Life & Style
Oligarchy by Scarlett Thomas
02/19/2020 11:01 PM EST •
02/19/2020 11:05 PM EST
As dark as it is funny, this novel captures the angst of teenage girlhood in today’s particularly social media-obsessed world. Natasha, the daughter of a Russian oligarch, arrives at an English boarding school to discover that skinny girls and those who try to fit in are rewarded. Thomas tells the story with a bleak humor and still manages to treat the young, flawed protagonists with tenderness. Elements of mystery and folklore give this very contemporary work a timeless edge. This is an author to whom I will be returning again and again.
Kelly, R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison