A sharp and hilarious black comedy satirizing the boarding school novel.

I’ve long been of the opinion that satire written after about 1930 is basically garbage, but this book is one of those rare exceptions to the rule.

It’s funny, it’s smart, the characters (ridiculous though they may be) are just realistic and likable enough to keep the book from devolving into absurdity, and the truths that the book whispers via its clever sense of black humor are important ones.

Tash is a good heroine for the setting, being a little understated (at least outwardly) and also someone who feels a bit alien to the world she’s been dropped into. And how fantastic is Aunt Sonja? I wish I had an Aunt Sonja. Sigh.

Funny, yet serious. Unexpected, yet familiar. The novel dazzles and is full of life. It was enjoyable and darkly comic.

DNF

The story just lacked for me. Characters were flat, Setting in my opinion was the only good part of the story. I feel bad for talking about this novel like, cause I wanted so badly to love this novel.

Although this dark comic tale of a Russian billionaire's daughter sent to a private English school wasn't for me, I enjoyed it. I thought the characters could have been better developed.

Whenever I read a book by this author, I learn something new. This time, Ms. Thomas takes on boarding schools and eating disorders. She writes about the choices made by these teenagers in a strikingly nonjudgemental way, which helps put the reader in the mind of the characters. While the subject matter was rather bleak, I enjoyed the read.

I'm a huge fan of Scarlett Thomas and was really excited to see this new title. It's well-written but not my favorite--the story of teen girls at a boarding school flirting with anorexia, as told by the daughter of a Russian oligarch. I think the shallowness and disaffectedness are the point, as is a story that ends just as the story starts to get interesting. The whole bookleaves you feeling restles and wanting a kittle more.

Oligarchy, was not on my list to read but decided to give it a go. Wow! I am so happy that I did. In just under 250 pages Scarlett Thomas managed to suck me into this witty family drama. I wasn’t expecting this book to be funny, but Thomas’s dark humor, lol, wow! Top notch.

Thank you, Counterpoint Press for gifting me this DARC via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Over all this was a 4.5/5 star read.

The novel focuses on Tash (Natasha), the daughter of a Russian oligarch, who arrives at an English girls’ boarding school. Life at the school seems to revolve around eating or, rather, not eating: “90 per cent of the school has some sort of eating disorder.” One girl dies and her death is ruled a suicide, but Tash suspects she was murdered and sets out to uncover the truth.

The title refers to the school which is a perfect example of an oligarchy, government by the few. In the school, the thin girls, the popular girls, rule. Only those who become obsessed with weight loss and body image are accepted. They even take turns inventing strict diets for the other girls to follow: “On Monday everyone starts a new diet. It’s Lissa’s invention. The diet is this: wholewheat bread and Sandwich Spread only. No butter. Vegetables are allowed but no fruit.”

It is possible to have some sympathy for the girls. They are rich but are virtually abandoned by their parents. Tash, for example, never sees her father; the parental figure in her life is her Aunt Sonja who tells her, “Do everything you can to keep your beauty. Exams are not important” and warns her, “if you put the weight on once you will never, ever take it off. Well, you can do it temporarily, but once it has been there it will always long to return, like a missing lover, like a weed, like a boy gone to the army.”

The problem, however, is that it is difficult to like the girls. They laugh at what they consider to be the pathetic lives of regular people whom they call “plebs”. A teacher tells them, “You’re all so shallow and annoying” and that description is perfect. None of the girls really emerges as a round character with a distinct personality; they are just mean, privileged girls who are fixated on body image and consumerism. As a result, the reader may not feel as much sympathy for them as the author might want.

There are some other aspects that did not appeal to me. The structure is rather choppy with a lack of smooth transitions. The style is emotionless. A plot is almost non-existent. Why is the word “fluorescence” repeated 13 times?

At times, this book seems to read more like Young Adult fiction: “Tiffanie gets out a Sherbet Fountain which she calls a ‘dib-dob’ and “Bianca has secretly joined a Pro Ana WhatsApp group and . . . does not TePe daily.” It is, however, not a book I would want to give to a young person dealing with eating problems or body image issues.

