BARBARA BOURLAND
BARBARA BOURLAND is the author of two previous novels: I’ll Eat When I’m Dead and Fake Like Me, a 2020 Edgar nominee for Best Novel. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
THE FORCE OF SUCH BEAUTY
Dutton — July 19, 2022
After a failed attempt at escape, the princess of a tiny kingdom begins to reevaluate her life.
Caroline, a former marathon runner who dropped out of school at fourteen to pursue an Olympic medal, was the perfect candidate for a tiara: shapely, disciplined, accustomed to public attention, and utterly uneducated.
After she meets Finn, the handsome prince of a small European kingdom, her fate is sealed. With a collar of pearls locked around her throat and a rope of diamonds leashing her to a balcony, Caroline uses her once-powerful body to smile, wave, and produce children with perfect grace.
But once she begins to open her eyes to the world around her—and examine her own reflection—Caroline discovers that she may have entered a bargain that cannot be undone.
Barbara Bourland’s stunning third novel is her most ambitious and most imaginative book to date. Inspired by the alleged escape attempts of real-life princesses and set in a grotesque and gaudy prerecession 2000s Europe, The Force of Such Beauty is a heart-wrenching and compulsively readable testament to the way in which real-life power structures around the world ultimately rest on the subjugation of women’s bodies.
Praise for The Force of Such Beauty
A Parade Best Book of Summer 2022
A TODAY Best Summer Reads of 2022
“With trademark style and sophistication Bourland plays with the tropes of the princess tales, true and not, that we know as well as our own names as she giftedly conjures Caroline's glittering, threatening worlds.” —Booklist, starred review
“In her deliciously scandalous latest…Bourland offers a smart critique of a corrupt world’s disenchanting effects on a naive young woman. The result is satisfyingly dark and twisted.” —Publishers Weekly
“Bourland’s brilliant satire skewers the theatrics of power, excessive materialism and economic corruption.” —The Washington Post
"The Force of Such Beauty is a dazzling spiderweb, a richly imagined, chilling spin on the girl-meets-prince fairy tale that scrambles notions of power and femininity. With a sense of spellbound dread, we’re seduced along with its complicated heroine into a magnetic world of startling beauty and tragic costs." —Lauren Acampora, author of The Paper Wasp
“A fierce spin on the fantasy of marriage that is pacey, propulsive and fun. Its dazzling, detailed and ultimately revolting catalogue of excess and materialism creates a compelling atmosphere of claustrophobia. I love how the fairy-tale setting cleverly draws one's thoughts from the personal implications of a marriage to the wider world of commerce, status and power.” —Ros Anderson, author of The Hierarchies
“An immersive depiction of the glittering surface and rotten core of royal living, painted in sumptuous and chilling detail.” —Kirkus
"In The Force of Such Beauty, Barbara Bourland fractures the familiar tale of 'happily ever after' and reimagines it with spectacular style, vision, and substance. Her novel thoughtfully interrogates the trappings of marriage, status, womanhood, and power, while reading as vividly and compulsively as a thriller." —Jung Yun, author of Shelter and O Beautiful
“A wayward girl is made a princess, and then? Luxury turns to boredom, fascination to fear, fame to thralldom, and love to betrayal. Threads of beauty and dread follow our heroine's descent into the gilded lunacy of a royal kingdom that requires a princess to be glamorous, grateful, and quiet. But Caro is no passive princess in a tower; she is smart, incisive, and achingly real. I couldn't put this book down until its explosive, heartrending, thoroughly satisfying ending.” —Jennie Melamed, author of Gather the Daughters
“Barbara Bourland’s The Force of Such Beauty is like if My Year of Rest and Relaxation was about Grace Kelly.” —Molly Odintz, Senior Editor for CrimeReads
"'Happy ever after' is not all that it's cracked up to be. Barbara Bourland dismantles the conventional princess story in The Force of Such Beauty to explosively examine the real-life notions of fame, power, and womanhood." —Veranda
“The Force of Such Beauty grips with the strength of an Olympian and holds it with the endurance of a marathoner. Bourland’s passionate storytelling transmogrifies into an insatiable urge to keep reading Caroline’s story even after its end — an ending that actually caught my breath, not once, but twice in quick succession.”—AP
“Rich in emotion and luscious descriptions, The Force of Such Beauty is a careful dismantling of royalty that leaves readers wondering if any fairy tale is worth our desire.”—BookPage
“a smart, absorbing novel.” —AARP
FAKE LIKE ME
Grand Central Publishing - June 18, 2019
At once a twisted psychological portrait of a woman crumbling under unimaginable pressure and a razor-sharp satire of the contemporary art scene, Fake Like Me is a dark, glamorous, and addictive story of good intentions gone awry, from the critically acclaimed author of I'll Eat When I'm Dead.
