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Soft!
The waitress Glade Spencer--white-blond hair, perfect skin, just twenty-two years old--drifts innocent and waiflike through life, thus far avoiding harm to herself . . . Barker Dodds, hoping to shed his hard-man reputation, has fled his native Plymouth for a fresh start in London.
There, meanwhile, in an act of desperate inspiration, an ambitious young executive faced with a saturated market contrives a revolutionary strategy for introducing a new beverage, Soft!, that has all the potential of becoming the soft drink of the twenty-first century.
Once this highly confidential strategy develops unforeseen complications, Barker is paid a visit by
a friend from the old life, and soon is presented
with an unthinkable dilemma. And the person with whom he now shares a destiny--unbeknownst to her--is Glade.
Rupert Thomson, author of The Insult ("A psychological thriller that has just about everything"
--Cleveland Plain Dealer), here explores the price of ambition, the difficulty of change or escape, and
the needs that drive us or that we ourselves create; and in Soft! he again transforms the conventions
of noir--whether contract-killing or romance or the classic double-cross--into fiction that is remarkably contemporary and strange.
There, meanwhile, in an act of desperate inspiration, an ambitious young executive faced with a saturated market contrives a revolutionary strategy for introducing a new beverage, Soft!, that has all the potential of becoming the soft drink of the twenty-first century.
Once this highly confidential strategy develops unforeseen complications, Barker is paid a visit by
a friend from the old life, and soon is presented
with an unthinkable dilemma. And the person with whom he now shares a destiny--unbeknownst to her--is Glade.
Rupert Thomson, author of The Insult ("A psychological thriller that has just about everything"
--Cleveland Plain Dealer), here explores the price of ambition, the difficulty of change or escape, and
the needs that drive us or that we ourselves create; and in Soft! he again transforms the conventions
of noir--whether contract-killing or romance or the classic double-cross--into fiction that is remarkably contemporary and strange.
307 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
21 people are currently reading
385 people want to read
About the author
Rupert Thomson
34 books314 followersRupert Thomson, (born November 5, 1955) is an English writer. He is the author of thirteen critically acclaimed novels and an award-winning memoir. He has lived in many cities around the world, including Athens, Berlin, New York, Sydney, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and Rome. In 2010, after several years in Barcelona, he moved back to London. He has contributed to the Financial Times, the Guardian, the London Review of Books, Granta, and the Independent.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
May 27, 2018
This menacing little book got deep under my skin - a smouldering psychological thriller revealing the lethal power of subliminal advertising. It’s hypnotic, addictive, at times very strange, even fantastical, but it is the novel’s rootedness in everyday reality that gives its messages even more potency, much like the soft drink adverts and commercials it imitates.
Rupert Thomson is a criminally underrated author, a storyteller of immense technical craft, a seamless and devious plotter.
Rupert Thomson is a criminally underrated author, a storyteller of immense technical craft, a seamless and devious plotter.
March 6, 2015
Soft is a novel which doesn't have a clear idea what it wants to be. Is it contemporary noir, focused on shady characters in the underbelly of London? An expose of the equally shady side of contemporary advertising industry? Or simply a book about three different people, all living different existences until one day their lives come together?
The truth is somewhere inbetween - Soft tries to combine all three elements into a cohesive whole, but ends up like most of its ambitious predecessors did - with a whole lot of ideas and themes, but not really diving deep into any of them.
Thomson's characters come from very different backgrounds - he's at his best when writing about Barker Dodds, a former bouncer from Plymouth now trying to make it in London. Thomson's clearly familiar both with the job and surrounding, and Barker's sections echo the London novels of Martin Amis; not entirely a bad thing. He's much weaker when it comes to Glade Spencer, an aimless drifter caught between her on and off American boyfriend and lonely father; and James Lyle, a marketer who devised an ingenious concept to sell more Kwench!, a soft drink just introduced to the UK market.
