Catherine "Cat" Ono is one of the editors at RAGE Fashion Book. Thanks to a good-looking detective, she realizes that something must have caused her friend Hillary's untimely death . Cat really just jumped in to try and help the investigation, all the while pulling her friend Bess Bonner in. The two end up causing quite the uproar within rage and the industry.

This book wasn't something that I'd normally pick up, but I decided to give it a go. It was a little slow for me to get into because the whole fashion empire and women who hyperfocus on their appearance aren't something I can identify with. However, once the pace started to pick up and we were trying to figure out what happened, I was hooked. I'd definitely recommend.

4 out of 5 stars.

I'LL EAT WHEN I'M DEAD is an excellent, well-written and sharp satire about gender politics - specifically, the politics of women's bodies and and their work.

After the case of Hillary Whitney's death is reopened after first being ruled an accidental death (by dieting), Hillary's best friend Catherine "Cat" Ono and Bess Bonner decide to get involved in Detective Mark Hutton's new investigation. Through their eyes, readers are introduced to the fast-paced, pressure-cooker world of fashion and social expectation. Everything does not go well...

This is the first novel by Bourland that I've read, and it won't be the last. Well-written, sharply observed, often amusing, and well-paced. I really enjoyed this.

(The author's latest novel, FAKE LIKE ME is also available now, and I'll be reading it very soon.)

This is a mystery with a good dollop of social commentary-and that's a good thing. This is a fine read.

Though I liked the book, I made the decision at the time I finished not to review it on my site. Maybe in the future I will include it in a book list post or another article.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. The reasons will will be shared in our September edition of "Books We Didn't Finish" on From the TBR Pile on September 29: https://fromthetbrpile.blogspot.com/2017/09/books-we-didnt-finish-september-edition.html

I spent the first 3 chapters not knowing what the heck was going on in this story. I think this was supposed to be satire about the fashion industry. However, I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be taking place in the future or not. There was so much name dropping and product placement, yet none of the names sounded familiar. In the end, I gave up. It definitely wasn't the book for me.

I really enjoyed this book. It held my interest and I wanted to continue reading. I felt like I was privy to going ons in the fashion industry. I enjoyed the characters of Bess and Cat but I did feel more of the mystery aspect of the book could have been written about a bit more. The ending was great!!! Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced reading copy of this book in return for my honest review.

: My friend Sarra Manning recommended this one to me (see her excellent book After the Last Dance on the blog) – she said I’d love it and she couldn’t have been more right. Of course a book set in the NY and Paris fashion world, a crime novel at that, will appeal to me – but it is so much more than that.

It bears a strange resemblance to a non-fiction book recently guest-blogged here: How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell. The titles could pretty well be reversed, and the heroine of I’ll Eat When I’m Dead is actually called Cat: at times I almost forgot they were different books.

Real-life Cat wrote about her work on New York fashion mags, and her spiralling addictions and honest over-sharing online. Fictional Cat is holding things together a bit better, but is worried about certain events at the fashion mag Rage, and the death of her mentor. The book is set in the very near future, and jumps around following the fashionistas from their Manhattan apartments to the state-of-the-art offices, to the huge parties and special events, to art installations and fashion shows, and eventually to Paris. It IS a crime story, but it is a very unusual one, and Bourland has – wrapped up in her designer fairtytale – some sharp points to make, and most interesting messages about the state of the world now. She has tackled social media and the online world head-on, and takes for granted a situation where everything is online and accessible, and where it is hard to keep any secrets.

And of course the clothes – described in enough detail even for me – are beyond fabulous: I loved them. I couldn’t hope to find pictures to illustrate directly, so instead have gone for a selection of pictures of NY and Paris street style round the time of their Fashion Weeks.





I loved the book: I loved its combination of high fashion and high seriousness: as the guest blogger pointed out, it’s vanishingly rare to find an account of real women’s working lives, a book where women take their jobs and careers seriously: both these books do that – ironically in a world that many outsiders would dismiss as not-real-work.

The book looks at issues of feminism, size-ism and eating disorders, with particular relation to fashion, and also looks at ethical manufacturing. Bourland knows that people want there to be no sweatshops, but they also want cheap clothes.

She faces up to women’s desire to do great things in the world, and their equal interest in the way they look and dress. 



Here is Cat explaining to her assistant that she went to a girls-only school:
“We ate real food, played sports, spent a lot of time outside.”

Molly looked confused. “That sounds like lesbian summer camp.” 

“I think it was healthy,” Cat said.

“But how did you get into college?” Molly asked. “Didn’t you need to be, you know, the best or whatever? I’m not saying bulimia makes you ‘the best’; it’s just, you know… a real Type A thing to do. Like… being organized.”
And a few pages later we learn that vodka – ‘really cheap vodka, comes-in-a-plastic-bottle cheap’ – is useful for taking the body odour out of anything that hasn’t been dry-cleaned. 

This book goes everywhere. A fashion maven’s way of disguising herself is to dress in cheap clothes and sip at:
A venti Starbucks paper cup with “double caramel latte whip” written on the side, though it held plain black coffee… as good as wearing an invisiblity cloak.
This book is marvellous: I’m sure it will be dismissed by some as just more Sex and the City or The Devil Wears Prada, but Bourland is a brave, clever writer with something to say. I will be fascinated to read whatever she writes next.

This is so much fun! Perfect for readers who liked Devil Wears Prada.

Seems like I’m trending with this topic because check out the description for the next book on my To Read pile, I’ll Eat When I’m Dead by Barbara Borland:

When stylish Hillary Whitney dies alone in a locked, windowless conference room at the offices of high-concept magazine RAGE Fashion Book, her death is initially ruled an unfortunate side effect of the unrelenting pressure to be thin.

