Modelland in 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back (Book List)

Oct 14, 2024 Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, high-fantasy, undulating-undulation, teen

Well.

For much of my reading, I thought of this as a 3-star book. For all of the madness, the unnecessarily drawn-out bizarre sequences for minimal purpose, the abysmally awkward wordplay, I often felt that Banks was achieving what she intended. It is absolutely a YA-level modelling-based fantasy novel which incorporates YA-appropriate themes and character behavior. The worldbuilding is often grotesque and confusing, but consistent with the weird, rules-free magical world the book establishes.

I Well.

For much of my reading, I thought of this as a 3-star book. For all of the madness, the unnecessarily drawn-out bizarre sequences for minimal purpose, the abysmally awkward wordplay, I often felt that Banks was achieving what she intended. It is absolutely a YA-level modelling-based fantasy novel which incorporates YA-appropriate themes and character behavior. The worldbuilding is often grotesque and confusing, but consistent with the weird, rules-free magical world the book establishes.

It's so hard to characterize. The book setting presupposes an entire world driven by the fashion industry; entire nations devoted to making candles or accessories, to big box store shopping, to albinism, all slavishly devoted to this one heaven-like nigh-unattainable location: Modelland, a Mount Olympus-style modelling training school where a select few enter each year and ultimately aspire to achieve the top status of Intoxibella, one of only 7seven chosen each year. New students are subjected to what amounts to psychological torture; made to believe their faces were rotting off to teach the lesson that makeup should never be shared; forced to perform catwalks with time dilation, taught by mutants straight out of Pan's Labyrinth, and that doesn't even begin to touch on the creatures guarding the forbidden zone outside of Modelland, monsters made of "dozens of legs" with heads formed of clumps of "ancient instruments".

I often found the only way to conceptualize it was as some kind of psychedelic, body-horror, modelling-themed Mahou Shoujo anime set in a mage tower trope blended with Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, except neither Banks nor Tookie have truck with chocolate in any way.

Still, the story and basic ideas were reasonably sound. Tookie and her sad-sack, hopeless life is introduced. Then TDOT happens (the annual day candidates are chosen to go to Modelland), she is inexplicably chosen and goes on a wild ride to pick up other misfit candidates who form a mutually supportive friendship. The friends hold each other up through all the trials and madness of their early Modelland days. Eventually there's a gross misunderstanding that impels the group to try to flee their situation.

Then came the ending. The multi-chapter extended climax, told mostly through flashbacks, which has virtually nothing to do with the main characters and their immediate storylines. What a brilliant idea, to have the denouement completely neglect the main story and base itself entirely on side characters and events that preceded the novel. So satisfying.

At least the main character, Tookie de la Creme, had a positive arc, gaining confidence, poise, and positive qualities along the way, even though so many of her personal story beats and mysteries were dropped by the wayside, unfulfilled in favor of those of peripheral characters.

Speculating about the degree of actual writing Banks did versus a ghostwriter, I believe that Banks herself did the vast bulk of the work. There is no character or story element or weird touch that I won't believe came directly from her, possibly inspired to develop a particular thing here and there by her support team. There was certainly some editing help to make the prose run smoothly and, apparently, cut the thing down from its original 1000 page manuscript (which would be less than 1000 printed pages in final book form, but more than its current 560 pages in hardcover), but I'm happy to call this thing basically 100% Banks' baby, for good or for ill. In any case, I don't think anyone would ever expect tremendous quality from a celebrity-authored book, even one entirely ghostwritten. Still, surely no one expected quite this bizarre fever dream of a book.

Un(?)fortunately, the sequel mentioned in the acknowledgments has not seen the light of day.

TL;DR: Hunchie, where did you go? ...more

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Mar 19, 2024 Bryan Woerner rated it it was ok

Shelves: 372-pages

I was surprised that I enjoyed the book as much as I did. I cared about the characters which is something important for me.

That said, it is not a a well written book. Imagine Cinderella, Harry Potter, Willy Wonka, Hunger Games, and America’s Next Top Model combined and you’ve got this hot mess of a book. A book that was also ghost written by a 50 year old man too.

It’s a wonder that a well known publisher green lit this.

Sadly, or not depending on your perspective, we will not likely get to see ...more

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