All these characters live separately, but eventually come together, and not in a way that we might have expected. But by the time they do, we no longer really care. The criticism of a gigantic industry is too obvious to really be illuminating, and characters too thinly drawn to make any impact; we forget them once the last page is closed, and the book quickly fades away from memory. Thomson has done better than this, especially in The Insult which was the first novel by him that I have read. Soft is the third, and while not the best of the lot it still made me want to read more of his works - something that I look forward to doing soon.
The truth is somewhere inbetween - Soft tries to combine all three elements into a cohesive whole, but ends up like most of its ambitious predecessors did - with a whole lot of ideas and themes, but not really diving deep into any of them.
Thomson's characters come from very different backgrounds - he's at his best when writing about Barker Dodds, a former bouncer from Plymouth now trying to make it in London. Thomson's clearly familiar both with the job and surrounding, and Barker's sections echo the London novels of Martin Amis; not entirely a bad thing. He's much weaker when it comes to Glade Spencer, an aimless drifter caught between her on and off American boyfriend and lonely father; and James Lyle, a marketer who devised an ingenious concept to sell more Kwench!, a soft drink just introduced to the UK market.
All these characters live separately, but eventually come together, and not in a way that we might have expected. But by the time they do, we no longer really care. The criticism of a gigantic industry is too obvious to really be illuminating, and characters too thinly drawn to make any impact; we forget them once the last page is closed, and the book quickly fades away from memory. Thomson has done better than this, especially in The Insult which was the first novel by him that I have read. Soft is the third, and while not the best of the lot it still made me want to read more of his works - something that I look forward to doing soon.
December 13, 2012
Three people, three different backgrounds and lifestyles, one soft drink. It's a thriller, and so well written. This book flew by, because the writing was crisp, but not spare, the characters not at all stereotypical (there's plenty of backstory).
But what I liked most was the choices Rupert Thomson makes in his descriptions - he doesn't show you everything, only just enough so the reader has to do a bit of work.
This book's well worth your time, if you like a literate and somewhat scathing noirish read.
Definitely recommended.
But what I liked most was the choices Rupert Thomson makes in his descriptions - he doesn't show you everything, only just enough so the reader has to do a bit of work.
This book's well worth your time, if you like a literate and somewhat scathing noirish read.
Definitely recommended.
December 19, 2025
This turned out to live up to the jacket blurbs perfectly. It really was a hypnotic literary thriller that "pulls you in by the ankles", as one reviewer put it. Thomson is an intriguing writer with an unusual style that seems both very conventional and avant-garde at the same time. As he tells his story, he mesmerizes the reader with odd, poetic little descriptions of fairly ordinary things.
"Soft!" (the title of the edition I bought) tells the tale of a secret, psychological advertising campaign gone awry, but it does not begin that way. It begins as a gritty bit of contemporary English working class realism, as bouncer Barker Dodds, heads for London for a fresh start. A tough, laconic guy, he is no stranger to violence, but does not particularly enjoy it. The story then shifts to an artistic lass named Glade Spencer. She works as a waitress and carries on a long distance affair with a well-off American named Tom. She seems a bit adrift and melancholy. A third major character is then brought into the story - Jimmy, a slick, ambitious, young advertiser. He works with an American boss - Raleigh Conner, another one of Thomson's polished and opaque characters. Jimmy hatches a scheme to try to promote a new, orange soft drink named Soft! by using some highly unorthodox and unethical psychological techniques. These characters eventually find themselves on a collision course.
Thomson writes in a cool, detached manner that is nonetheless never boring or lifeless. His characters speak in short snippets of dialogue that advance the plot, and go about their lives in a kind of mysterious fog. The story almost seems to be an excuse for Thomson to present his fascinating little observations and details to the reader. As I read, I often felt that I was watching a hip, artsy European thriller or existential neo-noir, featuring blank-faced actors playing characters whose inner lives would never be revealed to the audience. There is humor here too, but it is a darkly shaded humor, a little painful. This was an addictive and unique read.
