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Dead Rich
The Spenders are Britain's Favourite Family - they are glamorous, rich and very, very famous, everything that their celebrity obsessed culture requires them to be. Their charisma and looks ensure that they are constantly feted, and hounded, by the press. The public adores them. They live what appears to be a charmed and enviable existence.
In the claustrophobic confines of their exquisite houses there is a darker reality. Isolated and hemmed in by the paparazzi and their crazed fans, they are trapped in their fame. Constantly surrounded by an army of long-suffering employees: stylists, PAs, personal trainers, drivers, security teams, hair and make-up artists, managers, agents, publicists - they are never alone but always lonely - with nothing else to do but 'drink and fight and screw' they breakfast on prescription drugs, lunch on vodka and dine on anything illegal they can get their hands on.
Their privileged, high profile lifestyle is shattered when tragedy strikes - tearing apart the fragile fabric of their existence, and sending them spinning out of control. Dead Rich is a black comedy, a cautionary tale for our times.
In the claustrophobic confines of their exquisite houses there is a darker reality. Isolated and hemmed in by the paparazzi and their crazed fans, they are trapped in their fame. Constantly surrounded by an army of long-suffering employees: stylists, PAs, personal trainers, drivers, security teams, hair and make-up artists, managers, agents, publicists - they are never alone but always lonely - with nothing else to do but 'drink and fight and screw' they breakfast on prescription drugs, lunch on vodka and dine on anything illegal they can get their hands on.
Their privileged, high profile lifestyle is shattered when tragedy strikes - tearing apart the fragile fabric of their existence, and sending them spinning out of control. Dead Rich is a black comedy, a cautionary tale for our times.
- GenresChick Lit
306 pages, Paperback
First published January 27, 2012
8 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 14, 2019
It took a while to warm up to this book, as most of the characters are pretty vile. The exceptions for this are Dusty, Ed and Willow. The rest of the family are typical of what you would expect from famous people with egos bigger than their bank accounts.
They are rude to the help, they cheat, they spend most of time smashed with either drugs or alcohol. They use everyone around them. Even Max, who is supposed to be the friendly granddad figure, mentions his preference for young boys. And he’s not the only member of the family who likes them young. VILE!
This is like a fictional tell all. If you remember and loved those ‘News of the World’ Sunday gossip articles. You will probably love this. I personally just thought it was okay. It kept me interested enough, it was just hard to get behind the characters, though some of them got their comeuppance by the end.
They are rude to the help, they cheat, they spend most of time smashed with either drugs or alcohol. They use everyone around them. Even Max, who is supposed to be the friendly granddad figure, mentions his preference for young boys. And he’s not the only member of the family who likes them young. VILE!
This is like a fictional tell all. If you remember and loved those ‘News of the World’ Sunday gossip articles. You will probably love this. I personally just thought it was okay. It kept me interested enough, it was just hard to get behind the characters, though some of them got their comeuppance by the end.
March 27, 2021
A black comedy about the rich famous and glamorous Spender family. I must,admit it took me a while to gel with this book I found the characters horrible. But as the story progresses I seemed to warm to them.
Their high profile lives are shattered when tragedy strikes.
Their high profile lives are shattered when tragedy strikes.
July 18, 2012
This book is not so much one of those about "how the other half lives", but more like "how the other 0.000005% live".
The Spenders (an apt name) are a family full of film stars, rock stars and glamour models who earn ridiculous amounts of money - and live a lifestyle that most of us only intuit from the gossip pages of papers and magazines we can't be bothered to read.
Anathematic as the lifestyles of the characters are to me, I nevertheless found it quite an entertaining read, with a compelling story, and not a little appropriate philosophising on the real values in life, which go way beyond the worth of money and the things it can buy.
Not a book I suspect I'll ever read again - but not one I regret reading once either.
The Spenders (an apt name) are a family full of film stars, rock stars and glamour models who earn ridiculous amounts of money - and live a lifestyle that most of us only intuit from the gossip pages of papers and magazines we can't be bothered to read.
Anathematic as the lifestyles of the characters are to me, I nevertheless found it quite an entertaining read, with a compelling story, and not a little appropriate philosophising on the real values in life, which go way beyond the worth of money and the things it can buy.
Not a book I suspect I'll ever read again - but not one I regret reading once either.
October 17, 2014
I think you have to take this book for what is it, a tongue in cheek dark comedy about the extremes of celebrity behaviour. It's not chick lit, it's not a murder mystery, but it is an amusing read. The characters don't need to be drawn any deeper than they are, they're more caricatures than anything else. We're not expected to 'feel' for them, just let them carry us on their madcap journey. I think the book is an acquired taste. If you like romantic stories, that's not what you get here. I thought it was funny. But my one issue was with the age of Dusty. 14. And the amount of smoking and drinking that went on. I don't think she needed to be quite that young.
December 31, 2016
I picked this as something light to read and it was engaging enough at first but then the speed at which events and characters were just piled on top of one another without any development made me loose interest. I was somewhat misled by the recommendations which referred to a dark, biting comedy, yes it is tongue in cheek but light and frothy, despite the bereavement (and murder) which starts the plot rolling and is then little examined in the rest, especially the second half, of the book.
