Social Creature: 'A Ripleyesque exploration of female insecurity set among the socialites of Manhattan' (Guardian)

by Tara Isabella Burton

'A Ripleyesque exploration of female insecurity set among the socialites of Manhattan' Guardian, Books of the Year

'So many novels are compared to The Secret History and The Talented Mr. Ripley in the digital age, but in this case it’s absolutely justified' Elle

Louise is struggling to survive in New York; juggling a series of poorly paid jobs, renting a shabby flat, being catcalled by her creepy neighbour, she dreams of being a writer. And then one day she meets Lavinia. Lavinia who has everything – looks, money, clothes, friends, an amazing apartment…

Lavinia invites Louise into her charmed circle, takes her to the best underground speakeasies, the opera, shares her clothes, her drugs, her Uber account. Louise knows that this can’t last for ever, but just how far is she prepared to go to have this life? Or rather, to have Lavinia’s life?

• ISBN10: 1408896117
• ISBN13: 9781408896112
• Publish Date: 14 June 2018 (first published 5 June 2018)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 3 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Imprint: Raven Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[maggiefan]

Do you ever feel like you have a love-hate relationship with a book? Well, I did feel that with this one.
I can't explain how I feel about this book. It has a very interesting message, it's weird (which I love, btw), the plot is quite intriguing, it had potential. But on the other hand, it was underdeveloped. Something was off. I felt like it could be so much more but it wasn't.

[kristy]

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley for a review. First off, I absolutely love the cover of this book. It immediately caught my eye and was the reason that I was interested in it in the first place. Initially I was a bit thrown off by the writing style of the author, I had to re-read a few times and it took me a while to get drawn in to the book but once I was I was hooked and finished it within a few hours. I'm not sure if you are suppose to really like the main character or not, but I personally ended up liking her and enjoyed how the story played out. I think that the description of New York/all of the parties was interesting and even though that lifestyle would not be for me I enjoyed getting to live it through the characters for a time.