Book Review: "Glamorous Notions" by Megan Chance

So I'm back to reading some books on my phone (which is why you won't find a 'photograph taken by me' on the front seeing as I take the photos with my phone and well, I simply can't do it). One of the books I got was called Glamorous Notions which, I know, doesn't look like my kind of book at all. I tend to avoid the whole 'Hollywood inspired vapid espionage book' altogether. But I have to say that this one, with its frequent flashbacks and the hidden past of the protagonist which slowly gets unfolded, makes for a genuinely interesting read. So, even though I perhaps wasn't fully on board with it - I definitely enjoyed it enough to feature it here with (I might add) a pretty good score...

Initially, we meet Lena Taylor, dazzling costume designer at Lux Pictures. She’s admired for her artistry, trusted by stars and producers alike, and is about to step further into society with her engagement to screenwriter Clifford Stone. But beneath her Hollywood sheen is unease: she flinches at certain questions, avoids publicity, and is obsessed with control. What we get here is a woman with her own atmosphere. She almost fits in with the Hollywood types and yet, behind closed doors, she doesn't. Call it predictable, but it certainly raises concerns in the reader about who this person is and, her character is written quite well to shake us up a bit.

Flashbacks reveal Lena was once Elsie Gruner, daughter of an Ohio dressmaker. Raised modestly, she longed for beauty and escape. Winning a scholarship to study art in Rome felt like liberation. But Rome wasn’t just art, instead it was a post-war city humming with politics, espionage, and temptation. I'm not going to lie, as we get further and further immersed into the atmosphere of post-war Rome, we see the narrative truly unfold. I would even say that the author seems more confident about the writing at this point. We learn that Elsie was once married and she hung out in pool halls with her fairly useless husband - it definitely seems like the writer desperately wants to create this moving atmosphere where one woman seems like the 'chosen one' out of the bunch. She rises up out of nowhere to matter to everyone. I would say after this point, the author's writing is definitely more confident than the previous chapters.

In Rome, Elsie meets Julia, a wealthy, charismatic young woman. Julia is confident and worldly, eventually sweeping Elsie into a glamorous circle of parties, jazz clubs, and radical artists. Julia encourages Elsie to break rules, to believe she could be someone else entirely. Their friendship verges on obsession with Elsie dazzled and Julia always holding the reins. This toxic female friendship trope is around a lot nowadays but I can honestly say that this was done in a different way. We already know the power dynamics of this friendship, what we are waiting for therefore is where it all goes wrong and how out Elsie gets metaphorically thrown under the bus. THe writer definitely understands that perhaps doing something predictable and well, doesn't mean we can't enjoy it. It has definitely been well written and as we see the character of Julia unfold, we slowly trust her less and less. We know things are going to go wrong for our Elsie.

Julia’s set isn’t just about parties. She brings Elsie into shady errands: delivering letters, meeting men in smoky cafés, pretending not to notice whispered exchanges. At first it feels like harmless rebellion, but Elsie begins to suspect Julia is involved in some sort of criminality. Still, she craves Julia’s approval too much to pull away. But everything changes when one of Julia’s “games” turns deadly. A man is killed after a hand-off goes wrong. Elsie was nearby, implicated by circumstance. Julia, unflappable, insists they’ll be fine but Elsie realises her name could be linked to murder. Julia vanishes from the scene, leaving Elsie exposed, guilty, and terrified. As this part of the story unfolds, we almost know immediately that Julia, pulling the strings, will return later in a way she might reclaim a prize. Again, it may seem very predictable, but the writing is definitely polished and the voices of the book fit in perfectly with the time, the place and the themes. The idea of reinvention isn't only there for Elsie. It is there for the entire atmosphere of the post-war boom.

I'm not going to say much more about what happens in this book except that of course, this isn't the last we hear of Julia. As Elsie tries to weave her way into Hollywood, her past tends to follow her - she can't seem to entirely shake it off. The book becomes one of those novels that feels like a noir movie from the Golden Age of Hollywood and the author has done a great job of creating the entire world around the main character.