Glitterati by Oliver K Langmead
I would like to thank Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Titan
Published – Out Now
Price – £8.99 paperback £6.65 Kindle eBook
Simone is one of the Glitterati, the elite living lives of luxury and leisure. Slave to the ever-changing tides – and brutal judgements - of fashion, he is immaculate. To be anything else is to be unfashionable, and no one wants to be unfashionable, or even worse, ugly…
When Simone accidentally starts a new fashion with a nosebleed at a party, another Glitterati takes the credit. Soon their rivalry threatens to raze their opulent utopia to the ground, as no one knows how to be vicious like the beautiful ones.
Enter a world of the most fantastic costumes, grand palaces in the sky, the grandest parties known to mankind and the unbreakable rules of how to eat ice cream. A fabulous dystopian fable about fashion, family and the feckless billionaire class.
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!
