''A Clockwork Orange and RuPaul's Drag Race meet Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in this fabulous dystopian fable about fashion, family and feckless billionaires.'' I had to use this quote as it is the perfect way to describe this book.
Simone a member of the Glitterati accidently starts a new fashion trend when she suffers a nose bleed, however another member of the Glitterati is quick to steal the idea and the limelight from Simone. But Simone is no push over and soon it becomes a vicious war that could raise their utopia to the ground. The way way this book is written I could imagine every beautiful costume and the world shone through all the vicious beautiful people. An original story that takes dystopian writing and worlds to another level..

I'm not normally a fan of dystopian tales as I find it hard to imagine the worlds, but this story laid everything out perfectly to enable the reader to envisage the world and it's characters.

Gliterrati requires you to be a certaun kind of person for its satire to make sense. To be obsessed with the fashion industry, either as a fashionista or critic, to live in excess and pretend to condemn it. It requires you to have a level pf neoliberalism. I am sadly not that person and thus, this satire just read as a poor attempt at dystopia

I was approved for an e-arc on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t really know what to say about this book. It’s a bit nonsensical: the plot goes all over the place and reads a bit like a trashy book you’d read on the beach but with a dystopian twist. I don’t mean this in a bad way either.

My biggest gripe is that I think more could have been done to explore the deeper themes. There were some very interesting questions raised but it felt a bit surface level.

If you want something that requires you to suspend all belief but is, oddly, quite enjoyable, then this is the book for you. I was reading this alongside some very heavy books and it was a nice change.

The rich are uneasily fascinating. They can do anything; they have immense power and prestige that opens doors for themselves that we can’t even touch the door handle on. For some their lives are a mix of soap opera and desire to replicate. We can find ourselves on the receiving end of their ire if we say badmouth them on their new social media site. The glamour of being rich while not magical does seem to cast a spell and some rush to defend them even when they’re clearly not in the slightest bit interested really in their bros. In Oliver K Langmead’s imaginative science fiction tale Glitterati the rich and powerful are now so cut off from our world that their old is a fantastical strange dark comedy of stupidity, narcissism and yet deep down some growth may still be possible.

Simone works hard to be a member of Glitterati – the upper stylish class of society. He keeps us with latest fashion; beauty and lifestyle tips; no one especially the great unfashionables who live below their skyscrapers should ever see them make an effort. Simon and his wife Georgie are ever worried about making a misstep and getting out of line. Parties are where your career can br broken or made. A simple mistake at the office though makes Simon very prominent and he enters an even rarefied layer of society but may find his own unique style being solen. On top of that Simone and Georgie discover they have something unique in the garden…something they believe is known as a child.

Glitterati is a very stylised dark comedy of a tale. You will very likely find yourself hating the leads for being vacuous, vain; and more than a little stupid. For Simone, Georgie, and the rest of the Glitterati – style is all. What you wear, what you say, how you act and also never repeating yourself are key. One slip and you’re ruined. One moment of inspiration you’re a star. Simone will know fashion instinctively how their world actually functions…not so much. They don’t understand how their lives are maintained, what childhood is and to put it bluntly wouldn’t know common sense if it was in front of them. Despite this weirdly you may start to feel at least some sympathy as we see Simone find his ideas stolen, also he is so naïve that you realise its the world that created them and actually maintains them that actually enjoys having useful idiots to hide behind and profit from. Its subtly done but by the end I cared a little for these people’s fates…well a little.

The world is style and so Langmead adopts a decorous style that you could almost imagine being narrated in a high-end fashion magazine. Fashions and styles are described in ultimate glossy detail and that is indeed throughout; I loved the idea that this year duelling was in but dressed as a knight in armour! Langmead however, does insert moments of disconcerting ideas. A nosebleed that people suddenly all wants for fashion; Simone’s anger breaking out as he holds a glass is an unusual display of actual emotion and there is a very disturbing hospital trip that starts to explain this world’s apparently vacuity. When Simone and Georgie do meet a child; you feel worried about their oblivious and almost callous reaction to it and yet humour when they conclude a child is just a small very drunk person. There is also in the latter half a strange surreal court case of changing tastes, opinions and again a hint of powers that like this world as it is for their own reasons. It enjoyable and the tale never outstays it’s welcome but I’d had liked a little more exploration of this aspect and how it operated outside the Glitterati but it added some welcome depth never the less but I wanted this world to show its teeth a bit.

