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Size Zero by Abigail Mangin

Synopsis: When a coat made of human skin walks the runway at NYFW, Cecil LeClair is called back from a life he chose as a monk to help solve a mystery from his youth.

This book was just, wow. It was so intense. It was so funny. It was so descriptive. I felt myself remembering my days reading The Clique books and how ABSURD they were in terms of how rich the people were. The descriptions of the mansions, the runways, the fashion, the window displays, the girls, even the smells (at one point the author says that a room smells like fruit loops and nail polish remover) were done so well.

This story also had a lot of fun characters. Cecil was so genuine. Margaux was INSANE and I loved it. And Ava, I could read an entire series about her. She is such a relatable character and I really felt like I connected with her a lot.

This book isn’t just one thing, and those are my favorite kinds of books. Part mystery, part luxury, part NYC fantasy, part romance, part comedy. This one has it all. Bravo, Abigail Mangin.

This perspective into the underworld of modelling and side ventures made me practically sick to my stomach. It was interesting and kept me reading but I was cringing every page. I honestly hope this is an gross exaggeration of what it is really like to model in New York. I hope it was satirical like a many of the reviews I read have mentioned. I just don’t get it.

It was honestly a good plot. I didn’t know who did it. And I loved the journey for the most part. I just don’t think it was for me. If the synopsis sounds good to you I would still recommend picking it up.

The cover is amazing!!

It has taken me much longer than usual to sit down and write this review for one simple reason: I did NOT like this book. I commend any author who has the stamina and courage to sit down and write an entire, novel-length book and send it out into the world for publication where it will be read and judged by countless people. That takes courage, and I applaud Miss Abigial Mangin for having that kind of courage.

That being said, though, I REALLY didn't like this book. I picked it up to read it because A. the cover looks amazing and B. the description of the book really sounded like something I'd enjoy. The principle behind the book was really cool. The execution, though? Not so much.

First and foremost, this book could have definitely benefited from better editing. I'm not sure if there will be another round of edits before the book's actual publication or if it is going out in this form, but if so, whew. It shouldn't. It definitely needs some work. At first, I was highlighting errors so that I could point them out here in case there was time to correct them before publication. But once I realized how many there were, I just stopped.

Some of the most glaring ones that I did go on and highlight though were as follows:

There were some instances of double words, such as location 1667 of 6531 - 'Margaux was already using her cane cane as a pathetic blockade.'

Then there were some instances of leaving words out, such as location 1685 of 6531 - ' a reported whispered a bit too loudly the woman next to him.'

There were MULTIPLE instances of wrong tenses, wrong words, wrong pronouns, misspellings (which spellcheck should have caught) and things of that nature (location 3885) - 'She manipulating the shape of the butterfly over her arm.'
(location 6204) - 'left a train set of handmade cars from Italy is his eill.'
(location 4270) - 'Everyone who seems they like they have control is faking it.'

These kinds of errors can RUIN a book for me, especially if there are a ton of them, and there were in this particular book. Those are only a few examples.

However, the thing that REALLY killed the book for me was how absolutely unrealistic it was. I get that I have never been a model - and with my super curvaceous (read: overweight) figure, I never will - but come on now. Some of this crap was just absolutely ridiculous. I can believe that some awful, shady stuff goes down in the modeling world. I can believe girls starve themselves to death, and I can even believe that modeling is just a front for human trafficking. In fact, I DO believe those things. But that was not the extent of the crazy in this book.

First of all, the characters were absolutely, 100% could-not-ever, would-not-ever happen in real life. For example, the police detective working the murder investigation. This is actually a description from the book of a grown woman working as a law enforcement professional talking to someone about serious information for her murder investigation:
"She hopped onto the hood of an ambulance, and unscrewed a jar of honey. (Also, no comma needed there, but there's one there alright.) Her bare fingers dunked into the golden goodness. She reminded him of a grizzly bear. At first, she seemed cute and lovable, and then he remembered she had giant claws and a pistol. (etc. etc. etc. blah. blah. blah.) She slurped the honey over her tongue, puffing out her cheeks. And then she clicked the briefcase closed and handed it back to him. "I can't take these," Roosevelt said with a somber drawl. (What she couldn't take was actual proof that a murder suspect had stolen models' birth certificates, faked VISAs and passports to get them over country borders and forced them and the parents - who mostly couldn't read or speak English - to sign slave contracts. I'd think a cop should probably take those. But I digress. Here is my favorite part:) Roosevelt said, scrubbing a hand through her short hair. She spiked it up into adorable horns, using the honey as gel."

Yes. Because that would happen.

