You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

A review by ceallaighsbooks
Oligarchy by Scarlett Thomas

challenging dark emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

“As Bianca walks to the headmaster’s house she imagines herself a fawn in the dark night, snow falling gently on her ruddy fur, and she thinks about Princess Augusta coming here to drown herself, and wonders if she meant to, or if she just thought she could swim. Was she trying to get the black diamond back? Because, really, what the fuck would you do once it was gone? It must be found, the black diamond. Only then will the light return. The pellucid, desperate light.” 
 
TITLE—Oligarchy 
AUTHOR—Scarlett Thomas 
PUBLISHED—2019 
 
GENRE—literary fiction 
SETTING—a private English boarding school for girls 
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—boarding school, rich girls, eating disorders, body image complexes & mothers-induced complexes & ptsd, fucked up adults that have inexplicably been entrusted with the education and protection of children… 😬😅, classism 
 
WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
BONUS ELEMENT/S—A very unique and interesting take on the dark academia subgenre!
PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 
 
“Down the other wall are normal sash windows, one of which is open. A sleepy bumblebee has got in and is dancing towards the light, initially with hope, then with increasing frustration, because going up and following the light—both of which are hardwired if you are a bee—is not working. The bee cannot possibly know that to escape it will have to first go backwards, then downwards, towards darkness, and then double-back in a direction so completely against its nature and biology as to be unimaginable. But at the end of all that is the open window: the freedom that the bee has probably forgotten by now. The real light.” 
 
Yikes! haha Another Scarlett Thomas book that I *really* enjoyed—er maybe I should just say appreciated? 😅—but wouldn’t *dare* recommend that someone actually read… 😅😅 She certainly has a knack for writing about topics that are horribly triggering but this book maybe more so than The Seed Collectors felt *so* profoundly relatable to me that I can’t help but want to defend it and indeed *maybe* recommend it, just a little. 😅 
 
This book is mostly about eating disorders—and especially in teenage girls—at a privileged boarding school in England. My own experience with an ED is not related to body image but to food security issues in my childhood but it *is* also connected to watching people I knew growing up who had EDs that was pretty traumatizing to witness (and is a whole other story but) SUFFICE it to say that the treatment of the experience of EDs in this book was SO not sugarcoated that it actually resonated with me for once, as opposed to its usually overly simplified and highly stereotyped depiction that I feel like you usually see in books/movies, etc. Especially the way social media plays a huge role in today’s experience of EDs. 
 
But the main thing that I found relatable was the depiction of adults who are supposed to be the nurturers and protectors of the children in this book and not only were totally not helpful at all but actually made everything SO much worse! Which, in my opinion, is a WAY more realistic portrayal of adults from the perspective of children, particularly of that socioeconomic class (if you can imagine) a group of girls who seemingly have “everything” and yet what they utterly lack is what they most need: a nurturing community, and trustworthy, loving adults. But who cares about privileged rich kids anyway?, is the general sentiment. I found myself having a tremendous amount of sympathy for the characters in this book in spite of the huge difference in my (socioeconomic) perspective and that of the MCs’. 
 
“…and so to compete she needed something else. Why do adults not understand that? …It’s nothing you are born with; nothing you can buy. You have to go into the woods and fight monsters for what she needs, but no one will let her, and she doesn’t even know where the woods are, if they are even in this country, and these new monsters might actually be real…” 
 
Scarlett Thomas is a genius with her theme treatments and her writing style is one of the most beautiful I have ever encountered. Another fantastic book from her! 
 
“Never go through a door that closes behind you.” 
 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 
 
TW // eating disorders, fatphobia, parental/guardian-induced complexes, abuse, paedophilia, drug use, lesbophobia (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!) 
 
Further Reading— 
  • Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger 
  • “Family Treasures” in Dark Tales, by Shirley Jackson
  • Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
  • If We Were Villains, by M. L. Rio
  • Hangsaman, by Shirley Jackson—TBR

Expand filter menu Content Warnings