Glitterati is an enjoyable fast paced stylish romp with a few things to say about the rich and powerful and very little is complementary about them. You can stare in horror at the extremes they put themselves through and yet some empathy at how people a little too dim don’t realise that cage of theirs is still a cage. An unusual tale indeed that fans of the surreal may enjoy!

Where to start with this book. It was just so wacky. I had read Birds of Paradise from the same author last year and where that is dark and thought provoking, this is more jovial and lighthearted.

The whole books gives me vibes of the business card comparison scene from American Psycho, but with whole outfit ensembles. Its like what would happen if the bubbly town from the Uglies Series was crossed with the Capitol from Hunger Games.

Simone is one of the Glitterati who live in a world where changing fashions and being fabulous is their only focus. When he and his wife mix up a day and Simone wears the wrong colour, he is propelled into a rivalry with another fashionista who steals his ideas.

This book has to be read to be believed and I really did enjoy it. Definitely interested to see what comes next from this author as well!

I really enjoyed Glitterati.
It was a quick and entertaining read!
This book had such an interesting premise and I would definitely recommend it!
It's also definitely a bonus that the cover looks amazing!
Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I think like a lot of people, I was totally sucked into this book by the incredible cover, So huge kudos to the designer.

Luckily, it was also a quick and enjoyable read. The writing is very solid and smooth, and the way the author has written the descriptions made this book very cinematic. I can completely see what this would look like as a movie and it definitely has Hunger Games-aesthetic vibes in the best way.

The plot and the dialogue are snappy, and the satire was spot on, if not a bit on the nose.

Thanks to Titan and NetGalley for the review copy!

This book was really a treat. The glitterati rule the magazine covers with their fabulosity and displays of limitless wealth. They have jobs, but performing work is just not done. Only the unfashionable, or uglies, actually work. Fashion trends spread like wildfire and then burn out. Starting a new trend gets you on the covers and can instill envy among the most petty of the glitterati. When Simone accidentally starts a new trend by wearing the wrong color ensemble and makeup to his office one day (the horror!) he attracts the attention of Justine. From then on she works to out-trend him and she starts by stealing the concept for nosebleed fashion that rightfully should have been his (really, it was his nose that bled all over his clothes in the first place).

Simone and his wife Georgie were a hoot - from their cooed endearments to their matched beauty. They were always in accord, even about what to do when they discovered a very small ugly in their garden. I loved the couple, but Simone is certainly the main character in the book. His development was fun to watch.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

A taste of the book:

“Murder was both very impolite and highly unfashionable.”

“Simone secretly hoped the unfashionables would all catch a disease and die. Of course, it wasn’t fashionable to think such thoughts. The fashion was that the uglies were to be pitied, and charity in the form of discarded past-season wardrobes was a sign of good character. But Simone only said he sent his old wardrobe down to the unfashionables. In reality, he burned his clothes when he was done with them. The mere thought of his discarded clothes touching the skin of any of those aesthetically impaired creatures made him feel ill.”

“It’s an exclusive Karpa Fishh blend. He cultivated a floral greenhouse over a period of twenty years, then burned it all in one go and bottled the scent. Beauty and destruction. Only a hundred bottles exist.”

“Simone only ever allowed himself at most three smiles a day; any more might compromise the integrity of his face.”

“… Simone delivered his very best poses as he sashayed down the runway to the beat; all those special stances he had been saving up for an event as esteemed as this. Beside him, Georgie synchronized her movements to his, so that both of them moved in a gorgeous, flowing dance of beauty, their heartbeats matching the beat and each other. Together, they moved from spotlight to spotlight, caught up in the splendid rhythm of the catwalk.”

The Glitterati live a life of luxury and leisure; to be anything than perfect is a sin. However, when Simone starts a new trend with a nose bleed someone takes the credit; as the rivalry intensifies it threatens the whole society.

