The Vanity Game edition by HJ Hampson Literature Fiction eBooks
Download As PDF : The Vanity Game edition by HJ Hampson Literature Fiction eBooks 
Dying to be famous?
Ripping the lid off the world of celebrity culture, The Vanity Game is a satirical black comedy that's as disturbing as it is hilarious.
Life couldn't be much better for professional soccer ace and international megabrand, Beaumont Alexander. Living the life of luxury in his Essex mansion, The Love Palace, with his beautiful pop-star girlfriend and queen of the WAGS, Krystal McQueen, he's every bit as vain as you might expect from a man who has the world at his fingertips as well as his feet.
But a celebrity party kick-starts a chain of events that turns his dream lifestyle into a waking nightmare. Beaumont Alexander is about to discover that substitution is a fate worse than death.
"As black as black comedies come and twice as audacious, HJ Hampton’s The Vanity Game eviscerates celebrity culture with the incisiveness of an expert surgeon—but with a giddy, over-the-top pleasure that’s exhilarating."
— Megan Abbott, bestselling author of Dare Me.
"Take a pinch of TOWIE, add a measure of vapid sleb culture, throw in a few dark temptations, lob the lot OTT, and you've got a recipe for a premier league winner."
- Val McDermid, bestselling author of The Retribution
“The trenchant first-person narration … comes into its own as an engine for driving the story at a page-turning pace that’s hard to resist.”
– The Herald
“a debut novel of rare originality and dark wit”
– Crime Fiction Lover
“you’ve got a hugely compelling main character at the center of a fast-paced book that’s part downward spiral noir, celebrity satire, and paranoia thriller”
– Spinetingler Magazine
The Vanity Game edition by HJ Hampson Literature Fiction eBooks
This book was one of those rare stories that consumed me. I was pulled through the narrative as if a particularly violent footballer was dragging me by my collar. I'm a sucker for "dark side of fame" stories, and this one is about as dark as it gets. A British football (we would say soccer) star glories in the money, sex and drugs of his status, until a deadly encounter appears to have destroyed everything. Then, instead of ending, the cycle begins again, as he struggles to escape like a bug pinned to a cosmic speciman-card. If H.J. Hampson does not become a bestselling author, there is no justice.Product details
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The Vanity Game edition by HJ Hampson Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Life is too short for bad books, couldn't even get past the first third of the book before I realized that it was self-involved drivel.
Beaumont Alexander is a professional soccer player living with his pop star girlfriend, Krystal McQueen, in his mansion called the Love Palace. A "pop star" is a noun that refers to a widely known person, a social celebrity, a big name. I don't remember if the author actually tells you what Krystal does. Is she a model? As this book begins, they are living the high life which includes drugs, alcohol, sex and parties. Beaumont is NOT a nice person because he lives as though the world revolves around him. Women throw themselves at him and are willing to do anything to get his attention. He is able to justify his sexual escapades in his own mind and could care less how it might hurt Krystal. We aren't told, but Krystal seems like she would be the same way. Why they live together and call each other boyfriend/girlfriend is a mystery when, at least in Beaumont's mind, it's an open relationship.
I wonder how people can party hardy and still function the next day. How does a soccer player become so good that he lands millions of dollars in contracts both professionally and commercially while boozing, drugging and sexing almost every night? How does a man or woman retain their good looks and talents while doing such damage to their bodies all the time? I particularly found it ironic that Beaumont and Krystal drink vitamin shakes and eat healthy, only to snort cocaine, get drunk and have sex with so many different partners. You would be healthier on a diet of Twinkies as to participate in such risky behaviors.
While partying hard at a celebrity party, he sees a pretty waitress and makes up his mind that she must want him like all the other women he comes in contact with. He gets soused enough to follow her into the restroom where he rapes her. Of course, he doesn't see it as rape because, in his mind, all women want him. It meant nothing more than animal sex to him. He could care less about her, her feelings, her attempts to say "no". After he's gotten what he wants, he throws her $50 and goes back to the crowd to finish his good time.
Later he has an argument with Krystal who suspects he hooked up with the waitress. An accident occurs which leaves her dead. He calls his agent, Serge, who comes and helps him clean up and dump Krystal's body in the river. Beaumont reports her missing to the police and it hits the newspapers. He is questioned by the police who find evidence of her death. But just as they are going to arrest him, they let him go. Why? Because Krystal is back!?! And the mystery begins.