"Soft!" (the title of the edition I bought) tells the tale of a secret, psychological advertising campaign gone awry, but it does not begin that way. It begins as a gritty bit of contemporary English working class realism, as bouncer Barker Dodds, heads for London for a fresh start. A tough, laconic guy, he is no stranger to violence, but does not particularly enjoy it. The story then shifts to an artistic lass named Glade Spencer. She works as a waitress and carries on a long distance affair with a well-off American named Tom. She seems a bit adrift and melancholy. A third major character is then brought into the story - Jimmy, a slick, ambitious, young advertiser. He works with an American boss - Raleigh Conner, another one of Thomson's polished and opaque characters. Jimmy hatches a scheme to try to promote a new, orange soft drink named Soft! by using some highly unorthodox and unethical psychological techniques. These characters eventually find themselves on a collision course.
Thomson writes in a cool, detached manner that is nonetheless never boring or lifeless. His characters speak in short snippets of dialogue that advance the plot, and go about their lives in a kind of mysterious fog. The story almost seems to be an excuse for Thomson to present his fascinating little observations and details to the reader. As I read, I often felt that I was watching a hip, artsy European thriller or existential neo-noir, featuring blank-faced actors playing characters whose inner lives would never be revealed to the audience. There is humor here too, but it is a darkly shaded humor, a little painful. This was an addictive and unique read.
April 10, 2011
Soft has the most misleading blurb and design I’ve ever encountered. (This month at least: let time corrupt). Packaged as an edgy Palahniuk-style assault on evil capitalist pigs, the blurb tells us of the most marginal protagonist in the story, marketing whizz Jimmy who devises a subliminal ad campaign based on brainwashing experiments. Well . . . no.
In actual fact, this is a book about relationships. It just happens to bring the three protagonists together via a subplot about an evil fizzy pop company. It is page 118 before the blurb makes any sense, at which point we have already been intimately acquainted with hardman Barker and flaky waitress Glade. Bad Bloomsbury!
The book details their various empty relationships, drawing the characters closer, towards their unlikely destruction through tacky orange pop. It isn’t entirely consistent, or plausible, but Thomson writes with tremendous detail and insight into his peeps. So much respek. (And drink Pepsi today! Mmm . . . PEPSI!)
In actual fact, this is a book about relationships. It just happens to bring the three protagonists together via a subplot about an evil fizzy pop company. It is page 118 before the blurb makes any sense, at which point we have already been intimately acquainted with hardman Barker and flaky waitress Glade. Bad Bloomsbury!
The book details their various empty relationships, drawing the characters closer, towards their unlikely destruction through tacky orange pop. It isn’t entirely consistent, or plausible, but Thomson writes with tremendous detail and insight into his peeps. So much respek. (And drink Pepsi today! Mmm . . . PEPSI!)
September 22, 2018
This was a re-read and I was interested to see how this book had stood the test of time. It did not feel dated.
I love the detail with with Rupert Thomson draws his characters and scenes drawing you into the story and the lives of the characters. This is very unsettling read all the more so when I started noticing all things orange!
At first I felt a little cheated at the end as I wanted to know about what happened next, but I agree with the Independent Review.
Thomson doesn't see his books as thrillers, more as "meditations on vulnerability and loss." He likes the idea that what he writes is simply the starting point. "A book is like a piece of software which you feed into someone's hard drive. They can make of it whatever they want to."
I think this is spot on.
Also having read a 2006 article in the Boston Review about the author's work I have been set thinking about the definition of and difference between gothic and noir.
I love the detail with with Rupert Thomson draws his characters and scenes drawing you into the story and the lives of the characters. This is very unsettling read all the more so when I started noticing all things orange!
At first I felt a little cheated at the end as I wanted to know about what happened next, but I agree with the Independent Review.
Thomson doesn't see his books as thrillers, more as "meditations on vulnerability and loss." He likes the idea that what he writes is simply the starting point. "A book is like a piece of software which you feed into someone's hard drive. They can make of it whatever they want to."
I think this is spot on.
Also having read a 2006 article in the Boston Review about the author's work I have been set thinking about the definition of and difference between gothic and noir.
April 4, 2019
Yllättävä kirja. En oikein tiennyt, mitä odotin, ja kesken kirjan piti lukea takakansi, ja sitten vasta ihmettelinkin, mitä olin lukemassa.
