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The Beautiful Ones - April 2025 Book Group discussion thread

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McGoohan
McGoohan
1 Apr
12:51pm, 1 Apr 2025
55,185 posts
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McGoohan
For their third album, Coming Up, Suede had recruited Richard Eyres to replace departing guitarist Bernard Butler. He was hired on the strength of a tape he had sent to the band's fan club. Originally the song 'Beautiful Ones' had a working title of 'Dead Leg' after bassist Mat Osman threatened Eyres with a dead leg if he couldn't come up with a Top Ten single. Fortunately for him, the song reached number eight.

All this was undoubtedly the inspiration for Silvia Moreno-Garcia's subsequent novel The Beautiful Ones. Reading closely between the lines, one sees that Hector is clearly Brett Anderson, Valerie is Bernard Butler and Nina is Richard Eyres.

You might have your own interpretation. Drop it, like incriminating evidence from the boot of a car into a landfill, into the thread below.
westmoors
westmoors
17 Apr
11:48am, 17 Apr 2025
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westmoors
Definitely didn't find myself reaching to pick this up. Probably not my genre, which I found a little strange as I used to like Jane Austin and often watch period dramas. The ending was rather predictable. Gave it a mediocre 5.
Columba
Columba
22 Apr
10:08pm, 22 Apr 2025
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Columba
This author has not taken note of the "show, don't tell" advice. Everything is told, in very pedestrian language, in short sentences, many of which have a paragraph to themselves.

The people's names and place names suggest that the story is set in France, but since they're not real places the author won't have had to be bothered with doing any research. Likewise re timing; it seems to be early 20th century, or maybe late 19th, but no historical background at all.

What was the point of the "talent"? The only time it had an impact on the story was when Nina intercepted the bullets so that nobody was hurt. Apart from that one incident, Hector and Nina could have shared a non-paranormal talent without making any difference to the story (Hector could still have been an 'entertainer' in some other way).

I seriously began to wonder whether the story had been written by AI, rather than a human author.

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About This Thread

Maintained by McGoohan
For their third album, Coming Up, Suede had recruited Richard Oakes to replace departing guitarist Bernard Butler. He was hired on the strength of a tape he had sent to the band's fan club. Originally the song 'Beautiful Ones' had a working title of 'Dead Leg' after bassist Mat Osman threatened Oakes with a dead leg if he couldn't come up with a Top Ten single. Fortunately for him, the song reached number eight.

All this was undoubtedly the inspiration for Silvia Moreno-Garcia's subsequent novel The Beautiful Ones. Reading closely between the lines, one sees that Hector is clearly Brett Anderson, Valerie is Bernard Butler and Nina is Richard Oakes.

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