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A review by amyvl93
Other People's Clothes by Calla Henkel
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
<i>Other People's Clothes</i> entered my life via the Books That Matter subscription, without which I probably wouldn't have picked it up, and it was an interesting read. Set in Berlin in the mid-2000s, it follows Zoe Beech who is reeling from the unsolved murder of her best friend, Ivy, as well as a break-up and is desperate to find herself on her year abroad from art school in Berlin. She is thrown together with Hailey Mader, a much more privileged fellow student whose main obsession appears to be simply being famous (her art is 'conceptual'). When the become convinced that they are being watched by the author whose apartment they are subletting, they begin to go to increasingly extreme lengths to 'further the plot'.
Despite this quite exciting premise, <i>Other People's Clothes</i> is definitely a slow burn. We spend the majority of the book following Zoe and Hailey as they try and work out how not to freeze in their apartment, go to clubs (or don't go to clubs - this novel almost pre-empts the numerous TikToks I've had of people dressing to get into Berghain), hang out with other largely irritating students, in Zoe's case getting a job nannying for a wealthy couple in written stereotypes (she - one time legal highflyer constantly on her bluetooth headset, he - professional rich creep) and, as the novel progresses, begin to throw increasingly unhinged parties in the flat they're renting to give the author they believe is watching them a storyline.
The novel is narrated from Zoe's point of view, who is a surprisingly maddening cypher. After the death of her best friend she begins wearing her clothes, dyes her hair to match and dates Ivy's high school boyfriend. She (rightly) dislikes a lot of the people she comes into contact with in Berlin, but hangs out with them anyway. Hailey is mean but entertaining. There's some heavy plot signposting with constant references to both Law & Order: SVU and the Amanda Knox case - and when the plot does kick up a notch in the final few pages it does all go a bit...Law & Order, with an extended sequence in a psychiatric hospital and some conveniently located bits of paper. There's also some incredibly overwraught metaphors used throughout - Zoe describing herself as coming unexpectedly during sex as being 'like a SWAT team', which I'm not sure I'll forget in a hurry.
Points for a very unsettling last line, and the nostalgia hit of the mid-00s tabloid culture!
Despite this quite exciting premise, <i>Other People's Clothes</i> is definitely a slow burn. We spend the majority of the book following Zoe and Hailey as they try and work out how not to freeze in their apartment, go to clubs (or don't go to clubs - this novel almost pre-empts the numerous TikToks I've had of people dressing to get into Berghain), hang out with other largely irritating students, in Zoe's case getting a job nannying for a wealthy couple in written stereotypes (she - one time legal highflyer constantly on her bluetooth headset, he - professional rich creep) and, as the novel progresses, begin to throw increasingly unhinged parties in the flat they're renting to give the author they believe is watching them a storyline.
The novel is narrated from Zoe's point of view, who is a surprisingly maddening cypher. After the death of her best friend she begins wearing her clothes, dyes her hair to match and dates Ivy's high school boyfriend. She (rightly) dislikes a lot of the people she comes into contact with in Berlin, but hangs out with them anyway. Hailey is mean but entertaining. There's some heavy plot signposting with constant references to both Law & Order: SVU and the Amanda Knox case - and when the plot does kick up a notch in the final few pages it does all go a bit...Law & Order, with an extended sequence in a psychiatric hospital and some conveniently located bits of paper. There's also some incredibly overwraught metaphors used throughout - Zoe describing herself as coming unexpectedly during sex as being 'like a SWAT team', which I'm not sure I'll forget in a hurry.
Points for a very unsettling last line, and the nostalgia hit of the mid-00s tabloid culture!