What really happened to Carey Logan?
After a fire decimates her studio, including the seven billboard-size paintings for her next show, a young, no-name painter is left with an impossible task: recreate her art in three months or ruin her fledgling career.
Homeless and desperate, she flees to an exclusive retreat in upstate New York famous for its outrageous revelries and glamorous artists. And notorious as the place where brilliant young artist Carey Logan―one of her idols―drowned in the lake.
But when she arrives, the retreat is a ghost of its former self. No one shares their work. No parties light up the deck. No one speaks of Carey, though her death haunts the cabins and the black lake, lurking beneath the surface like a shipwreck. As the young painter works obsessively in Carey's former studio, uncovers strange secrets and starts to fall―hard and fast―for Carey's mysterious boyfriend, it's as if she's taking her place.
But one thought shadows her every move: What really happened to Carey Logan?
PRAISE FOR FAKE LIKE ME
Winner of Baltimore Magazine’s 2019 Best Book of Baltimore
A HelloGiggles Best Book of June 2019
A Refinery29 Best Book of June 2019
A Cosmopolitan June 2019 Must-Have
A Fortune Summer 2019 Travel Pick
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of Summer 2019
A CrimeReads Best Crime Books of the Year (So Far)
A Toronto Star Hot Summer Thriller Pick
A 2020 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel
“A ridiculously propulsive page turner. Barbara Bourland has written a 'du Maurier-esque' literary thriller about sexual jealousy and artistic legacy, a gorgeously scathing critique of the New York art scene, and a warning about the deadly consequences of stifling female expression. Could. Not. Put. It. Down.”―Lisa Gabriele, author of The Winters
"With her trademark flair and razor-sharp attention to detail, Barbara Bourland offers the reader an incisive exploration of the tension between the desire to make art and the desire to make money. Fake Like Me is satirical, brilliantly realised, and has a twist you simply won't see coming..."―Louise O'Neill, author of Only Ever Yours, Asking for It, and Almost Love
"A satirical take on the contemporary art scene―smart, witty and eye opening. This gripping tale throws back the curtain on a world of secrets and intrigue."―Liv Constantine, international bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish
"In Bourland's decadent twist on the classic campus novel, a group of struggling artists succeed beyond their wildest dreams, but at what cost? Gloriously mordant, and just the right amount of rococo, you have to start your summer with this glittering new read."―Courtney Maum, author of I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You
"Bourland expertly shines a light on the nature of female ambition and desire and the often dark heart of inspiration. Readers fascinated with the blood, sweat, and tears of creating art will be especially rewarded.”―Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Bourland’s (I’ll Eat When I’m Dead, 2017) painstaking research on the practical and emotional aspects of making art is on vivid display. Readers eager for a glimpse into the New York art scene will be enthralled… A haunting, dizzying meditation on identity and the blurred lines between life and art.”―Kirkus, starred review
"[A] page-turning story about art imitating life."―The Palm Beach Post
"The process creators go through for the sake of their art ranges from obsessive to self-destructive, and that ideology is escalated with Bourland's cutthroat prose... The unrelenting threat hovers through the plot and rigidly keeps the reader's head just above water until the end approaches."―FANGORIA
"This book delivers the perfect smart-thriller paradox: you'll be driven to finish the twisting plot, but you will not want the narrator's wise observations to end. So drop everything to follow Bourland's brilliant narrator to Pine City, the upstate artist colony with its crumbling camp buildings and secret histories. You will not see the art world-or a woman's place in it-the same way again."―Maria Hummel, author of Still Lives
“Bourland has an uncanny knack for spatial description and relates artwork and every last thing in Pine City―’half Dirty Dancing, half Twin Peaks’―with pristinely observed color and feeling. She also nails the creep factor, and her narrator's high tolerance for it, with foreboding signs that the no-name painter isn't totally welcome there, and that there's more to Carey's story. The deck stacked against her, the narrator tells the glitteringly compelling tale of her fevered summer and wisely reveals meaningful intersections of class, gender, and making art.”―Booklist, starred review
“Meet ‘art satire thriller,’ your new favorite genre.”―Hello Giggles
“An impressively intelligent thriller set in the art world.”―Refinery29
“The creative process confronts reality in this compelling literary thriller centering on art, identity, and deception, as told in Bourland’s (I’ll Eat When I’m Dead) sharp prose. A must for those with an artistic bent, a sheer reading pleasure for all.”―Library Journal, starred review
"Bourland has an astonishing ability to write viscerally about art, culture, class, and landscape, for a work that's bound to be one of the summer's biggest crime/literary crossovers."―Literary Hub
“There were moments throughout this novel when I was so bowled over by the spare, profound beauty of Bourland’s prose that I got chills…This is an excellent read…” ―Medium
I'LL EAT WHEN I'M DEAD
Grand Central Publishing – May 2, 2017
When stylish Hillary Whitney dies alone in a locked, windowless conference room at the offices of high-concept magazine RAGEFashion Book, her death is initially ruled an unfortunate side effect of the unrelenting pressure to be thin.