But two months later, a cryptic note in her handwriting ends up in the office of the NYPD and the case is reopened, leading Det. Mark Hutton straight into the glamorous life of hardworking RAGE editor Catherine Ono, who insists on joining the investigation. Surrounded by a supporting cast of party girls, Type A narcissists and half-dead socialites, Cat and her colleague Bess Bonner are determined to solve the case and achieve sartorial perfection. But their amateur detective work has disastrous results, and the two ingenues are caught in a web of drugs, sex, lies, and moisturizer that changes their lives forever.

This one promises to be a fun, fast, intriguing story that is getting great reviews. And Good news! It’s available right now! Get it!

I have mixed feelings about this book. The description made me think it was a mystery or a thriller, but it's really not. It's more a drama about life at a competitive magazine in New York. It was a bit slow in parts, but I did still like it overall. I would have liked it more if I knew what it was going in, though.

The body of editor Hilary Whitney is found in the workroom of prestigious fashion magazine RAGE. Her cause of death is declared a case of starvation but when a cryptic postcard in her handwriting appears two months later, detective Mark Hutton decides to reopen the case. Asking for the help of Hilary’s friend and colleague, Cat Ono, detective Hutton will navigate into a world of drugs, one-night stands, and super-expensive beauty products.
Showing a deep knowledge of the fashion industry, the author creates an hilarious and provocative novel set in a world where appearance and social media rule. Combining romance, comedy, suspense and mystery, this story with feminist themes, likable characters and the bright lights of the city is an entertaining and addictive read.

Did you like Sex and the City or/and The Devil Wears Prada, but thought it could have been better with some unexpected deaths? Then I'll Eat When I'm Dead by Barbara Bourland is a book for you. Personally do I not really care that much about fashion, but I liked the idea of the book. At first, I thought it would be some kind of locked room kind of murder, but the plot took a different route. Another thing that I thought of during the books progresses what how suitable the story is for today's nonstop celebrity attention. With mobile phones can you guaranty to always be watched even if your celebrity is because of, for instance, a jail stint.

Catherine "Cat" Ono and her friend and colleague Bess Bonner are shocked when Hillary Whitney is found dead, but this is only the start. Going through a bag Hillary left behind do they find a strange bottle. What is in the bottle? What they don't foresee is how their lives will change dramatically thanks to the small and insignificant bottle...

I'll Eat When I'm Dead is a book that I think will appeal to readers of fashion magazines or just like fashion. Personally did the book work on some level for me, but since I'm more likely to spend money on books than clothes were there moments in the book when my interested dwindled. I liked Cat and Bess enough to find their trials and tribulations interesting and I can understand how daunting it must be for them to be thrust into the limelight. But, when a little over half the book was done did I feel like the story started to slow down and I was thinking is this it? What happened to "the criminal" part of the story? Is the rest just about Cat and Bess suddenly famous? However, the story did pick up towards the end of the book and the turn into did make so much sense that I was astonished that I didn't see it coming earlier. But, I guess I was blindsided by all the fashion things going on.

The opening scene of I'll Eat When I'm Dead depicts the discovery of a woman's body. Hillary Whitney is found in a locked office at her place of work, the luxury magazine RAGE Fashion Book. The verdict: death by starvation, a cautionary tale about what the quest for extreme thinness might drive an otherwise sensible woman to. What follows, however, is mostly an entertaining, frothy comedy-drama and send-up of the fashion magazine world. The plot features a couple of mysterious deaths, but there's also the question of who will get promoted to Hillary's fashion director role at RAGE, and a love triangle involving Cat, the editorial heir apparent who emerges as the novel's main figure.

There are a few nods to deeper issues, but ironically (or deliberately?) they're about as superficial as the features about feminism and ethical fashion often found in women's magazines these days. I never felt the book was sure whether it wanted to condemn or celebrate the fashion industry and its attendant excesses, and I grew fed up of the exhaustive descriptions of everyone's outfits and beauty regimes. It's also pretty difficult to care about the professional fates of super-rich people who got their jobs through nepotism in the first place anyway.

Despite its edgy title, I'll Eat When I'm Dead is ultimately a bit of a silly confection; think cosy crime with a side order of couture and sex, rather than the 'viciously funny, sharp and satirical' affair the blurb suggests. (If this had been published in the 90s, the cover would've been pink with a loopy font and an illustration of skinny legs in high heels emerging from a New York taxi.) I'd say it's far more chick-lit than thriller, but that's no bad thing. It's fun, feather-light and sugary – I would say 'like a meringue', but the women of RAGE Fashion Book would probably break out in hives at the mere mention of one.

This started out reminding me a little of The Devil Wears Prada but that dark twist entered pretty quickly and had me hooked until the end. Really clever!

I really do not enjoy the tone of this book. I found it hard to read and only got a few chapters in before giving up on it.

I'll Eat When I'm Dead takes the reader for a wild literary ride. It starts as a classic dead body in a locked room mystery, but quickly becomes a tale of friendship and discovering your true self. Barbara Bourland takes us behind the scenes of fashion week, while giving as some deep issues to ponder. Are we truly feminists if our clothes force others into a life of practical servitude? How far are we willing to go to keep our cleverly fashioned masks from slipping? Although the plot moved slowly at times, I could not get this one out of my head.

What a wild ride this was! An extremely fun, fast paced and wicked read that will appeal to readers who enjoy Grady Hendrix and Jacqueline Susann. I loved it, I can't wait til it's released so I can tell all my customers to buy it!

Why DNF? The mystery from what I read so far was not grabbing me.

Liked: Cover it is very eye-catching

The title of this book is very cachy. Good book. I loved the storyline.