May 10, 2017
The reviews on the book itself claimed that this book is "hilarious", which was mainly the reason why I borrowed it from the library. However, I don't find it hilarious at all. The characters in the book are dealing with a major death in the family and the adults are all sleeping with each other (the so-called messy lives of celebrities and rich people?).
It's not my kind of book.
It's not my kind of book.
March 4, 2020
This story sounded intriguing, a black comedy giving us an ironical glimpse into the lives of A-list celebrities, written by an author who herself has personal experience of this kind of life from the inside, working in the fashion business and dressing the stars. We are introduced to the highly dysfunctional family of Zelda, famous and beautiful actress, and we gain an insight into what it must feel like to be imprisoned in a luxurious glass bubble with the "paps" forever howling and clamouring at our doors, and to be unable to go in or out or reach a car without risk to life and limb.
I felt the problem with the earlier part of the book was that we cannot actually like anybody: they are all equally unpleasant. Then, later, I felt myself starting to like some of the characters. I feel the key is that these people, though immensely privileged and lionized and impossibly beautiful and worshipped and adored, all want the same things every human cannot help desiring: money, love, to look beautiful, to be admired, and above all, to appear so good that others (we vainly imagine) may think better of us than we really deserve. All these things we can identify with. The difference is that for A list celebrities everything goes to extremes.. and there lies the danger. At this level of existence, respect for the lives of others starts to disappear. To maintain their all-important reputation, they will stop at nothing - including murder. But, the story suggests, they will most likely succeed - protected by the addictive power of money.
We watch as Zelda and her family live their crazy lives, their passions and desires always fully fulfilled their every want supplied. There seems no moral restraint on them, everything is there for the asking: the sex with other beautiful and desirable people, the drugs, the alcohol, the whippet-thin bodies, the exquisite designer clothes, the adoration of the masses.... all at the cost of their own personal relationships. The quote by John Updike at the beginning of the novel puts it perfectly: "Celebrity is a mask that eats the face."
Throughout the book, the author often changes viewpoints in every paragraph, and here I felt she should have exercised more discipline (or been encouraged to do so by her editor). My preference would have been for Zelda to take the part of main protagonist, and hers to be the main viewpoint. Perhaps we might then have had the viewpoints of three other major characters, and each could have been given a chapter or a section. Other reviewers commented on their feeling that the characterisation was too superficial, for this reason.
Towards the end of the story I began to feel too many coincidences and Dickensian-like unforeseen connections were emerging. I was glad to see one arch-villain in all this get his come-uppance; whilst another nasty piece of work appears to swim through to success... until a final twist suggests otherwise.
I felt the problem with the earlier part of the book was that we cannot actually like anybody: they are all equally unpleasant. Then, later, I felt myself starting to like some of the characters. I feel the key is that these people, though immensely privileged and lionized and impossibly beautiful and worshipped and adored, all want the same things every human cannot help desiring: money, love, to look beautiful, to be admired, and above all, to appear so good that others (we vainly imagine) may think better of us than we really deserve. All these things we can identify with. The difference is that for A list celebrities everything goes to extremes.. and there lies the danger. At this level of existence, respect for the lives of others starts to disappear. To maintain their all-important reputation, they will stop at nothing - including murder. But, the story suggests, they will most likely succeed - protected by the addictive power of money.
We watch as Zelda and her family live their crazy lives, their passions and desires always fully fulfilled their every want supplied. There seems no moral restraint on them, everything is there for the asking: the sex with other beautiful and desirable people, the drugs, the alcohol, the whippet-thin bodies, the exquisite designer clothes, the adoration of the masses.... all at the cost of their own personal relationships. The quote by John Updike at the beginning of the novel puts it perfectly: "Celebrity is a mask that eats the face."
Throughout the book, the author often changes viewpoints in every paragraph, and here I felt she should have exercised more discipline (or been encouraged to do so by her editor). My preference would have been for Zelda to take the part of main protagonist, and hers to be the main viewpoint. Perhaps we might then have had the viewpoints of three other major characters, and each could have been given a chapter or a section. Other reviewers commented on their feeling that the characterisation was too superficial, for this reason.
Towards the end of the story I began to feel too many coincidences and Dickensian-like unforeseen connections were emerging. I was glad to see one arch-villain in all this get his come-uppance; whilst another nasty piece of work appears to swim through to success... until a final twist suggests otherwise.
October 15, 2019
I only managed to read 37% of the book and just couldn’t bring myself to read any further. The characters made me roll my eyes so many times I actually lost count. Each character is deemed beautiful beyond words and they’re all sleeping with each other, and do we need to discuss the uncomfortable attraction that goes on between two COUSINS? That alone almost made me put the book down for good only a few chapters in. I read an older review that compared it to badly written fan fiction, and I couldn’t agree more. There are silly punctuation errors and pointless paragraphs. It almost feels as though no one read the book before it was published. Not worth your time.
