loved every feverish second of it. The sex scenes were also weirdly detached which made them super hot to me? I don’t know, only God can judge me.
We’ll slide down the surface of things....
We’ll slide down the surface of things....
This book delved into Ellis's weirder side. His books are always kind of a trip, but this one did not exit through the gift shop, if you know what I mean. It kept my interest, but I wouldn't call it one of his best. If you really like his writing style, I would say go for it...otherwise, check out his other work.
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The young, rich, white elite of the American glitterati skizz through drug binges and forgotten jaunts of bored promiscuity; party after party and the camera’s rolling and the paparazzi’s glut divines the tenor of aqueous evenings sloshing in the zeitgeist of vapid, shallow voids; then somewhere along the jitzy route the stutter of the camera is now the vicious patter of bullets and bombs and the empty American glamorama careens butter-smooth into terrorism and torture, a blitz of haywire fluxion toward total chaos, all safely contained within pages, upon a screen, in the glassy stillness of an image, so it can’t touch you, and you’re so safe and someone else suffers while you guzzle privilege and wilt from your American excess, just waiting for the terror to materialize, and really all you have to do is look in the mirror.
Five stars earned for:
⭐️The zippy, rude dialogue
⭐️The brilliant character development and disintegration
⭐️The blunt critique of distinctly American narcissicm and the numb blindness to any tragedy or crisis that isn’t our own
⭐️The hyper-saturated descriptions of violence and sex and decadence
⭐️The almost unwieldy scale of the narrative; Ellis is a ballsy, muscular writer who deftly blurs and fuses several genres in this long, verbose novel. There are scenes of almost unbearably intense violence balanced with those of dark, humorous satire.
Five stars earned for:
⭐️The zippy, rude dialogue
⭐️The brilliant character development and disintegration
⭐️The blunt critique of distinctly American narcissicm and the numb blindness to any tragedy or crisis that isn’t our own
⭐️The hyper-saturated descriptions of violence and sex and decadence
⭐️The almost unwieldy scale of the narrative; Ellis is a ballsy, muscular writer who deftly blurs and fuses several genres in this long, verbose novel. There are scenes of almost unbearably intense violence balanced with those of dark, humorous satire.