Oligarchy (Thomas) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
One of the funniest novels in recent years…. It takes a special kind of audacity to write a comic novel about teenagers with eating disorders, but Thomas’s humor has a sharp, rhythmic perfection. Her prose is fast-thinking, entertaining and punchy, her dialogue fully authentic without sinking into the tedium of real-life conversation…. Oligarchy is a study in obsessiveness pinned to a vague, whodunit structure we don’t really need, with a couple of barely felt deaths thrown in. But in Thomas’s hands we don’t care…. Intriguing, fluid and frequently funny interior monologues are what Thomas does best.
Lydia Millet - New York Times Book Review


[A] British writer who excels at delivering novels about difficult subjects, turns her brilliant, incisive gaze to a boarding school.… It’s a bracing reminder that no matter how obsessively young people measure themselves against one another, their self-worth also comes from the grown-ups around them… a strange but urgent glimpse into society’s often conflicting expectations of girls.
Bethanne Patrick - Washington Post


Thomas executes it brilliantly…. It's Thomas' boldness, as well as her writing―every sentence seems painstakingly constructed―that make Oligarchy such a remarkable novel. It's brash, bizarre and original, an unflinching look at a group of young women who have become "hungry ghosts, flickering on the edge of this world."
Michael Schaub -  NPR


[A] fast, fizzy read… Thomas is satirically attuned to the intricate frustration of teen life, the ignoble obsessions of puerile minds and the speed at which hygiene, decorum and false pretences vanish in a single-sex boarding institution. This makes for an entertaining, irreverent and wrong-hilarious read… The novel is full of brilliant lines.… [Thomas] is on a red-hot streak of invention right now and these narratives succeed because of the novelist’s deep understanding of the cracks and quirks of such communities…. Despite the occasional spangles of darkness, this is hugely enjoyable. It’s about as menacing as a cool girl’s black glitter nail polish—and just as much fun.
Guardian (UK)


In this delicious Gothic set in a British boarding school, the daughter of a massively rich Russian finds herself menaced equally by Instagram, an anorexia epidemic, and a spectral ancestor whose haunting portraits seem to watch her every move.
Oprah Magazine


Thomas has a perfectly pitched ear for human cruelty and self-delusion… and all the wild tortures young girls subject themselves to just to feel pretty in the world.
Entertainment Weekly


[S]atisfying, keenly observed…. Though Thomas’s characters get a lot of flak for being insufferable rich girls from outsiders in the novel—and they are—she’s captured with an empathetic eye all the brutal, visceral, and surprisingly funny aspects of teenage girlhood. This is a sharp, astute novel.
Publishers Weekly


Thomas has penned a sharp-eyed novel about the pressure society, adults, and peers put on girls to look and behave a certain way…. Thomas deftly explores exactly what those cost are, and the toll they take on young women.
Booklist


(Starred review) Thomas does a fantastic job of capturing the mental and verbal style of a contemporary teen…. This is a weird, twisty book… [with] the kind of dark humor that is only possible from a writer of profound compassion. Strong stuff. Another strange delight from one of the United Kingdom's most interesting authors.
Kirkus Reviews