The plot is pretty interesting and it's fairly plausible. It's compelling reading. But I have to warn anyone interested in reading this book that it is filled with filthy language, of the very worst kind and is sexually explicit. Anyone who converses using a continual flow of filth shows a lazy mind. They have formed a disgusting habit. As a weak willed individual they are disinclined to break their habit or unable to do it so everyone around them has to tolerate their crude, vulgar conversation. The epithets are sexual or have to do with embarrassing bodily functions. And a good bit of it is placing another human being in the lowest possible position, especially women. When I was a teenager, if you called a woman a bitch, skank, slag, whore, c****, etc. you were insulting her in the most humiliating, shameful way. Denigrating and disrespecting another human being in such a vile way was to ruin her reputation, give her a bad name, attache a despicable label to her that invited further abuse. It was serious business back then. Now, men call women these names even if they are their own mothers, wives, daughter, sisters, or girlfriends. We are taught how harmful it is to a child's psyche to use phrases like "you're stupid;" "you will never be anything;" "you can't do anything right." How much worse is it for women who are constantly referred to as "bitches" and "whores" in everyday conversation? It's terribly damaging and they begin to think they really are. Many men have little respect for women and use them, more or less, as public toilets. What does that say about the blackness or emptiness of their soul? How shameful it is and yet they no longer feel shame. And women who let themselves be used like that and spoken to like that have no real self esteem and will continue to find themselves in abusive relationships. I find it a little disturbing that a female author would write a book this disrespectful of women by using such language and writing sexual scenes of female humiliation.
This story is about a man who has little empathy for others, especially women. He really feels HE is all that matters. He seems to feel as though he were superior to every other human being and everything is suppose to be about him. The author has created the main character as a male who has it all in worldly terms fame, health, riches, beautiful girlfriend, sex. And yet, he is not humbled by it, nor does he have any gratitude. He feels entitled to it. He came from virtually nothing to have everything but he's not happy and he certainly doesn't go out of his way to make anyone else happy. He treats others like they are his body slaves and people treat him slavishly for two reasons money or popularity. Much like poor Michael Jackson, who had so many hanger-ons. Like parasites they are suck money, fame or popularity out of the relationship. Beaumont Alexander had people who only hung on to him for their own gain and were willing to do just about anything for him as long as benefited them. Selling him drugs, fixing him up with women, managing his career, endorsing their products, etc. If he were to lose all his money tomorrow, all his "friends" would be gone in 10 seconds flat! It was mutually dependent relationships. He depended on having people cater to him and make him feel important and they depended on getting what they wanted out of him.
You learn that he had very humble beginnings and now rides the crest of his career. But through the circumstances of this book he learns that no amount of money or fame can make him happy or safe. In fact, it makes him a peculiar target with savage results. There isn't a moral compass in this book. The moral compass is starkly missing in Beaumont. He is as unlike-able near the end as he was in the beginning. The author does not preach or hold him up as an example of what to be or not to be (as if that was the question). These are only my opinions. As I said, the plot is pretty interesting but BEWARE that this book has very bad language and explicit sex scenes.
Not the best of beginnings but well worth getting passed. This story keeps you guessing right up until the end. Excellent read.
Beaumont Alexander has it all fame, fortune and girls on demand. Then something wildly unexpected happens ( I can't tell you what!) and the whole world turns upside down for suave Monty. I don't want to give anything away in my review, but trust me, dear reader, you are in for a wild ride.
What I enjoyed most about this book is the way that HJ Hampson is able to write from the point of view of the most shallow, misogynistic, Entourage-on-steroids character that every man reading will secretly wish he could be. The author is really able to pull the basest instincts from the male psyche and wrap it in to a character that you're still jealous of, no matter how selfish and shallow he acts.
THE VANITY GAME is fast-paced and exciting, and well worth your time (and money!)
brilliant - loved it - read it!
H. J. Hampson's The Vanity Game from Blasted Heath offers a slice of sleb culture with a lot of grit and blood. I hated Beaumont from the start he's everything I hate about the fame game. It's an uphill battle getting your reader to follow the adventures of a character who is so often absolutely loathsome; it's a battle Hampson wins. I despised the spoiled, pampered footballer but I was hooked into the story right away. Where is this going to go? That's the question that keeps you reading. And I did! I almost -- almost -- developed sympathy for him as events unfolded. More importantly, I had to know how things would turn out. It's a terrific examination of the seductiveness of fame, the manipulations it involves and the cocoon it develops around those who get raised so high -- and how vulnerable that plush prison leaves them. But make no mistake this isn't a dissertation. It's a cracking good read that will surprise you with all the twists and turns. I can't imagine why anyone would want to be famous and can't understand the current mania for it. After you read this book, you will have second thoughts about the allure of the spotlight.
This book was one of those rare stories that consumed me. I was pulled through the narrative as if a particularly violent footballer was dragging me by my collar. I'm a sucker for "dark side of fame" stories, and this one is about as dark as it gets. A British football (we would say soccer) star glories in the money, sex and drugs of his status, until a deadly encounter appears to have destroyed everything. Then, instead of ending, the cycle begins again, as he struggles to escape like a bug pinned to a cosmic speciman-card. If H.J. Hampson does not become a bestselling author, there is no justice.
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