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renatasnacks 's review for:
Material Girls
by Elaine Dimopoulos
I loved this when it was called [b:Uglies|24770|Uglies (Uglies, #1)|Scott Westerfeld|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358962036s/24770.jpg|2895388], amirite?!
haha seriously though even though this is set in the future it feels really retro, and like, I wanted it to go further? Like, the concept of this fashion/arts/youth-powered dystopia is... not exactly new, but I'm basically here for it, but then if you're going to do it... like... do it.
Like, we have our 2 alternating narrators--Marla the fashion designer and Ivy the pop star. Great. But Ivy casually mentions that managers like for pop stars to have a few minorities in their entourages because it makes the stars seem more interesting?? Okay??? Implying that all of the pop stars of the future are white I guess??? But if you're going to do that I wish it had gone FURTHER into making some sort of critical point about the way white pop stars often appropriate other cultures while putting actual POCs into the literal background... but nope, Ivy mentions it one time and then moves on. Like what if one of the narrators of the book was one of Ivy's non-white entourage members?
And then there's the fact that Ivy is the "beard" for another pop star who's gay and his manager won't let him come out. Really? In the future-world of a book that came out in 2015? I'd be interested if this was the future-world of a book written in like, 1980 maybe.
And then the fashion designers are all unionizing striking and BRIEFLY REALIZE that everyone working in sweatshops has it way worse than them but never bothers to reach out to any of those workers?
Is this like a really really sharp satire that I'm missing? I feel like it's not but I guess maybe??
IDK, would probably appeal to fans of Uglies and the like, or teens who are interested in fashion/music? Despite my annoyances and wishes that it would take it all FARTHER, it did keep me turning the pages once it got going.
haha seriously though even though this is set in the future it feels really retro, and like, I wanted it to go further? Like, the concept of this fashion/arts/youth-powered dystopia is... not exactly new, but I'm basically here for it, but then if you're going to do it... like... do it.
Like, we have our 2 alternating narrators--Marla the fashion designer and Ivy the pop star. Great. But Ivy casually mentions that managers like for pop stars to have a few minorities in their entourages because it makes the stars seem more interesting?? Okay??? Implying that all of the pop stars of the future are white I guess??? But if you're going to do that I wish it had gone FURTHER into making some sort of critical point about the way white pop stars often appropriate other cultures while putting actual POCs into the literal background... but nope, Ivy mentions it one time and then moves on. Like what if one of the narrators of the book was one of Ivy's non-white entourage members?
And then there's the fact that Ivy is the "beard" for another pop star who's gay and his manager won't let him come out. Really? In the future-world of a book that came out in 2015? I'd be interested if this was the future-world of a book written in like, 1980 maybe.
And then the fashion designers are all unionizing striking and BRIEFLY REALIZE that everyone working in sweatshops has it way worse than them but never bothers to reach out to any of those workers?
Is this like a really really sharp satire that I'm missing? I feel like it's not but I guess maybe??
IDK, would probably appeal to fans of Uglies and the like, or teens who are interested in fashion/music? Despite my annoyances and wishes that it would take it all FARTHER, it did keep me turning the pages once it got going.