A novel about a small-town girl trying to survive in New York and become part of the city's literati, who forms an intense friendship with a troubled socialite, leading to extreme consequences.
Social Creature remains distinct through its explicitly millennial perspective... [and] seems just too glamorous and magnetic to be true. [Burton's work] hammer[s] home the mirror it lifts toward our irresponsible obsession with status and effortless living.
[A] diabolical debut by Tara Isabella Burton ... she knows her way around good, evil and the eternally reader-friendly realm in between ... Social Creature is a wicked original with echoes of the greats (Patricia Highsmith, Gillian Flynn).
Sharp as a shard of broken mirror... a formidable burlesque by Tara Isabella Burton. Her obvious model is Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley [but] Burton's tale has a great deal to say about the very tangible conventions of our time. Its superb dialogue and cutting sense of humor help it glide irresistibly toward the unnerving moment when Louise has to decide whether to kill again.