On the other hand, I don’t think I’m the target audience for the book either. Maybe because I’m a “pleb”, I just can’t empathize enough with these uber-wealthy, superficial, nasty girls who are so pre-occupied with false values.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

I am a longtime fan of Scarlett Thomas and was Very excited to get my hands on this through NetGalley. Thomas’ writing style here is spare and interesting; things unfold in a very matter of fact way that is at odds with the often intense situations. The protagonist is the daughter of a Russian oligarch, recently claimed and sent to a very odd boarding school for girls in the UK. Natasha (Tash) was an interesting main character to me, as she comes across as generally bored and just seems to let things happen to her, though she has a critical heroic moment (which is still described in that factual, spare way I described above). While I was interested in most of the characters and liked the writing style, this was a tough read because it is so focused on teenage girls who are clearly in pain. The weird group dieting that they do is just the least disturbing example of a whole lot of disordered eating, which ends up having terrible consequences.

This book was odd. It had a very distinct and distanced writing style — like a narrator observing from a distance that does not really care about the outcome of the story. Readers will know instantly if it is something they will like.

I loved it. It felt a bit like a. Indie film to me.. I loved the hive mind of adolescence, the unexpected mystery, and the teachers who have found themselves inextricably woven into the fabric of the school. Teaching can take your whole being if you let it.

I did want slightly more about certain things - more aboutNico, especially.

But ov3rsll, I loved this bizarre and mysterious tale about the bad apples at a boarding school and all that becomes of them.

I received an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

I really liked Tash – I wanted to like this book. She such a believable teenager, and the diet and eating disorder culture of youth rings true, for those of us who have had that journey. But the book itself, the narrative, the twist, just couldn’t suck me in. I wanted to love it, so I round up the 2.5 very sad stars.

Scarlett Thomas has written a darkly funny and terrifying book about a group of 'bad' girls at an all girl boarding school.

Natasha enters the school during the 2nd weeks and is quick to join a group of girls. Weight, social media, boys/sex - everything that most teenage girls worry about it on turbo speed with the all girls school. The quips about each girls - huge thighs, Becky with the bad hair, etc - all very funny. But overall, like every one of the girls - there is a strain of sadness that looms nearby - waiting to overtake the throne.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Why is Scarlett Thomas not more popular in the U.S.? She's so brilliant and unlike any other author. At first I hesitated on this one, like, really? Is Scarlett really going to write about a topic as prosaic as anorexic teenagers? Especially after her last one, which featured (among other things) passages from a bird's point of view written in a bizarre bird-language? Will there be some sort of topsy-turvy sci-fi twist in the middle? I needn't have worried, because it turns out that all the other authors who have ever written about anorexic teenagers have just been doing it wrong, and all the topsy-turvy sci-fi weirdness is right there inside the teenage girls all along and Scarlett knows this and shows it to us, so surreal and fetid and murky, sex and menace always skirting around the edges. Blood and guts (not literally). But it feels visceral.
Extra points for her use of fashion signifiers as metaphors for complex emotional stuff. This is in evidence in The Seed Collectors too, as well as her recent books for kids, and it's effective and should be done more often.

A very odd but strangely thrilling novel about girls at a British boarding school of dubious reputation. Natasha come to the boarding school after being raised in poverty in Russia. But none of that matters. All that seems to matter to the girls are their looks and whether they are thin enough. Truly nothing else seems to resonate with them. Except maybe boys. the story is told from Natasha's very dry and distant point of view. It is almost as though sh is sleepwalking through life, so few things seem to affect her emotionally. But after the death of one of the students, things get really weird and Natasha and her friends begin to question the circumstances surrounding the death. Fascinating, bewildering but ultimately satisfying, OLIGARCHY will stay with you long after the final page is turned.

"Oligarchy' is about girls in their mid-teens in an English boarding school. Natasha, or "Tash," has a fabulously wealthy Russian father whom she only recently met, and she has been sent to this odd school in England.

The book is quite like "The Girls of Slender Means" by Muriel Spark, in which young women in a boarding house starve themselves. "Oligarchy" explores many issues, such as body image, social media, sex, victim-shaming, wealth, and class, and is well written. Switches in perspective from one girl to another are accomplished flawlessly, keeping the personalities distinct, and Tash herself is a fascinating character. As a foreigner, is she "exotic" or an outcast? Five or ten more pounds may mean the difference. In Spark, hunger and thinness is fetishized by the girls themselves due to the realities of wartime rationing. Thomas creates a world where it isn't that simple.

Tash has a safety-net family member, Aunt Sonja, who raises the question for herself and for Tash: "What makes a woman powerful?"

