Oligarchy - Scarlett Thomas

When Natasha, daughter of a Russian oligarch, arrives for her first day at an all-girl boarding school, she finds herself thrown into a world of fierce pecking orders, eating disorders and Instagram angst, the synopsis reads. Then her friend Bianca mysteriously vanishes, and the world of the school gets ever darker and stranger.

 Blurb taken from Goodreads.

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Having finished this book, I'm still not sure I really understand exactly what happened. Russian schoolgirl Natasha finds herself in a boarding school which is infested with girls struggling with dark thoughts and eating disorders. I thought the idea had a lot of potential, but  when reading, the story was just a bit bizarre. I didn't mind it, but even on finishing the book, I don't have much to say about it. I found the style of writing made it a bit vague, and generally blah.

A real shame.

Rating: ✫✫✫

SPOILER ALERT

The Story

I must admit, I don't think I have ever struggled to write a review of a book as much as I am struggling with Oligarchy. I finished it about a week ago, and the story has already abandoned me. The events of the novel did not stick with me at all.

That being said, I really did appreciate the idea for the story. A boarding school infiltrated with eating disorders is a really interesting thought, although I didn't think this was clear via the book's blurb. I wish the blurb had mentioned this essential element to the story, as it was crucial to the plot. It was also the reason I thought the book stood out so much. It had the potential to really investigate the cliques of boarding school and the nature of how eating disorders develop in young girls.

Sadly, I feel like this missed the mark quite a lot. For a lot of the book, it felt that there was no actual focus and I spent many minutes trying to figure out what the heck was going on. The reason for that? The writing was very bizarre. The book had no chapters. It was just one continuous chapter going on for 200-odd pages. There was a lack of structure from the off, and I definitely felt it. There appeared to be very little by way of a beginning; an introduction to the story. There was a lot of unremarkable things that happened in the middle, except, that is, for the disappearance of Bianca. And the ending was very anti-climatic. By the time I got to the end, I really just couldn't wait to get the book over and done with. It was all just, if I'm honest, a bit dull.

And what surprises me the most is that I remember enjoying elements of it. The story had the potential to be very interesting, and I did enjoy picking the book up at parts. Yet when I try and remember anything substantial about the plot, my memory fails me. I enjoyed the book enough to give it an acceptable three stars, yet absolutely none of it has really stuck with me. And I think that says a lot about the book. Potential to do great things with the story, but ultimately, insubstantial and unremarkable.

The Verdict

After reading the blurb of this book, I was really keen to get stuck in and read it. Sadly, I really don't think the book lived up to my expectations.

The idea was great, and I feel like the story itself could easily have had more of an impact. If the author could just have put a bit more oomph, a bit more flair, and a bit more precision into their writing. I get the impression that that kind of wish-washy, mysterious, very different way of structuring the novel was done on purpose, but I definitely was not a big fan. 

A week after I finished the book, and I have very little recollection of what happened, or why I gave it three stars in my initial, immediate rating.

Ah well.