This was a very interesting concept and it was a very fast paced and gripping novel. I like the dystopian genre but with the Glitterati's extravagant lifestyles it made this story much more appealing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: none
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

Spoilers ho.

Nrgh, I don’t quite know what to say about this. And it might just be a case of wrong reader wrong book. Potentially wrong reader wrong book wrong genre altogether. Because, the thing is, satire is a difficult beast to corral. By its nature, it requires you not to care. And the problem with not caring is that, well, you don’t care? On top of which Glitterati seems to sort of hedge its bets between not-caring and secretly trying to make you care. Except the people, or maybe the one person, it wants you to care about is a member of the ultraelite who is so detached from the world at large that, even if he does develop a flair for art near the end, still has no idea what capitalism or childhood is.

Glitterati is set in a nebulous far future where the lives of the ultrarich have been completely detached from the rest of society: with any elements of experience deemed to be traumatic, be that a trip to the doctors, childhood, understanding of their own wealth, or the way society works, literally erased from their brains they live lives entirely dedicated to aesthetic ideals. The hero, Simone, inadvertently wears white one day, believing it to be Tuesday, when it is instead Wednesday, upon which people wear purple, which catalyses a chain of events that lead to him becoming a trendsetter, getting locked in a ruthless rivalry with a fellow fashionista, encountering a child (which he and his wife understand as a small drunk human) and finally inadvertently committing a crime which throws him to contact with all sorts of unaesthetic elements of reality like prison and the law.

Weirdly, despite the book being mostly a fever dream of excess and vapidity, it does kind of have a happy ending?

In any case, there were definitely things I admired here: the writing is fluid and vivid, the characterisation is, y’know, about as sound as it can be considering the POV character is literally missing most of his brain, there were some amusing moments (like the sequence with the lemon), some unexpectedly touching moments (Simone’s relationship with his wife is genuinely sweet, tender and sincere), and the world is imaginatively realised, with some decent neo-future fashion porn if that’s your thing. I also liked that there’s a kind of … interestingly de-gendered quality to everything: from the characters names (Simone and his wife, Georgie, for example) to the clothes they wear (Simone wears skirts and dresses interchangeably with more conventionally masculine attire, and Georgie vice versa), and while Simone is very in love with his wife he isn’t above admiring the rippling physique of his best friend Darlington (who is married to another man). Frankly, I rather admired Darlington’s rippling physique myself.

Where the book kind of lost me was around, um, what it was actually about? I mean, what was it a satire *of*? That the lives of the ultrarich are detached and inaccessible to the rest of us? Yeah, I think I got that memo already? That the ultrarich are, in their own way, an industry? Uh-huh. That even people who exist in rarefied spheres can be exploited or victimised? Okay. That fashion is kind of shallow? Wait, are we still doing that after Miranda Priestly’s ‘Cerulean’ monologue? Surely not. And I, honestly, have no idea what to make of Simone’s redemption arc, whereby he kind of undergoes emotional development in prison (because prisons, right, so beneficial to the incarcerated), buys a child from her mother (because poor people will literally sell their kids for a pair of designer shoes), and ultimately runs away from getting his memory wiped again because he wants to retain his personal growth, ending up on a massive luxury yacht with Georgie and the kid that has been gifted to them by a famous fashion designer who has recognised that Simone is an artist.

I don’t even know what to do with any of this. Maybe just be dazzled and not think too hard about what it means? I couldn’t even tell if I was meant to be pleased Simone got some kind of privilege-fuelled happy ending i.e. that his discovery of art was supposed to be genuinely redemptive for him or if it was simply another expression of wealth and power in action. Like, the ultrarich get to explore ART. Poor people get to sell their kids. And, y’know, it’s more than possible I just failed to “get” this book and what it was saying.

Or, ironically, it could be a case of style over substance?