Kirjan jako eri osiin toimii, eri kertojien tarinat limittyvät vähitellen ja alkuun pieniltä tuntuvat asiat saavat ison merkityksen. Takakannen perusteella odotin enemmän joukkohysteriaa ja suurempia ylilyöntejä, mutta toisaalta varsin eleettömästi kuvatut tapahtumat saivat entistä isomman merkityksen muuten melko normaalissa maailmassa. Tunnelma oli alusta lähtien vahva ja sopivasti vinksahtanut, mikä sopi kuvaan.
Kirjan kannet eivät olisi voineet olla osuvammat.
Kirjan jako eri osiin toimii, eri kertojien tarinat limittyvät vähitellen ja alkuun pieniltä tuntuvat asiat saavat ison merkityksen. Takakannen perusteella odotin enemmän joukkohysteriaa ja suurempia ylilyöntejä, mutta toisaalta varsin eleettömästi kuvatut tapahtumat saivat entistä isomman merkityksen muuten melko normaalissa maailmassa. Tunnelma oli alusta lähtien vahva ja sopivasti vinksahtanut, mikä sopi kuvaan.
Kirjan kannet eivät olisi voineet olla osuvammat.
February 17, 2010
That this, like any other Thomson book, is not for the squeamish. That this kind of horror-lite can be quite compelling but leave you wishing you'd done something wholesome instead like mow the lawn or trim the hedge.
February 6, 2012
The brazilian edition sells it as a suspens novel. Much more about the inter-relations of some unlikely characters and some quite unexpected fast resolution of events.
It surprised me in very good ways.
It surprised me in very good ways.
April 24, 2014
Another unique novel from this outstanding writer. A well written and compelling account of unethical corporate practices is the basis for the storyline of which I think most informed readers will appreciate.
June 2, 2020
Several characters related by a soft drinks campaign but unaware of it; amongst whom the most sympathetic is the bloke paid to “teach people a lesson”!! Some wonderful descriptions and use of language.
March 10, 2016
soft
drinks
and complicated interpersonal relationships.
rupert thomson, one of my very favorite authors. plus adds life
drinks
and complicated interpersonal relationships.
rupert thomson, one of my very favorite authors. plus adds life
November 1, 2020
The unconventional launch of a new soft drink, Kwench!, draws three characters, with separate lives and problems, into deadly connection. I can’t remember who or what prompted me to try this writer, but I’m glad I did. The story is well plotted and gripping, its twists unpredictable. The back stories of the three characters have meat and poignancy. My quibble is Thomson’s style. One reviewer suggests he is an English Elmore Leonard, and I can see why, but too often I was snagged by a clunky simile or awkward syntax and became conscious of an author who was trying a bit too hard. ‘Soft’ still gets 4 stars from me, though – a very clever, sad novel.
May 24, 2008
this was a really interesting look at the world of advertising taken to the nth degree. really compelling and genuinely gets you on the edge of your seat. you care about the characters contained within these pages. a great read.
January 14, 2018
Classic RT. Powers around us that we don't see.
August 14, 2011
I quite enjoyed this but I spent the first 100 pages wondering what was going on as it didn't seem to fit with what I was expecting. I think overall I preferred the idea of the book to the actual content. I enjoy Thomson's style though.
July 27, 2014
An innovative detective story grounded in contemporary amoral advertising. Sits well alongside The Circle by Dave Eggers, and a glass of water.
July 24, 2010
I don't think this is a bad book. Thomson can definitely write, and he's on fairly decent form here. He manages to switch between three pretty different narrators and make each voice convincing, each character fleshed out. When he's telling the story as Barker, the former bouncer and hardman who moves to London to escape his past, he's not far short of brilliant. However, the character's pasts and complexities in the end aren't really all that relevant to the plot, and although it's good for fiction to have believable and interesting characters, all that interesting flesh turns out to be pretty much incidental, and I'm not a big fan of padding. I've got other books to read.
