Social Creature

A Novel

By: Tara Isabella Burton

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

One of the best books of the year: Janet Maslin, The New York Times, Vulture, NPR.

"Social Creature is a wicked original with echoes of the greats (Patricia Highsmith, Gillian Flynn)." (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)

For listeners of Gillian Flynn and Donna Tartt, a dark, propulsive and addictive debut thriller, splashed with all the glitz and glitter of New York City.

They go through both bottles of champagne right there on the High Line, with nothing but the stars over them.... They drink, and Lavinia tells Louise about all the places they will go together when they finish their stories, when they are both great writers - to Paris and to Rome and to Trieste....

Lavinia will never go. She is going to die soon.

Louise has nothing. Lavinia has everything. After a chance encounter, the two spiral into an intimate, intense, and possibly toxic friendship. A Talented Mr. Ripley for the digital age, this seductive story takes a classic tale of obsession and makes it irresistibly new.

©2018 Tara Isabella Burton (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Dark, stylish...Burton's exceptional character work further elevates the tale; every individual is both victim and villain, imbuing their interactions with oceans of emotional subtext and creating conflict that propels the book toward its shocking yet inevitale conclusion...At once a thrilling and provocative crime novel, a devastating exploration of female insecurity, and a scathing indictment of society's obsession with social media." (Kirkus)

"Fans of the cult classic Poison Ivy will appreciate the mousy girl-wild girl dynamic on display in Burton's fiendishly clever debut...An ingenious dark thriller in the Patricia Highsmith Tom Ripley mode...This devious, satisfying novel perfectly captures a very narrow slice of the Manhattan demimonde." (Publishers Weekly)

"This fast-paced, stylish, dialogue- and character-driven debut...will definitely ensnare readers. Diabolically playing on what we think we know about others and what we reveal about ourselves in the social-media age, it will give readers the creeps, too." (Booklist)

Her phenomenal writing

Tara is an incredible writer
Her books have become an essential part of my inspiration

Wow!

It builds and builds and builds. Excellent writing and perfect narrator. Can’t wait for this author’s next novel.

This is Ridiculous

This book is silly. It is not the least bit believable, and not a single character is particularly likeable, nor is there really any character development. However, it's still a fun read. You know what you're getting into pretty quickly because right away, every character is ridiculous, from the way they talk, to the way they act, to the absurd parties they attend.

This book seems to be trying to be a mix of a modern Great Gatsby and your classic modern thriller, a la Alice Feeney's Sometime I Lie, or, perhaps more aptly, Caroline Kepnes's You. This doesn't quite work for a few reasons. The first is that Burton's attempt at a modern Great Gatsby is not quite modern enough, making the dialogue so incredibly stilted as to be ridiculous. The second is that Burton relies on the decadence in the world she's built to fill in the stark prose instead of more useful things like character development and a plausible plot.

The third thing is that Burton's characterization--especially of Louise--is somewhat lazy. We know that Louise hates herself, but we never really know why. Things happen in Louise's past that seem to have been life-alteringly awful, but we never get a clear picture of what they were. Lavinia is equally, if not more messed up than Louise, but we don't know why, and we certainly don't know why everyone seems to love her anyway. It's never clear what Cordelia's deal is, or what Hal's deal is, or Rex, or Mimi, or anyone. No one's motivations are understandable because not one character is more than a two-dimensional caricature.

Also, there's this weird use of the second person, and, toward the end, the fourth person. Who is 'you,' and who are 'we'? From where are 'we' observing all this? It never really made sense, and it smacked of the author just trying to do something--anything--different. And there are a few (okay, several) logic holes that kind of nagged at me. Things that an editor should have caught. There are points at which Burton seems to be self-aware, as if she knows how ridiculous and thin the whole things is--she's 'in on the joke,' so to speak. But the 'joke' is not sustainable across an entire novel.

All that being said, I still found this book entertaining. It's light, predictable fun. The narrator, Saskia Maarleveld, is quite good. As other reviewers have noted, her voice for Lavinia is grating, but I think that suits the character--Lavinia herself is grating. However, it isn't fun to listen to, so I take a star off from performance. If you don't want to listen to needlessly crude language and graphic depictions of sex that, at times, border on hedonistic, go ahead and pass on this one. If you can live with that, and are in the mood for an easy read (or listen) where you're not too invested in the characters because there's not much to them, and you happen to have an extra credit you don't mind spending, maybe give this one a shot.

Entertaining and fun

I thought this book was entertaining and fun. Great setting, and fun details. Overall it was a little predictable, and certainly a story that we've all heard before (Talented Mr. Ripley, as others have mentioned, and which is a better book), but I liked the female perspective and the New York locale. A fun summer audiobook.

Dark journey that keeps you listening

I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, but it was a great dark thriller that occasionally borders on dark comedy territory. The narrator was awesome, and I loved the writing style. The journey that the main character takes is a dark spiral that kept me hooked until the end. Really compelling exploration of toxic relationships and also how we create our "realities" for social media. Looking forward to what the author writes next.

A simmering pot soon boils over

Louise is a deeply average person on the cusp of turning 30 and living day-to-day when a chance encounter with the troubled, exotic Lavinia draws her into a world of privilege and adventure. Louise soon becomes addicted to the friendship that Lavinia offers, the money, the excess, and to Lavinia herself. However, after their intense bond begins to sour (things often sour for Lavinia, and for Louise too), only one will be left standing.

The narration for Lavinia is off-putting (really, the most pretentious accent), but it serves to distinguish the character, and Maarleveld does a great job bringing the large cast of rich weirdoes to life. I would love a sequel.

Hated the narration. 1.5 speed to get through it!

Ridiculous and silly. Couldn't wait for Lavinia to die so that I didn't have to hear her voice any more!

Millenial version of single white female.

Honestly it had potential but then sort of fell flat for me. It became predictable .

Something Rotten in the Selfie Set

A fantastic drama about postmodern excess inside a dark and cynical world of privilege. I loved the staccato style of dialogue. ❤💯⚠💀👀👍😎😋🍑🍆

Fun!

This book is a fun story that turns really dark really quickly. It keeps you on your toes; I listened to it in the span of 24 hours because I couldn't wait to hear what happened next!