Oliver Langmead’s Glitterati is a rollercoaster of a book. The story follows Simone – one of the Glitterati. The Glitterati are the absolute elite in society – they live their lives in complete luxury, but they must follow the strict rules around what is fashionable and what is not. If a new fashion comes along they must join in, or risk being seen as unfashionable. When Simone attends a party and accidentally has a nosebleed, it sparks a new trend. Simone expects to be hailed as a fashion genius, but another Gltterati – Justine – takes credit. This sparks an intense rivalry between the two and Simone must do everything he can to stop Justine from destroying him.

Glitterati is a fast-paced read, and one I read in just a few sittings. It’s such a unique idea and I was fascinated by the absurd, over the top life that Simone and the other Glitterati lead. The ever-changing fashions were unreal – even ones that could kill you. There are some quite funny moments in the story too – such as when Simone is confronted with denim or children. Langmead has a really vivid writing style so each scene practically leaps off the page. The story felt well written and well executed.

Overall Glitterati is an enjoyable read, but the characters are so unlikeable it’s hard to root for Simone to succeed. As a result, I didn’t feel as invested in the story. Glitterati is certainly a unique tale and if you’re on the hunt for a fresh take on the dystopian genre, Glitterati should definitely be your next read.

I did enjoy it. The project Runway vibes and the witty scenes made it interesting. Great read. Charcaters are interesting but the plot itself is dragging and quite easy.

The nitty-gritty: Bizarre, funny, and shocking, Glitterati is as sparkling and dangerous as the outfits worn by the characters.

Glitterati is one of those books that creeps up on you. It starts slow, dumping the reader into a bizarre world with seemingly unlikable characters doing odd things, and before you know it, those same characters have wormed their way into your heart. This is the fourth book I’ve read by Oliver K. Langmead, and it’s completely different from anything else he’s written. In Glitterati, the author uses satire to explore class differences and prejudices in unexpected and humorous ways. This story is full of the absurd and the grotesque, and the backdrop is a futuristic fashion industry full of outrageous characters whose sole purpose in life is to be fashionable.

Simone is a glitterati, one of the upper class privileged whose life revolves around fashion. Simone spends his days looking at fashion magazines, agonizing over which outfit to wear, and practicing poses so that people will notice how fashionable and aesthetic he is. Simone is married to Georgie, who is just as fashionable as he is. Anyone who isn’t a glitterati is an unfashionable, or an ugly. Those people are to be avoided at all costs, and why would Simone come into contact with them anyway? Simone, Georgie and the other glitterati live in a bubble of fashion, protected from a life of drudgery they know nothing about.

But one day, everything changes. Simone’s coworker Justine invites them to a party, where Simone suffers a nosebleed and ruins the perfectly pristine white suit he’s wearing. He tries to escape the party unnoticed, but a photographer manages to snap a picture of the disaster. The next day, he’s shocked to see Justine plastered all over the fashion magazines with blood dripping down her face and covering her outfit. Justine has stolen Simone’s nosebleed and turned it into fashion! Simone vows to get back at her, but this sets off a chain of events that threaten to bring Simone’s carefully preserved fashionable world to an end.

What a weird story this was! And trust me, this is my type of “weird.” The first part of the story introduces the reader to a very odd world, where the life of the glitterati, or fashionistas as they are also called, revolves around staying on top of the latest trends at all costs. For example, each day of the week has a fashionable color, so if Wednesdays are for wearing purple, you do not want to show up in white. Fashion extends to hair, makeup and accessories, so each piece of the wardrobe is carefully executed to have the most impact in public. Glitterati know exactly which poses to strike (cue Madonna) and what kind of light to stand under in order to look their best at all times. I was fascinated by the detailed descriptions of the outlandish outfits and the glitterati’s focus on living a life devoted to fashion.

And at first, it seems that’s all the story has to offer, description after strange description of the glitterati and their wild outfits. But little by little, cracks begin to appear in Simone’s world, and that’s when things get interesting. When Simone shatters a crystal champagne glass upon seeing Justine’s betrayal, he must go to the doctor to get his hand fixed up, and that’s when we meet Dr. Cask for the first time. Dr. Cask performs a horrific procedure that results in a completely new hand for Simone, after which he surgically erases all the awful memories of the party. Simone takes all this in stride, as if he’s been through this many times before, but for the reader it’s a sinister story element that makes you wonder what the hell is going on.

Georgie and Simone discover a child in their garden, which leads to all kinds of ridiculous things happening, but the child is also an important catalyst for some big life changes for Simone. It’s during this time that Simone begins to realize that his life is not what he thought it was—at all—and that perhaps he has been wrong about many things, including fashion. I loved this character growth so much, especially since Simone isn’t that likable in the beginning of the story and nearly impossible to root for.

The story has a sort of gender-bent quality to it, and after a confusing start, I really started to enjoy Langmead’s treatment of gender. First, Simone is male but his name is feminine, and Georgie is female but her name is masculine. Simone wears dresses and makeup and high heels and even appreciates his friend Darlington’s (also male) cut physique and tight swim trunks, but he’s deeply in love with his wife. It’s a society where gender doesn’t really have much meaning and anyone can wear anything, and I thought it was a refreshing change.

The story veers from shocking (glitterati sticking ice picks up their nose in order to bleed all over their outfits for the sake of fashion) to anger-inducing (the way the glitterati look down on the uglies) to ludicrous (Simone dressing in medieval armor in order to confront Justine)  to moments of unexpected tenderness (when Simone realizes that Georgie’s beauty has nothing to do with fashion at all). In short, the story is one surprise after another, all of it skillfully handled and executed.

In the midst of all this lively entertainment, Langmead makes some sharp observations about class privilege and division and the elite’s ability to ignore the lower, working classes completely. When we finally learn why the glitterati exist, it’s like the author has pulled back the curtain and exposed the grease-crusted gears that make society work, and it was horrifying. The ending was surprisingly emotional and hopeful, and I was so proud of Simone for embracing such an uncomfortable journey. Readers looking for unusual, high quality speculative fiction do not want to miss this.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Absolutely loved this book, what a fantastic (albeit very realistic) plot. This could easily become reality at some point in the future. Thank you so much to Titan!

I really enjoyed Glitterati. It’s a strange sort of book. In a good way. There is a vain ridiculousness to it, to the lives of the wealthy, beautiful people who have no concept of the real world, safely cocooned and pampered in their mansions. The book is laced with satire and there are some very funny moments especially when Simone and Justine become rivals. There are some dark moments as well when Simone is accused of a crime and discovers the truth about the not-so-perfect world he inhabits. This is a lot of fun. I’d recommend it.

I was happy to be selected to read Glitterati by Oliver K. Langmead. I was mostly drawn in by the cover, but it turned out to be a well written, and enjoyable book

Glitterati by Oliver K. Langmead is an absurd dystopia, a world where the fashionable live perfectly posed lives away from the work and troubles of the unfashionables. The protagonists are vain and wilfully ignorant, but there is something compelling about the initially petty conflicts that absorb them.

Picture a world where everyone is beautiful, where beauty and style are the primary goal of any endeavour, and where things like money are no concern, food and cleaning something that just happens. Like the feed of an instagram influencer, the world of the glitterati is one of poises, fine clothes and fleeting styles.

Simone is vapid and almost cruel in his selfishness, aware of the unfashionables, but with no awareness that their unfashionable lives must be requires to run the industries that create all the fine products he consumes. He is ignorant of many things – indeed in this world traumatic memories, such as injury, can be and often are purged from the memories of the fashionable (because depression is oh so unfashionable). His one saving feature is his love for his wife Georgie, something supportive and respectful in a mostly cut-throat world.

Two incidents drive the plot of the novel. The first, a bitter rivalry between Simone and another fashionista, one who uses his ability to stumble upon new fashions to her own advantage, someone crafty and especially cruel. As they clash, things escalate, eventually causing real peril for Simone and Georgie.

The second is a toddler that suddenly appears in their garden, a toddler in a part of society where there are no children (much like how the rich often fob their kids off onto nannies and boarding schools, the children of the glitterati are removed and taught separately, returning only when they are of an age to be fashionable like their parents, their minds erased of everything that came before). At first they fear the unfashionable child, but time with it slowly starts to change them for the better.