Plus, while narrating as Glade Thomson for me is too waffly, earnest and flowery, too typically self-regarding-coffee-house-writer in his style. And the way the plot is introduced into all this padding is too clumsy, and the way it's wrapped up at the end too anti-climactic. And Soft never really has all that much to say about the advertising industry and consumerist society anyway. Basically it's all a bit of a let down.
Thomson IS very good, but this isn't. Go read The Insult instead.
Plus, while narrating as Glade Thomson for me is too waffly, earnest and flowery, too typically self-regarding-coffee-house-writer in his style. And the way the plot is introduced into all this padding is too clumsy, and the way it's wrapped up at the end too anti-climactic. And Soft never really has all that much to say about the advertising industry and consumerist society anyway. Basically it's all a bit of a let down.
Thomson IS very good, but this isn't. Go read The Insult instead.
September 19, 2025
Tense and brilliant.
September 18, 2009
I didn't actually finish this book. I read most of it, and it was OK, and I had about 50 pages to go. I wasn't inspired by it, so I figured I'd knock those off that evening and start something else. Sadly, at the end of a long train journey that evening, the 13th September 2009, I set it down on the concrete outside Andover train station and must have forgotten to pick it up when my lift arrived.
That was a little disappointing, but not very, which is really as good a verdict on the book as I can give. It didn't impress me but it was just fine. Thomson is a decent writer and his style fits nicely into the late 90s. Soft is hugely anachronistic, in fact, but not in a good way. Its big premise, that a group of people could be subconsciously programmed to become living adverts for a new soft drink product, has basically no shock value whatsoever ten years later. We're au fait with the notion of subliminal messages. Many of us realise advertising is increasingly using psychological theory. Soft shows a little foresight, predating viral marketing, but it's not surprising stuff.
I like Thomson's feel for London, for the grotty towns of the south, the everyday Britain he presents, and I think he was wise to delay playing his cards out - the book only contains one Big Idea, really. It's decently written, the characters are fine, but I just never saw why I should care.
There were a few tangential things Thomson made a big deal of that didn't really seem important. Maybe they became so, although I can't see why. I don't know why the girl had to have a bizarre relationship with an uber-rich american, or why her father was in a caravan in the grim north. I don't know what all the crime-in-St-Louis was about. I don't know why Barker's love interests matter. The problem is that Thomson's characters are fairly 3-dimensional, they do many things, but he placed them in such a constricted 2-d world, where these things seem meaningless, almost esoteric.
In short, if someone reads this and tells me that the last 50 pages of Soft are an unequivocal work of genius, I'll track down another copy. But I think I have to take it as a failure if I can read more than 200 pages of a story and not care too much what happens in the last 50.
And if by chance you found my copy, that's cool. It has a nice cover. I got it in a second-hand bookshop in Penzance, I think, and someone had written inside the front cover, in pencil.
That was a little disappointing, but not very, which is really as good a verdict on the book as I can give. It didn't impress me but it was just fine. Thomson is a decent writer and his style fits nicely into the late 90s. Soft is hugely anachronistic, in fact, but not in a good way. Its big premise, that a group of people could be subconsciously programmed to become living adverts for a new soft drink product, has basically no shock value whatsoever ten years later. We're au fait with the notion of subliminal messages. Many of us realise advertising is increasingly using psychological theory. Soft shows a little foresight, predating viral marketing, but it's not surprising stuff.
I like Thomson's feel for London, for the grotty towns of the south, the everyday Britain he presents, and I think he was wise to delay playing his cards out - the book only contains one Big Idea, really. It's decently written, the characters are fine, but I just never saw why I should care.
There were a few tangential things Thomson made a big deal of that didn't really seem important. Maybe they became so, although I can't see why. I don't know why the girl had to have a bizarre relationship with an uber-rich american, or why her father was in a caravan in the grim north. I don't know what all the crime-in-St-Louis was about. I don't know why Barker's love interests matter. The problem is that Thomson's characters are fairly 3-dimensional, they do many things, but he placed them in such a constricted 2-d world, where these things seem meaningless, almost esoteric.
In short, if someone reads this and tells me that the last 50 pages of Soft are an unequivocal work of genius, I'll track down another copy. But I think I have to take it as a failure if I can read more than 200 pages of a story and not care too much what happens in the last 50.
And if by chance you found my copy, that's cool. It has a nice cover. I got it in a second-hand bookshop in Penzance, I think, and someone had written inside the front cover, in pencil.
October 29, 2025
The following review was written in May 2023. I read the book again this week and every word of my previous review is still valid. A wonderful contemporary novel. Hasn't dated at all. Great story.
(May 2023): This is the third time I have read this book. When I first read it in 1998 I loved it so much that I went on to read all Rupert Thomson's book, enjoying them all.
Ten years later I confirmed it as one of my top twenty books and this latest reading has done nothing to change that. It is a wonderful book. Well written, inventive, edgy, great characters and great plot. I was again totally captivated - one of those books you can't wait to get back to but at the same time don't want to end.
The plot revolves around an aggressive marketing campaign by an American soft drinks company ready to launch their new product in the UK and employing some underhand and very dubious practices to spread the message about their new drink.
To say more would be to spoil the unfolding story. A very strong recommendation.
(May 2023): This is the third time I have read this book. When I first read it in 1998 I loved it so much that I went on to read all Rupert Thomson's book, enjoying them all.
Ten years later I confirmed it as one of my top twenty books and this latest reading has done nothing to change that. It is a wonderful book. Well written, inventive, edgy, great characters and great plot. I was again totally captivated - one of those books you can't wait to get back to but at the same time don't want to end.
The plot revolves around an aggressive marketing campaign by an American soft drinks company ready to launch their new product in the UK and employing some underhand and very dubious practices to spread the message about their new drink.
To say more would be to spoil the unfolding story. A very strong recommendation.
June 27, 2015
I do love a good noir, and the Goodreads algorithm recommended this one. Bad decision.
The premise was daft, the dame flaky and I was bored to tears by 'filler' prose:
"Barker began to sing “Hotel California”under his breath. He had no idea why that particular song had come to mind—unless perhaps he’d heard it on the radio that morning while he was waiting for his saucepan of water to boil.
On a dark desert highway
Cool wind in your hair …
He had to hum the rest because he couldn’t remember the words."
QED.
The premise was daft, the dame flaky and I was bored to tears by 'filler' prose:
"Barker began to sing “Hotel California”under his breath. He had no idea why that particular song had come to mind—unless perhaps he’d heard it on the radio that morning while he was waiting for his saucepan of water to boil.
On a dark desert highway
Cool wind in your hair …
He had to hum the rest because he couldn’t remember the words."
QED.
July 16, 2017
nope, not for me....Two stars for intermittent clever phrasing and vivid imagery, but not a satisfying or pleasing read. Promising start, then pace drops off with choppy plotting. Initially engaging story threads peter out: Glade's job/boyfriend, Barker's girlfriends and restart in a new place; but perhaps this is the point: these superficial brushes with potentially fulfilling activities lead no where just like the fizzy temporary promise of Soft!. Left me empty
March 2, 2019
Rupert Thomson does write some curious books. This is the third one I've read, and it was surprising in the turn it took. Very cleverly thought out. The ending... I suppose fitting, realistic but kind of depressing that they got away with it and no one seemed to feel any remorse.
The book is split into six parts and each part follows a particular character (three of them, so we do return to characters. We start off in Plymouth with Barker, this pumped up doorman with tattoos, who is currently the victim of a hate campaign by a rough family called the Scullys. One of theirs died after falling off a balcony at the walkway to Barker's flat. An accident yet why was he there drunkardly screaming at Barker? There's hints at stuff that have gone on in his past. He moves to London, gets mixed up with some wrong uns, ends up taking a hitman job. Before he does anything about the job he's taken on, we go to part two, which is following the intended victim, Glade. And the more I read about her going about her business, the more I think why would anyone pay money to have her killed? She's an inoffensive young waitress. She has no money, she has done nothing wrong. At this point I flicked to the inside cover and read the blurb of the book and thought... eh? It talked about a character I hadn't meant and a plot that seemingly had nothing to do with what I'd read so far. Then you get to part three and meet Jimmy, some kind of advertising executive dude working on a new soft drink, and then the parts start to come together and you realise what's going on and just how souless it is. But such a cunning reflection of how human life seems to have no value in the face of marketing, advertising and making money. This is what the human race has reached.
