What are you reading?

Quote by principessa
I just finished this. An editor friend of mine gave me an advance copy. It is as if "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was combined with Lisbeth Salander and a dash of porn. If anyone else has read it, I would like to know what you think.

Quote by Varrick


Being a fan of Patricia Highsmith, and especially the Ripley novels, seeing your post sent me straight to Amazon. However, the reviews there are pretty scathing. Elsewhere, the majority seem to range from negative to mediocre. With that in mind, I’d be really interested to know what you think of this one.

Quote by principessa


I did not read "Fifty Shades" but had hoped that this book would be better and am told that it is. That said, there is a kind of fascination watching this character, how she insinuates herself into situations and with people and the violence that ensues. She is completely amoral. A clothes horse. It takes about twenty different designer products for her to shower and dress. We feel she is more in love with things, especially clothes and shoes, than people. People are a means to an end, and sometimes killed for the same reason with no struggle of conscience. Apparently this is the first of a triology. The NY Times described it as a pornographic shopoholic travelogue. Add some art history and murder and you have the story's elements. And yet there is a confounding appeal of a woman taking charge to pursue what she wants despite the bodies left in her wake. This is certainly not what I usually read, but I did. If there is more to this book, I am not hip enough to understand it. This is not serious literature but at least as good a read as all those Grisham, Clancy, and Brown books that people read in the summertime.

This is why I wondered why what others who read the book thought about it.

Quote by Varrick


With her being so obsessed with materialism, and particularly designer goods, it’s making me think of Patrick Bateman. It seems the author is drawing on all sorts of influences, but with some of the negative reviews I’ve read, this seems to be lacking the satirical bite of something like American Psycho.

I think I’ll wait until the paperback comes out. I haven’t read Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels for a few years, and I’ve only read the first of the Millennium trilogy so, at the moment, I think I’d prefer to jump into those before trying this. Even so, it’s one I’ll keep an eye out for.

Quote by apptobebad
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