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Size Zero (Visage Book 1) Kindle Edition
Condom dresses and space helmets have debuted on fashion runways. A dead body becomes the trend when a coat made of human skin saunters down fashion's biggest stage. The body is identified as Annabelle Leigh, the teenager who famously disappeared over a decade ago from her boyfriend's New York City mansion.
This new evidence casts suspicion back on the former boyfriend, Cecil LeClaire. Now a monk, he is forced to return to his dark and absurd childhood home to clear his name. He teams up with Ava Germaine, a renegade ex-model. And together, they investigate the depraved and lawless modeling industry behind Cecil's family fortune.
They find erotic canes, pet rats living in crystal castles, and dresses made of crushed butterfly wings. But Cecil finds more truth in the luxury goods than in the people themselves. Everyone he meets seems to be wearing a person-suit. Terrified of showing their true selves, the glitterati put on flamboyant public personas to make money and friends. Can Cecil find truth in a world built on lies?
In high fashion modeling, selling bodies is organized crime.
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJuly 12, 2020
- File size2429 KB
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Beautifully packaged and true to its idealistic vision, Size Zero pierces the myths that perpetuate and protect an abusive, exploitative industry." - Foreword Reviews
"This patchwork swipe at high fashion, wealth, and body image successfully horrifies..." - Publishers Weekly
"The characters throughout are eccentric but well-crafted and the description was vivid, brutally so at times. With black humour and a dark narrative, I don't expect that this will be for everyone, but if you're wanting something hard-hitting this could be the book for you." - LoveReading UK
"A sharply perverse dark comedy set in the high fashion industry." - IndieReader
"Size Zero is that kind of book that gets you off a reader's block moment." - Pacific Book Review (starred review)
"Size Zero is visceral and disturbing. The narrative exposes the dark underbelly of modeling, focusing on unethical practices, charlatans, mental and physical illnesses, and the abuse that young women face as they pursue celebrity. Elements of the novel are splashy and outré, distorting stereotypes of glitterati and their carefully guarded world." - Foreword Reviews
"A dark and unique murder mystery that will make you hold your breath and anticipate the next turn in the plot... Satirical and incredibly well-handled, Size Zero: Visage is a story that will keep you up at night." - Reader's Favorite
"This book is so weird..." - CrimeReads (The Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2020: Summer Reading Edition)
Product details
- ASIN : B085RP4QBF
- Publisher : Visage Media LLC (July 12, 2020)
- Publication date : July 12, 2020
- Language : English
- File size : 2429 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 412 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,981,886 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #10,450 in Fiction Urban Life
- #17,920 in Urban Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #238,836 in Literature & Fiction (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Abigail Mangin](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/7v8cd5sgduh9argik25predil6._SY600_.jpg)
Originally from Harrisburg, PA. BFA from NYU Tisch Dramatic Writing, 2018 NYU Outstanding Writing for Television Award.
Customer reviews
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![The modelling world never looked so dark](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/transparent-pixel._V192234675_.gif)
The modelling world never looked so dark
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2020Loved this book! Very different from anything I have read recently. I was sad when it ended, because I wanted to know so much more. Hoping there is more to come for these characters ☺️
- Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2020I've been really excited to get my hands on this book because it sounded like a thriller, or just a book you couldn't put down. While the story was interesting, I felt like I read a rough draft version which was disappointing. I noticed quite a few grammatical errors, punctuation errors, and scenes that just didn't make any sense. There wasn't enough description in certain scenes which made the story hard to follow at certain points. There was also a heavy amount of fluff, too much description in all the wrong parts.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2020This is one of the most difficult books I have ever had to review. That's not because I don't think it's really well written... it's because it almost seems to defy description. Usually, what I do with a review is attempt to write a review that will summarize a plot without giving spoilers. I want to give people enough clues that they may be able to decide whether this book might be something they would enjoy reading.
Let me start with the beginning of this book. Someone has managed to send a drugged model staggering out onto a high fashion runway wearing a creation made from a human body... and the description is breathtaking in the most unpleasant way. Mangin has a marvelous way of describing the most visceral scenes. There's great attention to visual detail in the book... and it really helps to immerse the reader in the world.
The short version is that When Brother George AKA Cecil was young.. his girlfriend disappeared. suspicion landed firmly on Cecil's shoulders. Eventually, Cecil ended up in a monastery and that's where he is when a murder is committed. The body that was used to make the suit on the model is no other than that of his girlfriend.
Cecil is sent from the monastery to "put closure" on all the loose ends that seem to torment him. How he's supposed to do that is a great mystery but he begins with returning "home." This is the point at which things in the novel begin to get extremely bizarre.
The fashion world in this book is like some sort of twisted and mutated caricature of the fashion world we have today. It's futuristic and archaic, young girls - little more than children re basically kept captive. They barely eat, they are treated as a bizarre collection of dolls rather than human beings. I felt as though I was reading a demented version of Alice in Wonderland as I was plunged into a macabre, futuristic, extreme, disgusting fashion world.
There were times when things in this book were so absurd that they were almost funny, but the darkness takes away that hint of humor. So you see... this is why I'm struggling to write a review. None of the relationships in the book are healthy... Cecil is probably the sanest but even he has emotionally flat reactions to the depravity that he returns to.
Is this book hard to read? At times it was. Is it worth reading? Abso-freaking-lutely! It's been a long time since I've read something that made amused me in such a twisted way! And it's completely original. I can safely say that I've never read anything like it before. In fact, the only thing I can come up with that might begin to give you a hint of what this is like is that it reminded me of books from the "bizarro" genre... although not quite as removed from reality.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2020When the book started I was sucked in, however as I kept reading I felt it lost it punch at times. Its a different type of book for sure. At times I felt it was slow moving then it would speed back up. That kept me wanting to finish it. I also felt at times it was a bit juvenile. The book is a bit disturbing, sad and exciting all at the same time.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2020Once, 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. (less)
5.0 out of 5 starsOnce, 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.The modelling world never looked so dark
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2020
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. (less)
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
- Dawn R.Reviewed in Canada on August 24, 2020
1.0 out of 5 stars What a mess
I wanted to like it, and gave it an hour or so. It was a confusing mess and really could have used an editor. A really good editor.