This book is a scream. In many ways. First of all, it’s not for everyone - it’s well-suited for you if you enjoy social satire and think a corpse being modeled on the runway of New York Fashion Week is hilarious. (Guilty.) It also helps if you like monks who love Flashdance. You’ll also have to be aware of, or at least open to, the many awful things that can happen to young people who come to New York to be models, and the general horrors of New York excess. As you may have gathered, this book is not like anything else you will read anytime soon. It is basically American Psycho with a social conscience..

I really enjoyed that this book has something to say and never tries to tippy toe around the horrifying issues it tackles. It is wickedly funny but also very sad. It can be hard to read at times but is always fascinating. (It is really hard to discuss this book without giving any spoilers.) The book reminds me a bit of the literary influences it nods to: Bret Easton Ellis, Edgar Allen Poe - but like Glamorama or American Psycho, it is really more of a satire than a traditional horror novel or murder mystery a la Poe. Also, it is the opposite of many current horror novels that glamorize and specialize the murders of young girls a la Lolita (to which this book also explicitly refers). Never titillating - It is grotesque throughout and I mean that as a compliment. I did feel it went on a little too long before the mystery was fully solved — I probably only felt this way bc the issues are so hard to read about at this level of horror and the author did such a good job of making you confront them.

All of this makes for a totally different and bizarre reading experience, in a good and rather enlightening way. The ending is great. This book appears to be first in a series and I will definitely read the next one. (As a side note, the cover is a perfect depiction of the book.)

Also, I tend to roll my eyes at “trigger warnings” but in the case of this book there are a couple of issues the reader should really be prepared to have the stomach to deal with in a major way, particularly child sexual abuse, sex trafficking and anorexia. (But know these issues are never glamorized - quite the opposite.)

Four weirded-out and impressed stars. This author is truly original and different and tackles very ambitious ideas that are tough to read about, but somehow also makes them funny at times. I’m interested to see what she comes up with next.

Thanks to NetGalley, Abigail Mangin and Visage Media for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

What a cover! Firs thing that catch my eyes. The book was also an entertaining read that I enjoy doing! Good pick!

Once, when I was younger, I got a couple calls from a modeling agency in my hometown called PMS. I didn’t take them up on it, I thought it was a little strange. Came out of nowhere. Still, even though I had declined the offer it felt nice to have some place that supposedly recruited beautiful girls to tell me, a 13-year-old with pretty heavy self-esteem issues, that I was worthy of being considered for such a job. But, to be honest, I always kind of feared it would be like the modeling world of Abigail Mangin’s Size Zero.

Size Zero is horrifically comic satire at its best. I knew from page one that I was reading something intended to put the reader on edge. Parents desperate for money sell their children to men. Pack them a bag and send them off, never to return. The girls are sold dreams of fashion modeling and travel beyond their wildest dreams. Then, they’re promptly thrust into the high stakes world of high fashion. When the childhood friend of a prominent designer’s son goes missing and turns up as a skin suit on the runway years later, he decides to reenter the world he’d abandoned for monastic life and track down her murderer.

Abigail Mangin is a craftsman of pitch black humor. I found myself laughing at almost every page, even as I was disgusted by her vivid imagery of the modeling world’s underbelly. She knows how to skewer and twist those parts of society we’d rather not think about and turn them to the light. A not-so-distant future of high-tech high fashion and all the things about the elite world we don’t want to believe are happening, the world of Size Zero is sharply crafted and unforgiving. There is no mercy here, even as you laugh your way down. Its dark, sensual, vicious prose slides across the page like oil and bites.

I didn’t originally realize it was first in a series. It twists back on itself so effectively I wasn’t sure where it had left to go. Nevertheless, I’d follow Abigail Mangin into the depths of Hades if she guided. I can’t wait to see where this elite, morally complex, privileged beasts of humanity go next.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Visage Media, and Abigail Mangin for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Very unique book, nothing i have read quit like it. Very easy to read and will be looking forward for more like this to come.

This book is exactly like the cover - luxurious, a little beautiful, and also very very dark.

I personally have not read satire/crime before this one so this was an interesting experience. The story was told from a third-person perspective, the majority of it in Cecil LeClaire's POV. The LeClaires were behind the wealth and success of Visage, a luxury fashion brand. When a body turned up in the fashion runway, Cecil begun to unravel the truth about the industry his family owned as he tried to find the culprit alongside an unexpected ally. There was not much background on him before entering the monastery but his efforts to be a better person were admirable, and at times, brave. He's humble and determined and possibly my favourite character because he's just so sweet?? Much unlike the rest of his family - Margaux and Perdonna, he treated everyone like a human being.

Size Zero was not what I expected it to be. It was at a certain point when I realised this was by no means just a crime novel. The book tackled sensitive themes that at parts, were hard to digest. Mangin had crafted a world believable enough in today's era that it skittered along the edge of the fiction tag. It was an eye opener, and a reminder, where it isn't that individuals are flawed, but we lived in a judgemental society that made us believe it ourselves.

The luxury was a little overwhelming, much in contrast to the horror that was almost subtle. There were times I focused heavily on the lavish descriptions and nearly overlooked at how horrifying the industry was beneath the diamonds, silk, and glitter, much like how the public in the story was unaware of what Visage was built on.

There's a nice blend of twists, humor and complex characters here. It's nothing that I've read before and by no means a light hearted book. Please note the trigger warnings if you do decide to read it.

Trigger warnings: rape, sexual/physical abuse, self harm, emotional abuse, eating disorders, forced prostitution

This was a very interesting read nothing like iv read before. I have mixed feelings about this book, never less I thoroughly recommend it if you after something different.