There are hints to other things going on, such as Barker's past, Glade's boyfriend and the vague details of his job, the swimming connection, the people who took their own lives in a swimming pool etc etc as though these are going to come into the plot and explain away things. Except they don't. Or perhaps those points went straight over my head. I also found the ending frustrating and real. The markerting and executives basically get away with all the awfulness they created, and don't seem to be particularly remorseful about it either. Which feels so real life. Yet I wanted something more than that abrupt end. And I keep feeling like some of the really clever stuff went straight over my head.
The book is split into six parts and each part follows a particular character (three of them, so we do return to characters. We start off in Plymouth with Barker, this pumped up doorman with tattoos, who is currently the victim of a hate campaign by a rough family called the Scullys. One of theirs died after falling off a balcony at the walkway to Barker's flat. An accident yet why was he there drunkardly screaming at Barker? There's hints at stuff that have gone on in his past. He moves to London, gets mixed up with some wrong uns, ends up taking a hitman job. Before he does anything about the job he's taken on, we go to part two, which is following the intended victim, Glade. And the more I read about her going about her business, the more I think why would anyone pay money to have her killed? She's an inoffensive young waitress. She has no money, she has done nothing wrong. At this point I flicked to the inside cover and read the blurb of the book and thought... eh? It talked about a character I hadn't meant and a plot that seemingly had nothing to do with what I'd read so far. Then you get to part three and meet Jimmy, some kind of advertising executive dude working on a new soft drink, and then the parts start to come together and you realise what's going on and just how souless it is. But such a cunning reflection of how human life seems to have no value in the face of marketing, advertising and making money. This is what the human race has reached.
There are hints to other things going on, such as Barker's past, Glade's boyfriend and the vague details of his job, the swimming connection, the people who took their own lives in a swimming pool etc etc as though these are going to come into the plot and explain away things. Except they don't. Or perhaps those points went straight over my head. I also found the ending frustrating and real. The markerting and executives basically get away with all the awfulness they created, and don't seem to be particularly remorseful about it either. Which feels so real life. Yet I wanted something more than that abrupt end. And I keep feeling like some of the really clever stuff went straight over my head.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 22, 2023
Took me quite some time get through this book, mostly because as soon as I would get into the story, the perspective changed.
I like Thompson's writing, it was very poetic at time although I had a hard time liking the ending.
You really want me to believe that a 23 year old (as naive as the author might make her out to be) would follow a stranger halfway across the country and commit s* with him?
I like Thompson's writing, it was very poetic at time although I had a hard time liking the ending.
You really want me to believe that a 23 year old (as naive as the author might make her out to be) would follow a stranger halfway across the country and commit s* with him?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 19, 2023
Enjoyed seeing Glade slowly unravel throughout the course of the book and even though her parts of the book are short we still get a good feel for her mental state throughout - would’ve liked to have seen this fleshed out more. Couldn’t understand why Barker was tasked to kill her? would’ve liked to have seen more of the marketing executives and their plans throughout - too much focus on Barker and the assassination plot
June 22, 2024
really loved this! with growing up near hull the end really gave me chills. it really reminded me of chuck palahniuk’s novels in the tone and the slight abstract storytelling. i picked this up in a charity shop for a pound with the blurb not giving away any of the book. i was not disappointed in the slightest. great plot and the narratives came together so well. i just felt like it needed something a little more for me although i couldn’t tell what.
August 5, 2022
This is a novel about the emptiness, dislocation and alienation of everyday life. It's about our ability to contrive narratives around ourselves, or of others to do it for us. The effort to derive some kind of meaning from lives and events that are essentially fractured and irreconcilable.
July 13, 2022
A decent story. Enjoyed it very much.
January 18, 2023
amazing diction and good story ☝️☝️
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