Slave to Fashion

by Rebecca Campbell and Rebecca Campbell

Book Overview

This wickedly funny first novel is a sly send-up of the fashion industry by a London insider. A fantastically sharp, witty novel.--Sophie Kinsella (Confessions of a Shopaholic). Postponed from 10/04 This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375760628
• ISBN13: 9780375760624
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Villard Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

A brilliant, hilarious book.

A brilliant, glittering dark comedy with a mostly happy ending. There's a darkness and realism in this one that might put off someone who doesn't like sarcasm. Because Katie Castle is all about sarcasm and is a modern-day Becky Sharp when it comes to social climbing. She almost gets it all, then loses it all, and then gets it all back again, and then some. I like her unflinching assessments of others; even if they are unkind, but I can't stand Pollyannas or phonies who want to pretend that all is beautiful and everybody is good, nice, and nice-looking. There are some charming digressions about pubs, and other aspects of life in London (and the U.K.) so if you don't like a non-U.S. cultural context, this book isn't for you. The puns and one-liners are liberally sprinkled throughout the text, making for much laughing out loud. Move over, Plum Sykes, Rebecca Campbell's got your number (or rather, your agent's number, your publisher's number, your editor's number, etc.) Who says comedy and `chick-lit' can't be intelligent and still be fun? Bravissima, Ms. Campbell.

I was a slave to this book!

This book was so much fun to read. I couldn't put it down! The main character, Katie Castle, was a very REAL character. So realistic that sometimes you loved her, and sometimes you wanted to smack her upside the head! Not many narratives are that realistic. Most main characters are like guys on a first date: they only show you the good stuff. The bad aspects of Katie Castle are the same bad characteristics in all of us -- selfishness, conceit, vanity -- but the main character owns it all! This is a refeshing change, which left me scouring the bookshelves for other books Rebecca Campbell has written. The plot is fun for anyone who has an interest in fashion or shopping. A very entertaining, smart, and stylish book.

Not your typical brit-chick novel!

I am getting a little weary of the brit-chick formula books these days and was a little hesitant to read this one. What a nice surprise! The main character, Katie, is a ruthless little snot who would run over all of the other brit book heroines in a limo! We get to follow her kamakaze nosedive from grace, in hilarious fashion of course. All of the people in her life turn on her (deserved) and she is left without a job, friends or a place to live. Throughout the whole ordeal, she faces problems with great humor and candor. Kind of like a modern day fairy-tale with a great ending.

I wanted to hate it but ...

I hate chick-lit. I hate the shallow, silly girls who live in it and the shallow silly world they inhabit. So I didn't want to read this book. But a long flight and a raving girlfriend made me do it. And what an amazing surprise. Real characters, smart lines, clever ideas and a thrilling (well, if you like love stories) plot. It's just so incredibly cool. Slave to Fashion is like life, only better.

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous!!!

I am a somewhat of a conisseur of the chick-fic genre, and this is far and away THE best fluffy book I have read in a loooooong time. I started it at 10 p.m. yesterday, put it down at 1:30 a.m. for a 6 hour sleep break, and finished it this morning at 10 a.m. It was that engrossing, smart (Deconstruction, signs and signifiers, and a hitman who quotes Nietszche, for cryin' out loud!), and funny. The two reasons I wish there were a 4 and a half star rating, though: 1. Veronica. Makes no sense. Badly defined character. 2. The metamorphosis was a bit too facile, but for a girlie book, what do you really expect? Other than that, I love, love, love this book. Loooooooove it. (How embarrassing that I get this gushy over this stuff--I'm a very serious grown up person with a graduate degree in English, for goodness sakes, and here I am babbling like a goofy teenager--oh mah gawd!!)