#FashionVictim by Amina Akhtar

Title: #FashionVictim
Author: Amina Akhtar
Page Count: 268
Rating: D
Format Read: BOTM Hardcover
Genre: Fiction
Keywords: Fashion, Competition, Obsession
Kid Appropriate: Nope

Synopsis from Goodreads:

A darkly thrilling take on the fashion world, #FashionVictim is Heathers meets The Devil Wears Prada.

Fashion editor Anya St. Clair is on the verge of greatness. Her wardrobe is to die for. Her social media is killer. And her career path is littered with the bodies of anyone who got in her way. She’s worked hard to get where she is, but she doesn’t have everything.

Not like Sarah Taft. Anya’s obsession sits one desk away. Beautiful, stylish, and rich, she was born to be a fashion world icon. From her beach-wave blonde hair to her on-trend nail art, she’s a walking editorial spread. And Anya wants to be her friend. Her best friend. Her only friend.

But when Sarah becomes her top competition for a promotion, Anya’s plan to win her friendship goes into overdrive. In order to beat Sarah…she’ll have to become her. Friendly competition may turn fatal, but as they say in fashion: One day you’re in, and the next day you’re dead.

My Review:

I've seen plenty of reviews claiming that this is a thriller and others saying that it is clearly not a thriller, but rather a well done comedy. Honestly, I don't care which it was meant to be this book was a flop for me.

I originally chose this for my September Book of the Month box because I am drawn to unreliable narrators like we see in Caroline Kepnes' You. That book was an absolute masterpiece in terms of drawing you into the mind of someone unstable and feeling both repulsed and intrigued by them. Anya is certainly unreliable but she is also incredibly two dimensional and uninteresting. This is a first person narration and beyond Anya being mentally unstable and liking to wear black clothes at all times I still don't really know much about her or care to learn more. To make this even worse, her actions and impulses became too repetitive to be interesting.

The first 50 pages were the best part of the story with a degree of intrigue and some lines that made me smirk while I was reading. This is where you are introduced to the main cast that will be killed off as well as the fashion industry. After this point the story drags on longer than it needs to with the death toll rising beyond any realistic number that would avoid a greater investigation than the barely existent one we witness in Akhtar's book.

Catty characters with no development and a ludicrous plot makeup the meat of this tale that had a great concept but poor execution.