If only the book were 250 or 300 pages long, the author might have had time to give us more explanatory background about Tash (at the end, it becomes evident that this would have been helpful) or to draw out the details of the evil behind what's really going on at the girl's school, creating a growing sense of suspense. If you're going to take a novel in a horror direction, it's hard to manage a hairpin turn. Making one character a double red herring to prevent the reader from guessing the solution to the mystery doesn't fit well into the plot, and is left perplexingly vague. When everything is told in vignettes like a mosaic, a good novel consists in pulling everything satisfyingly together. Thomas doesn't quite manage it, but the novel stands on the strength of its characterization and the issues that it explores.

Adolescent girls a sharp eyed view of their behavior at times their meanest.This is a dark book full of satire at times hysterically funny.Draws you in to the Ives of these you girs really well written highly recommend.#betgalley#catapuktbooks

I haven't read any of the books by the author previously, though I see from reviews that she is well known and liked for The Seed Collector, and after reading this book. I will be checking it out for sure.

I am also a sucker for any type of boarding school books, so when I saw this one, I had to request. I was not disappointed. Scarlett captured the voice of young adults in a realistic way that drew me in and got to know the characters rather quickly.

Natasha is the daughter of a Russian Oligarch who is sent to an english boarding school. She immediately sees how the school is focused on appearance in many unhealthy ways and there were a string of mysterious deaths at this school. When her friend Bianca disappears she sets out to find out what really happened.

A mix of darkness in teens lives and a mystery to boot, this is one read you don't want to miss.

A devastating morality tale about eating disorders, young women, manipulation, and self-worth. Natasha, the daughter of a Russian oligarch, is sent to boarding school in England. where he already-growing obsession with her body and appearance is fed by the anorexia and bulimia of her fellow students, also the neglected daughters of rich families. When one student dies, the faculty--all with their own body issues--seems to unintentionally bungle the job in teaching the students to avoid further disordered eating, but there are sinister motives propelling everyone involved towards horrible ends. Content warning for disordered eating, body issues, anorexia, bulimia, fasting, and other similar topics.

First things first: there are trigger warnings galore in this book (ED, self-harm, assault) so I’d avoid if that’s not for you. That said -- it is darkly funny, and clearly a channel through which Scarlett Thomas is staring down her own demons (I only found this out by digging up some of her work for The Guardian). I’m someone who loves to process trauma by way of black humor, and for that, I found more of a friend than an enemy in this novel.

Where would I be if I spent my formative years confined to a small dormitory with only the molten-steel malleability of a dozen other teen girls and access to Instagram? Throw in rich, negligent parents, and these are the makings of the central characters of Oligarchy. It sounds insufferable on its face, but I think it’s that pubescent vulnerability that makes them all so lovable. The claustrophobic universe of this book creates a great petri dish for seeing how, with no outside interception, the societal pressures that plague adolescent women can feed on one another and grow to epidemic levels. Moral of the story: every girl needs a feminist fairy godmother.

If I had one critique, it'd be that it's very emotionless. It actually has echoes of one of my favorite authors, Otessa Moshfegh, so I don't necessarily mind this kind of treatment - but in this case, it's hard to tell if it's actually intentional. No less, it was a delightfully weird little novel and it's out in January in the US. Thanks to @netgalley for the ARC!

If you have any issues with food, weight, or self-image then back away from this book right now. Put it down and move on. This is a difficult read and I would only recommend it for the mentally strong and most unshakably confident. These teen girls are obsessed with weight, diets, and starving themselves. They feel sorry for the regular women in the village as they are “fat” and as such shouldn’t even want to live their boring, pathetic lives. It’s a pretty extreme depiction of eating disorders where appearance is everything and youthfulness and being unnaturally, dangerously skinny is the only priority. Being inside these girls’ minds even briefly is appalling and very disturbing. I have no self-image issues and yet even I was made to feel a bit insecure and less than attractive/worthy. I can’t imagine what this book would do to someone with real body image concerns.

Now that the warning is out of the way the story itself is quite good. There is a suicide that may have actually been a murder. The mystery is twisty although not totally unpredictable. Due to the nature of these girls, their school, and their teachers you can see where this is going and it’s unsurprisingly sordid and tragic. The ending is rather sudden and abrupt with almost all the loose threads left hanging. There is symbolic closure but very little that is concrete. It wasn’t very satisfying but it was fitting for the story in which no one is ever truly satisfied.

This is a deep story disguised by a lot of frivolous superficiality. It has an important message but it is difficult to see clearly through the offensiveness. I suspect that this will be a very polarizing book. If you can get past the nastiness and the horrible taste it will leave in your mouth it is entirely worth reading. Just be prepared to be left feeling a bit soiled and abused like an unloved rich girl sent away to boarding school.

Thank you to Counterpoint Press for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.