Yeah yeah, it’s a bit shocking in places. Deliberately so I’m sure. But at the end of the day it’s a gripping page-turner, I read it on holiday and almost didn’t go out for a couple of days I was so gripped by it.

Trashy in places, gross in others, darkly comic all the way through.

while some may write this book off as “just trying to be shocking” or “horridly shallow,” in glamorama ellis weaves a story that is much more complex than one may first notice. while, yes, there is a superfluous amount of brand-naming, that part’s of this book’s charm.

unlike american psycho (ellis’ most well-known book, i would guest), however, which shows what happens when one becomes consumed by brand and image, glamorama goes a step further to explore the construction of reality — do these brands and images reflect the world we live in or do we reflect them? he even takes the brand/image theme a step further by using models-slash-actors to question the distinction between “acting” and living, “real life” and a movie.

ellis masterfully constructs a story that is part-character study, part-spy novel, part-softcore porn, part-shock fiction, part-new york style guide, part-screenplay, part-terrorism how-to… glamorama is by-far ellis’ best work.