December 18, 2020
All of the reviewers below seem not to have recognized that this book is meant to be satire,; not an endorsement of this lifestyle, but an evisceration of it. It is not chick lit, but biting satire. It may not always come off, but it usually helps to know what a book is meant to be before you decide it's a failure.
March 10, 2017
Ik heb dit boek niet uitgelezen omdat ik er geen ruk aan vond. Wie wil mag het hebben.
May 31, 2017
not very keen on reading about children and young adults getting wasted below 16 yrs not entertainment not funny and full of people who are vile and i dont really care who live or die.
August 29, 2018
DNF page 178
August 19, 2022
Perfect airport read. I read it on a long distance flight and it kept me pleasantly entertained.
December 30, 2013
The Spenders are Britain's Favourite Family - they are glamorous, rich and very, very famous, everything that their celebrity obsessed culture requires them to be. Their charisma and looks ensure that they are constantly feted, and hounded, by the press. The public adores them. They live what appears to be a charmed and enviable existence. In the claustrophobic confines of their exquisite houses there is a darker reality. Isolated and hemmed in by the paparazzi and their crazed fans, they are trapped in their fame. Constantly surrounded by an army of long-suffering employees: stylists, PAs, personal trainers, drivers, security teams, hair and make-up artists, managers, agents, publicists - they are never alone but always lonely - with nothing else to do but 'drink and fight and screw' they breakfast on prescription drugs, lunch on vodka and dine on anything illegal they can get their hands on. Their privileged, high profile lifestyle is shattered when tragedy strikes - tearing apart the fragile fabric of their existence, and sending them spinning out of control. Dead Rich is a black comedy, a cautionary tale for our times.
This was enjoyable, a few things I felt were maybe a little far fetched but what do you want, stark reality? I would say that it did strike a chord as some people really do care more about what the press see than what happens in their own home.
I don't normally do the chick lit genre as this would probably be labelled but this is one of the better ones I have read and I would not hesitate to pick up one of her books again.
This was enjoyable, a few things I felt were maybe a little far fetched but what do you want, stark reality? I would say that it did strike a chord as some people really do care more about what the press see than what happens in their own home.
I don't normally do the chick lit genre as this would probably be labelled but this is one of the better ones I have read and I would not hesitate to pick up one of her books again.
April 16, 2014
The book follows the famous fictional family "The Spenders", who are Britain's favourite family but this is a story about what really goes on behind closed doors.
There was a lot of swearing and drugs in this book it was very 'sex, drugs and rock & roll' -ish. But I felt that this added to the story as it demonstrated to the reader what the characters' personalities were actually like.
I would give this book 5/5 stars but I do have one teensy weensy complaint to make. I found that there are a lot of characters in the book and for me, this sometimes led to some confusion over who was who and how they were all related...but the characters were all described well and so it didn't detract too much from the true essence of the book.
This book has a bit of something for everyone, there's love, there's drugs and in amongst it all there is a murder mystery,which is only truly unravelled at the very end.
There was a lot of swearing and drugs in this book it was very 'sex, drugs and rock & roll' -ish. But I felt that this added to the story as it demonstrated to the reader what the characters' personalities were actually like.
I would give this book 5/5 stars but I do have one teensy weensy complaint to make. I found that there are a lot of characters in the book and for me, this sometimes led to some confusion over who was who and how they were all related...but the characters were all described well and so it didn't detract too much from the true essence of the book.
This book has a bit of something for everyone, there's love, there's drugs and in amongst it all there is a murder mystery,which is only truly unravelled at the very end.
August 19, 2014
One thing that bothered me terribly about this novel was the over use of toast!! These people are so rich (which is frequently expressed) and the only thing in their whole house to east is Toast, Toast, Toast!! Please. It was almost as if Louise Fennell knows no other food besides toast. I just couldn't understand what she was trying to achieve by mentioning toast with such frequency.
August 15, 2015
Characters were flat and there wasn't much of plot building. Just rambles on and on about family problems. What to expect from this book: unrealistically beautiful characters, lots of crying and lots of screaming. The horrible romance in this book made me cringe every few pages. It was a quick and easy read, though. But other than that, this book is just, meh.
January 21, 2016
Loved the tongue in cheek nature of this. It's a good one to suspend reality and immerse yourself in the dark side of celebrity. If you don't take your reading/fiction too seriously this is the book for you.
March 27, 2012
Meh. Predictable, cliche, but entertaining enough.
April 14, 2012
Very good, but not quite as good as Louise B.
May 20, 2012
this was a good book.it took me a while to get through as it wasnt as gripping as what i am used to
August 11, 2012
Easy holiday read, pure escapism, I felt she described the characters very well, made them very believable even if their world was purely for the rich and famous.
April 19, 2013
reads like mediocre fanfiction. the characters have no depth and there wasn't much plot, just lots of family scandal. okay for a mindnumbing beach read but that's about it.
July 24, 2013
An enjoyable read. You find yourself rooting for the leading characters to prevail. Would like a sequel.
December 25, 2016
It was okay
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews