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Slave to Fashion
Slave to Fashion
Author: Rebecca Campbell
Fashion college has taught Katie Castle everything she ever needed to know: how to smoke cigarettes and drink; how to flirt with gay men and straight women; how to get into clubs without paying. Possessed of a sharp eye and a stiletto tongue, Katie talks her way into the job of her dreams. Working for chic designer Penny Moss, Katie snags not on...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780375760624
ISBN-10: 0375760628
Publication Date: 2002
Pages: 275
Rating:
  • Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
 72

3.1 stars, based on 72 ratings
Publisher: Villard
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Slave to Fashion on + 337 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I enjoyed the peek into the bitchy me-me-me garment industry (at least as portrayed) even if the heroine Katie Castle started off as a world-class b*tch and worse. As the tale goes on, I cheered as she got her come-up-ance then enjoyed the way the rest of the tale evolved. Not the best chick-lit I've ever read, but certainly not a waste of time, either.
Circe avatar reviewed Slave to Fashion on + 11 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I enjoyed this book. It was different from typical chick lit, I would describe it as a bit less "light", a little more serious. It is comic at times, with the typical female lead character who overcomes obstacles, etc.
reviewed Slave to Fashion on + 17 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
In the vein of 'The Devil Wears Prada' and 'Bridget Jones' comes Katie Castle, a fashion nobody that works as a production assistant to a fashion somebody with aspirations to become a fashion know-it-all. Katie is willing to do whatever it takes to get her shot at the top, and she doesn't care who she claws, bites or backstabs to get there. Shes perfectly selfish. Worse yet, shes aware shes that selfish and she doesnt care at all.

The most unfortunate thing about Katie as a protagonist is that we usually seek to see ourselves in the characters in books and theres very little to see in Katie thats likeable. Shes mean, catty and self-centered. The more you read, searching for that redeeming characteristic thats going to let you like her, the more you discover it just doesnt exist. Thats okay though since there isnt anything particularly likeable in the other characters either so you dont really take up their side.

Halfway through the book Katie's circumstances change and she has to start her climb all over again only this time she's nicer. Not through any internal contemplation or revelations. Not because she recognizes she's done any wrong to them all, but merely because her environment changes does Katie become the least bit circumspect. Even then you don't get the impression it is the result of anything as deep as self-discovery or newfound friendships, just a liberal dose of these-people-might-be-useful-to-me-better-not-tick-them-off. Its sad really.

All in all I dont know why I finished reading it. Except that somehow Katie was still an absorbing character. The characters are well drawn if not sympathetic and writing style is fine. The author has a consistent flow to her style (it never dragged on or felt rushed) which is something many more accomplished authors continue to struggle with. For a first book Im pretty impressed. Now if shed just write about someone I could care about
reviewed Slave to Fashion on + 293 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
This book was a fast read. I liked the main character, Katie Castle, as she is pretty straight forward and let you know, as she tells you her story, that she isn't perfect. Katie works for a small fashion designer and makes a move on her bosses' son so she can move up in the company. She tells you that! And she does move up. Eventually she makes a mistake which costs her the job, the bosses's son, her "friend's", and her home! But Katie manages to triumph over all.
brneyedgirl avatar reviewed Slave to Fashion on + 22 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I just couldn't get in to this book, I found myself getting bored a lot and didn't finish it.
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reviewed Slave to Fashion on
Just as life seems to be perfect for Katie Castle, one little mistake turns it all around for her, ultimately for the better.
reviewed Slave to Fashion on + 22 more book reviews
Superfun chick lit! Loved it!
reviewed Slave to Fashion on + 19 more book reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Smarter and darker than your average Bridget Jones knockoff, Campbell's first novel is also more mean-spirited, though it adheres closely to the conventions of the Bright English Working Girl Looking for Love formula. Antiheroine Katie Castle suffers a cataclysmic fall from grace followed by scrappy attempts to get back on her feet, and miraculously redeems her professional and romantic life by novel's end. She works for successful designer Penny Moss, whose son, Ludo, she is set to marry. But when word of her fling with a handsome driver reaches Penny, Katie loses everything her job, her flat and her fiance. Katie's snobbishly mordant wit is what distinguishes this book from its many, many sisters, even though her wisecracks are often gratuitously cruel: "the news would spread faster than Ebola in a Congo village." She is, in fact, so utterly awful to everyone that it's difficult to enjoy her eventual victories. There are clever touches Katie taking a job in a sweatshop, a gangster who quotes Nietzsche and Campbell, who runs a clothing design firm with her mother, is most incisive about the bitchy evanescence of the fashion world.
murder101 avatar reviewed Slave to Fashion on
Great chic lit light funny story I enjoyed it .
reviewed Slave to Fashion on + 82 more book reviews
Funny book.
reviewed Slave to Fashion on + 12 more book reviews
fun read


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