GLITTERATI by Oliver K. Langmead – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Glitterati by Oliver K. Langmead
Published by Titan Books on May 17 2022
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 288
Format: Finished paperback
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Bizarre, funny, and shocking, Glitterati is as sparkling and dangerous as the outfits worn by the characters.

“From her clutch she had taken a tiny bottle of tears (sourced, no doubt, from only the cleanest unfashionables) and had dripped several into her eyes to make them fill and glisten. Currently, there was a single droplet running down her face, rolling from the precise centre of her left eye. Georgie was a well-practised weeper, and Simone felt another rush of pride. Nobody else wept quite as beautifully as Georgie.”

Glitterati is one of those books that creeps up on you. It starts slow, dumping the reader into a bizarre world with seemingly unlikable characters doing odd things, and before you know it, those same characters have wormed their way into your heart. This is the fourth book I’ve read by Oliver K. Langmead, and it’s completely different from anything else he’s written. In Glitterati, the author uses satire to explore class differences and prejudices in unexpected and humorous ways. This story is full of the absurd and the grotesque, and the backdrop is a futuristic fashion industry full of outrageous characters whose sole purpose in life is to be fashionable.

Simone is a glitterati, one of the upper class privileged whose life revolves around fashion. Simone spends his days looking at fashion magazines, agonizing over which outfit to wear, and practicing poses so that people will notice how fashionable and aesthetic he is. Simone is married to Georgie, who is just as fashionable as he is. Anyone who isn’t a glitterati is an unfashionable, or an ugly. Those people are to be avoided at all costs, and why would Simone come into contact with them anyway? Simone, Georgie and the other glitterati live in a bubble of fashion, protected from a life of drudgery they know nothing about.

But one day, everything changes. Simone’s coworker Justine invites them to a party, where Simone suffers a nosebleed and ruins the perfectly pristine white suit he’s wearing. He tries to escape the party unnoticed, but a photographer manages to snap a picture of the disaster. The next day, he’s shocked to see Justine plastered all over the fashion magazines with blood dripping down her face and covering her outfit. Justine has stolen Simone’s nosebleed and turned it into fashion! Simone vows to get back at her, but this sets off a chain of events that threaten to bring Simone’s carefully preserved fashionable world to an end.

What a weird story this was! And trust me, this is my type of “weird.” The first part of the story introduces the reader to a very odd world, where the life of the glitterati, or fashionistas as they are also called, revolves around staying on top of the latest trends at all costs. For example, each day of the week has a fashionable color, so if Wednesdays are for wearing purple, you do not want to show up in white. Fashion extends to hair, makeup and accessories, so each piece of the wardrobe is carefully executed to have the most impact in public. Glitterati know exactly which poses to strike (cue Madonna) and what kind of light to stand under in order to look their best at all times. I was fascinated by the detailed descriptions of the outlandish outfits and the glitterati’s focus on living a life devoted to fashion.

And at first, it seems that’s all the story has to offer, description after strange description of the glitterati and their wild outfits. But little by little, cracks begin to appear in Simone’s world, and that’s when things get interesting. When Simone shatters a crystal champagne glass upon seeing Justine’s betrayal, he must go to the doctor to get his hand fixed up, and that’s when we meet Dr. Cask for the first time. Dr. Cask performs a horrific procedure that results in a completely new hand for Simone, after which he surgically erases all the awful memories of the party. Simone takes all this in stride, as if he’s been through this many times before, but for the reader it’s a sinister story element that makes you wonder what the hell is going on.

Georgie and Simone discover a child in their garden, which leads to all kinds of ridiculous things happening, but the child is also an important catalyst for some big life changes for Simone. It’s during this time that Simone begins to realize that his life is not what he thought it was—at all—and that perhaps he has been wrong about many things, including fashion. I loved this character growth so much, especially since Simone isn’t that likable in the beginning of the story and nearly impossible to root for.

The story has a sort of gender-bent quality to it, and after a confusing start, I really started to enjoy Langmead’s treatment of gender. First, Simone is male but his name is feminine, and Georgie is female but her name is masculine. Simone wears dresses and makeup and high heels and even appreciates his friend Darlington’s (also male) cut physique and tight swim trunks, but he’s deeply in love with his wife. It’s a society where gender doesn’t really have much meaning and anyone can wear anything, and I thought it was a refreshing change.

The story veers from shocking (glitterati sticking ice picks up their nose in order to bleed all over their outfits for the sake of fashion) to anger-inducing (the way the glitterati look down on the uglies) to ludicrous (Simone dressing in medieval armor in order to confront Justine)  to moments of unexpected tenderness (when Simone realizes that Georgie’s beauty has nothing to do with fashion at all). In short, the story is one surprise after another, all of it skillfully handled and executed.

In the midst of all this lively entertainment, Langmead makes some sharp observations about class privilege and division and the elite’s ability to ignore the lower, working classes completely. When we finally learn why the glitterati exist, it’s like the author has pulled back the curtain and exposed the grease-crusted gears that make society work, and it was horrifying. The ending was surprisingly emotional and hopeful, and I was so proud of Simone for embracing such an uncomfortable journey. Readers looking for unusual, high quality speculative fiction do not want to miss this.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.