And that actually one of the most BELIEVABLE characters in the story. We also have the sex addicted, slave-driving mother with a penchant for Shirley Temple and erotic sex canes who ends up living in an abbey with monks. Because you know, monks love when random women come to live with them. Not to mention random, sex-addicted women.

There's also the entire city of New York City that has models posed in store windows, chained down and with bidding sheets attached to them so that people can buy them for the night to do deviant sexual things with. I mean, I know New York City has its flaws, but you'd think someone would notice a whole block or two of the city trafficking in sex slavery.

Then there's the... you know what.... I think that's enough to get the idea across. It was absolutely unbelievable from about chapter 3 until the end. I wanted to throw in the towel several times and just say, "Nope. I'm done." But when I get a book from Netgalley, I feel obligated to finish it all the way through.

Again, my total respect to the author - and despite the fact that I hated her book, I actually mean that sincerely. I can't even imagine how hard it is to write a book and put it out into the world. But this was absolutely, 100% not for me.

I had read the description and was looking forward to reading this book. It started well and I was enjoying it but sadly it went downhill very fast. Got to the point where I did want to give up. But kept hoping it would remedy itself. But sadly that never happened

I will rate Size Zero by Abigall Mangin a 2/5 stars. The cover and excerpt were the reason I wanted to give this book a try, but after the first chapter (excerpt) the book lost its creative zest. It became weird and uninteresting. The dialogue is very bland. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book, unfortunately I will not be able to recommend it.

With thanks to netgalley and Visage media

Size Zero is a very strange thriller that I couldn't really get into and didn't manage to finish..

I found this book very dark and disturbing. We all know that the high fashion industry is grim, with possibly anorexic models, lots of drug use and very little food, but this book takes it to the extremes. Anorexia is the least of the girls' problems, there is much, much more harm that the model agencies can - and will do.

It was a different type of book for me. I don't think I'll be reading more in the series.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I read an advance copy of the book. This review is voluntary, honest and my own opinion

First things first can we just look at how stunning this cover is? I was completely drawn in by it and decided I wanted to read it just by that.
So before reading the book i wasnt sure what to expect to be honest as the synopsis is a little crazy, but it ended up being pretty good. Its dark and gives a very blunt look into the seedy, negative parts of the high fashion industry so much so that it had me wondering how exaggerated or true to point it was. And although it did have it's funny moments it was more in a slightly ridiculous way.

It was very descriptive, which really helped with picturing the scenes from the decadent and luxurious to the dingy and grimey. But I did find sometimes it went a bit too far where it wasn't needed.

Being part of a crime series I was expecting it to be a bit more fast paced and maybe to get my heart racing but it didn't quite fully get there for me and I found it a little slow in places. Saying that it did have twists and turns and had me trying to guess where it was going and gave me quite a lot to think about. If this is to be part of a series id be interested in seeing where Mangin goes next.

Trigger warnings - anorexia, child sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

Thank you NetGalley and Visage Media for the eARC in return for an honest review.

I love thrillers, but I think that the satire part was what lost me. The characters felt pretty one-dimensional and the scenes jumped around quickly at times which got me confused trying to keep the plotline straight in my head. Might have also appreciated a trigger warning because I didn't know how dark it was going to be on the subjects of sexualization and eating disorders. Entertaining nonetheless!

If you've ever wondered just how dark the fashion industry is, then this is the book for you! When I say dark, I mean dark. That cover should give you a clue: there's glitter but there is pitch black darness too. Plenty of grim themes here such as self harming and forced prostitution so be warned.

I always find satire novels interesting although I've not read many. You just know that a lot is gleaned from real fact and based or at least inspired by some event. There's a rich and poweful fashion brand but how did it get so famous and rich? There is blood on the hands of those who made it that way.

There is a crime wrapped up in this whole tale but it;s the crime mixed with the satire and the role of the fashion world that provides the most fascinating picture. All together, this is a very rewarding yet depressing read.

It's dark...did i mention that?

I couldn’t get into this book and I’m not sure of the reasons why?! Maybe I’ll give it another go when I’m in a different frame of mind...

When I first picked up this book, I wasn't sure how much I was going to enjoy it because it was written so differently to any book that I had written recently and the subject matter was DARK. I knew going into this book that a woman's skin was used as a haute couture coat on the catwalk (it's in the blurb so not a spoiler) but even that did not prepare me for just how dark this book would be.

Mangin is very passionate about the issues surrounding the fashion industry and has cleverly integrated a wider universe with this book (there is a website mentioned within the book which redirects to a blog about some of the issues). I can only hope that this book has stretched the truth to the extreme but I also know that it has not completely unbelievable.

This book is a thriller filled with intrigue from start to finish and the twists keep coming. It is a relatively long book so it took me around 2 weeks to read (according to my records, 4 of those days I didn't read this book at all so it took 11 days) but found myself falling into reading "just one more chapter".