Simone is a hard protagonist to like, especially in the first half (at least) of the book, so much of my enjoyment early on came from the satirical nature, the absurdity of these people. I did think that the book was perhaps a bit longer than its premise warranted, but I was satisfied with how everything panned out. Since the book is told from the perspective of Simone (in third person) we also get a myriad of descriptions of the outfits of each character, which of course change every day depending on the current fashions. That may get tedious for some readers.

Glitterati is ultimately a small scale story about an ignorant person finally learning to change despite the pressures not to. It’s surprisingly heartfelt, darkly funny with a biting satirical edge.

Wow, I think this is the craziest book I've ever read!

Think Zoolander meets Blackmirror meets Isimov, but in a dystopian world where beauty and fashion are everything. It's wild, fun, grotesque, absurd, vividly imaginative and highly entertaining.

Langmead, besides being creatively a genius, is also a great writer and his prose is excellent.

It might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I'm sure if you give it a try you will find it as engaging and enticing as I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hum the story is well written, it has his funny side, but this book is not for me, I was expecting like a kind of uglies for adults and I got something that I can’t really define what it was, maybe you will love, it just wasn’t for me…

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC, this is my honest opinion.

"Today was Friday, which meant neon"
Glitterati is wild. It explores the insane world of hardcore fashionistas who despise ugliness. And denim (shudder).

The Ultrarich live a life of absolute luxury, isolated from “uglies” (the normal people), and have their every whim catered to. Simone is one of them. Unaware of his overwhelming financial power (he doesn’t even know what money is), he enjoys life and beauty in all forms. As long as colorful cocktails complement his attire, and others admire him, life is good.

Unlike most Glitterati, however, Simone doesn’t just follow new fashion trends, he accidentally sets new ones. Call it intuition. Like when he gets a nosebleed at the party, but someone else takes credit for that new trend (which inevitably leads to overzealous fashionistas lobotomizing themselves while trying to make their noses bleed with something sharp). This accident starts Simone’s feud with Justine, which has dire consequences.

Glitterati had me enthralled with its fast pace and wild ideas. I followed Simone’s story with bated breath and laughed a lot. I love grotesque elements woven into the narrative, and Langmead incorporates them effortlessly into the narrative. And the world of Glitterati IS absurd: their memories are regularly erased because retaining traumatic (or even unpleasant) memories can lead to esthetic impairment (with symptoms such as frowning, sighing, or weeping; not esthetic.) If you’re foolish enough to wear something unfashionable, you’ll be ostracized and ridiculed. Fashions change all the time, and some trends are dangerous - like a fashion for deadly clothes. Yup, as in outfits that can kill you at any moment.

Because of frequent memory erasure, Glitterati have no memory of their childhood. They don’t even know what a child is. When a child gets lost on Simone and Georgie’s property and they find it unconscious, they decide to dispose of the body, but are afraid that if they touch it, they’ll catch a disease that made the child small and unfashionable.

It’s wild, I tell you, but in the best possible way. Manic, effortlessly and darkly funny, utterly unpredictable. Now, a word about Simone. Some readers will hate him from the start. Like all Glitterati, he’s comically self-absorbed and empty. Fashion is his religion, as is beauty. I adored his narration and even cheered for him to win the fight for the latest suit from the Dramaskil’s Blue collection! If you can connect with absurd characters, you’ll be ok. If, however, you prefer protagonists you can relate to, well, look for them elsewhere. To be fair, Simone changes significantly as the story progresses (though the change happens in the last 20% of the book).

The world takes place in a dystopian world with Vibro-rails gliding across cities, but the world-building is minimal. There’s little explanation of how The Glitterati function or how the economics work. Hundreds of people rely on Glitterati's continued placidity and living in the moment without focusing on trivial things (like money). Don’t expect any in-depth examination of the dystopia, though. You won’t get one.

I loved Glitterati; it’s probably the craziest book I read this year. And the most fun. I recommend it to anyone looking for a wild read that doesn’t take itself seriously and makes entertainment its priority. Great prose and Langmead's vivid imagination make it a pleasure to read.