But two months later, a cryptic note in her handwriting ends up in the office of the NYPD and the case is reopened, leading Det. Mark Hutton straight into the glamorous life of hardworking RAGE editor Catherine Ono, who insists on joining the investigation. Surrounded by a supporting cast of party girls, Type A narcissists and half-dead socialites, Cat and her colleague Bess Bonner are determined to solve the case and achieve sartorial perfection. But their amateur detective work has disastrous results, and the two ingenues are caught in a web of drugs, sex, lies and moisturizer that changes their lives forever.
Viciously funny, this sharp and satirical take on the politics of women’s bodies and women’s work is an addictive debut novel.
Praise for I’LL EAT WHEN I’M DEAD
A US Magazine Must-Read
“I can’t put I’ll Eat When I’m Dead down, I LOVE it. Biting, funny, and brilliantly subversive; Bourland’s debut is like The Devil Wears Prada meets American Psycho.“―Louise O’Neill, author of Only Ever Yours and Asking For It
“A funny, fierce, feminist crime novel set around a fashion magazine called Rage? I’ll take one in every colour, please.“―Sarra Manning, Literary Editor at Red
“Sex. Drugs. Dries van Noten. I’ll Eat When I’m Dead skewers Tribe Fashion with wit and wicked intelligence. From Finnish toast-only restaurants to the Kobe-beef hide bikinis and fake feminism, Barbara Bourland makes you laugh out loud, and keep turning the pages. A deft, smart, and hilarious debut.”—Wednesday Martin, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of Primates of Park Avenue
“A smart feminist fashion manifestor packed with pulpy, sexy, murderous intrigue. Highly entertaining!”—Elizabeth L. Cline, author of Overdressed
“One part deliciously satirical send-up, one part murder mystery, I’ll Eat When I’m Dead kept me reading and had me laughing out loud. This bold and wildly entertaining, in-your-face novel signals the arrival of Barbara Bourland as an exciting and savvy new voice.”
—Sara Blaedel, #1 international bestselling author of The Forgotten Girls
“I’ll Eat When I’m Dead is a reckless adventure in the world of starry-eyed models, dubiously sourced drugs, anorezia, and Instagram. But don’t let the frills and flashbulbs fool you. Barbara Bourland is here to show you that fashion is a deadly serious business.”—Mikita Brottman, author of The Maximum Security Book Club
“A compulsively readable, satirical romp with a sharp and vicious twist, I’ll Eat When I’m Dead is a timely, smart, and perceptive mystery.”—K.J. Howe, author of The Freedom Broker
“Bourland’s delightfully snarky debut leans heavily on satire, poking razor-sharp fun at the beauty industry and the cutthroat world that Bess and Cat inhabit, and some scenes are laugh-out-loud funny…Death by beauty was never so much fun.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Former magazine writer and web producer Bourland fills her debut with terrific characters…and a heaping helping of froth and gloss that will turn readers into industry insiders. Delightfully, playfully skewering the fashion and beauty industries, this is like The Devil Wears Prada (2003) with more feminism, plus murder.”—Booklist
“Readers will devour this mystery by Bourland.“—Romantic Times
“From toast-only restaurants to organic skin care laced with opioids, this is a smart, satirical take on fashion and media that will have readers snorting with laughter.“—NY Post
“A whodunnit with a Devil Wears Prada twist…If you love UnReal, then this smart, sassy novel will be right up your alley.“—Refinery29
“Barbara Bourland’s high fashion/murder mystery/genre smashing mash-up I’ll Eat When I’m Dead satirizes the stylish with a brilliant, biting wit. A feminist tome with clothes to die for that’s so twisty it will slay you.“—Marisa Marchetto, author of the New York Times best-selling graphic novel Ann Tenna
“I’ll Eat When I’m Dead combines sharp satire of the beauty-and-fashion industry with a twisty mystery.“—Tampa Bay Times
"Bourland walks the line between serious and comedy so deftly that anyone who has read a women’s magazine or caught an episode of America’s Next Top Model will understand the jokes and the lessons without conflict."—Fortune