I am very excited to see what's next from Mangin and hope that we can see more from these characters.

This book was so weird, so strange but actually pretty good!! I wasn't sure I would be able to read it but I persevered and I'm kinda glad I did. Some graphic details included....

Ava, a model, is drugged and sent down the runway wearing a coat made of human skin. The skin appears to belong to a girl who disappeared 10 years earlier. Cecil is the son of the modeling agent and friend of the missing girl (also presumed by everyone to have been her killer years earlier) and joins up with Ava to find Annabelle's real killer. It was a pretty gritty book (obviously: skin coat), mostly because of the abuses of the models and sex trafficking story lines. I kept thinking it was nearly done but I was only at 38% or 45% or something, and while it started out strong, it started to twist and turn too much and seemed to be trying to hard to be shocking. I was disappointed in the ending. Somehow this is part of a series, but I can't see wanting to read the next one unless the plot sounded amazing. 2.5 stars rounded to 3.

So sorry. I think this book has an excellent story struggling to get out from under the heavy blanket of description. Far too many action beats are contradictory in the same sentence, leaving me floundering as to what the character really feels. I'm half way through and forcing myself to finish. But now I've read it's the first of a series so maybe I'll just stop here. Sorry. Can't recommend.

When Ava Germaine stumbles out onto the runway in a coat made of human skin, people freak out and assume it’s the body of Annabelle Leigh, a girl who went missing years before at the age of fourteen. Fingers automatically point to Cecil LeClaire, son of the owner of the infamous LeClaire Modeling Management company, who was suspected of kidnapping and murdering Annabelle from the start. Cecil leaves the monastery that he has made his home and comes back to New York City, determined to find out who is behind this madness taking place in the fashion world.

This book is a thoroughly dark read, and I think that’s a part of why I enjoyed it so much. It was full of dark humor and horrifying actions taking place the fashion industry, and every page was intense. The flaws that made up each character were so interesting to read about, and I loved watching every piece of the story fit together between the plot and the characters. The imagery was so vivid, and I could picture the story play out in my head as I read along.

Size Zero by Abigail Mangin is most definitely not an easy book to read, but I really enjoyed it and would love to see more!

*Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for a review!*

It started off very campy and fun, but ultimately lost steam about 1/3 of the way in. It end up on the wrong side of magical and was outlandish. The plot was hard to follow, it was written like it should’ve been a movie. It was supremely overwritten...soooo so many words to say sooooo so little. This had the potential to make a statement, and it tried, but I think it failed.

First, I want to truly thank Net Galley and Visage Media for the ARC of A Size Zero in exchange for my unbiased review.

Size Zero is written in a style modeling (pun intended) the avant-garde subject it is portraying—extravagant and absurd. The satirical and exaggerated story is so unique from anything I have ever read. However, it’s certainly not for the faint at heart. It’s very graphic and the subject matter is tough. I mean, a woman is walking down a runway in a suit made completely out of a human carcass within the first few chapters. There were quite a few times throughout the book I actually had to take a break from reading and come back to it later. If you have a dry sense of humor and find satire funny, I would highly recommend this book. If you are squeamish or your sense of humor isn’t that dark, you may want to look for something else.

I’m giving four stars with the disclaimer that this won’t be for everyone. I enjoyed it, thought it was very well-written and give props to it being so unique.

Also, I want to add that I don’t think I ever have EVER been so completely shocked by and drawn to a book cover as I have with Size Zero’s cover. It is perplexing and strange.. which fits, because this is exactly how I would describe Size Zero itself.

Trigger warnings: physical and sexual abuse and graphic imagery.

Thanks to netgalley for ARC
Okay, so it is very very different premise. One I havent read before. That is what intrigued me.
However, I found the pace slow. It took away from the story for me.
Also, some characters didn't seem believable.
On the whole, the book is good read

I've struggled greatly about how to properly phrase my review. For this was, in my opinion, a disaster. This is a new debut author. I always love reading new authors and I want them to succeed. Unfortunately, I can't say anything significant in support of this new effort. I was very close to a DNF. I did start skipping several sections and was able to make it to the end. I think there were multiple problems. The biggest being the author tried much too hard. It was evident in the writing, in the overly dramatic descriptions that overtook the entire book, in the overdone characters that still lacked any substance and the pushed jokes that never seemed to catch a laugh. I have read a few other reviews that have praised this novel. I could be entirely wrong in my opinion. I simply struggled to just want to turn the page after a while. It was not pleasant. I wish the author the best and I hope they improve. This was in my honest opinion just not a good reader experience.

*Thank you to Visage Media via NetGalley for the digital review copy.