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Gossip of the Starlingsx$8.49
  (12 reviews)
Best Price: $8.49
When Catherine Morrow is admitted to the Esther Percy School for Girls, it's on the condition that she reform her ways. But that's before the charismatic and beautiful Skye Butterfield, daughter of the famous Senator Butterfield, chooses Catherine for her best friend. Skye is a young woman hell-bent on a trajectory of self-destruction, and she doesn't care who is taken down with her. No matter the transgression—a stolen credit card, a cocaine binge, an affair with a teacher, an accident that precipitates the end of Catherine's promising riding career—Catherine can neither resist Skye's spell nor stop her downward spiral.
De Gramont's chilling novel is a portrait of an adolescent girl so thoroughly seduced by a peer that she willingly follows her to ruin. Caught in a world that is both appealing and astonishing, these young women are sexual beings with the minds of teenagers: willful, selfish, daring, and cruel—all the while believing they're utterly indestructible.
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Customer Reviews
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A good read
By A7IHD3TFK8WLV on 2008-06-30
This book earns the many good reviews it has received. Its a well crafted and beautifully written tragedy about an insular group of self destructive prepsters during the Reagan years, containing far deeper observations and themes than "chick lit." This is a truly literary effort. I'd give it five stars, except that despite its merits, I found it hard in the end to really care about the two main female characters, despite the author's best efforts to set them up for empathy.
Marginally Interesting Plot...
By A2EOUIKDI530I on 2008-07-16
...but basically unlikeable characters. If you're up for a read about spoiled rich kids snorting coke at prep school while they struggle with the falsity of their overly indulgent, well-intentioned parents this is the book for you. If, on the other hand, you've had enough of novels about teenagers who have accomplished nothing, but can whine about their feelings for paragraphs at a time, then go ahead and curl up with this one.
Scandalmonger
By A2XL1CG6GUSNVX on 2008-07-20
After reading glowing reviews from other readers regarding "Of Cats and Men," I picked up a copy and was pleasantly surprised by de Gramont's talent and prose. I'm still in awe of the author's writing skill after reading "Gossip of the Starlings," but the tale failed to strike any feeling in me other than irritation. Not that the author loses her beautiful, lyrical voice in this endeavor; she doesn't. But my sentiments echo those of a previous reviewer in that it wasn't at all entertaining to read about wealthy, spoiled, self-indulgent girls with nothing better to do than snort cocaine and, in the case of one character, actively and consciously behave in self-destructive ways while seeming righteously aggrieved by the fallacies of those around her and being coldly cynical as a result. High praise indeed for Nina de Gramont's prose, but this tale left me dissatisfied.
Disappointed
By A2S1URDJKVR2S6 on 2008-07-23
I was so letdown by this book......the characters were superficial and uninteresting. I can't believe that so many fine writers said nice things about it or that Algonquin Press (which I admire) published it. I couldn't even finish the novel because I found it so boring.
An amazing story that will take you back
By A19FVH6CY3MN8K on 2008-08-10
This book reminded me so vividly of what it felt like to be a teenager. The friends you can't live without; the amazing drama that takes place every day. The wealth and the location are immaterial. This story is about the incredible power of friendships and the struggle to be good. It was a beautiful and very emotional story that I read in two days.
- Wow!!!
By AZQXEXGR98JPL on 2008-07-21
The best book I've read in years - de Gramont's writing is stunning, gorgeous, and she captures the struggles of being a teenager - ANY teenager - brilliantly. I may not have gone to prep school, but I know these girls, I know these feelings, the alienation, the acceptance, the dazzling friend who you love and hate at the same time. There are sentences in this book that I had to read three times in a row - and I still didn't stop reading until the whole beautiful and tragic story was done. If you want to read a book that will keep you talking, that will take you back in time and then make you pick up the phone to say YOU HAVE TO READ THIS! then get this book. Brilliant.
- Invulnerability, not wealth, the point here
By A3KCXEKDV04TTH on 2008-08-09
A friend gave me this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it and identified with the characters (although it's been a while since I was a kid.) It captures that fleeting, shared sense between teenage girlfriends that you are immortal. And I didn't find the characters' wealth distracting or alienating. It functions mostly just to allow these girls to take greater risks, which ups the stakes, which kept me interested.
I never had a pony, either; but I don't hold it against a fictional character that she rides horses. Bloody _Catcher in the Rye_ begins at prep school.
- A Great Book
By A19R4MD8YI2LLK on 2008-08-11
I really enjoyed this book. Nina De Gramont captures the desperate, intense emotions that overwhelm all of us (male, female, rich, and poor) as we struggle through adolescence. A great book for anyone who enjoys a compelling story, beautifully told. Read it now, before the movie comes out!
- Most readers aren't rich, much less super-rich...
By A13OXLJZZ615Z on 2008-07-25
I have to say, I read this in two days, and stayed up far too late finishing it. But the ending left me with an empty feeling. The writing is undeniably strong and evokes the confusion of those awful teen years quite well. But the characters are not well rounded, and the plot is thin.
I came away feeling the Author had a keen understanding of wealthy, upper class, preppy teens, but really couldn't connect with their middle class, scholarship-endowed contemporaries or the teachers who exist on the margins of the elite prep schools, always outside looking in. She seemed to identify with the characters who were just rich, (Catherine, Susannah, Drew, and their families.) as opposed to the super-rich. (Skye and the Butterfield clan.) But her treatment of honorable "poor boy" John Paul is perfunctory. I'm guessing de Gaumont is from a quite similar background to her patrician heroine, and sees her as the norm rather than as living a life most American teens can only dream about. Yes, "the rich are different from you and me" and the super rich are REALLY different, but de Gaumont seems oblivious to that fact, so her book left a sour taste in the mouth of this very middle class reader.
- Could not put it down
By ALAKHCX4VKPLK on 2008-08-10
I usually read something dull to put myself to sleep at night, but after reading most of this book on a plane ride, I refused to switch to my usual fare. It brought back highschool and the incredible intensity of my teenage friendships. de Gramont's prose illuminates those heady moments and secret bonds that were so all consuming. I thoroughly enjoyed this finely tuned page-turner!
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