Tara Isabella Burton | SOCIAL CREATURE

Plot (via Goodreads):

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. 

Review:

Okay, so this one was definitely a novel that has had some huge hype and a ton of people talking. After reading it, I really had to think of what I wanted to say during my review because while it might be one of the shorter ones I've written, I do have some strong feelings within this novel.

I loved the plot. It was genius, sharp, and the pacing was spectacular. I enjoyed that it was two female characters kind of playing this modernized version of The Talented Mr. Ripley and the characters were definitely ones that really stood out with their over-the-top personalities and I think this was a lot darker of a novel than The Talented Mr. Ripley. I enjoy dark, I enjoy psychologically frightening, and disastrous unreliable characters. 

The thing I just didn't feel was clicking with me with this novel was that I kind of felt that it was trying too hard with the characterization. I get that these are not your average person you would run into on the sidewalk, but some of the characters were just so over-the-top for me and I really felt this kind of harmed my reading experience. I loved the plot and the ending was absolutely brilliant, I just didn't like any of the characters and found them to be ostentatious. With that being said, I definitely recommend this one just to read out of curiosity because it may not have been my favorite, but I can see where the elements that I didn't care for would be something that other readers would really enjoy.

Special thanks to Doubleday for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review. 

Rating: 2.5/5