Burlesque superstar Immodesty Blaize – all feline-flicked eyes and crystal-corseted curves – has turned her silken begloved hand to fiction. In her debut novel, Tease (Ebury Press, £14.99) Blaize follows in the stiletto-pocked path of many chick-lit novelists before her, employing burlesque as a mere backdrop to a generic Jackie Collins-style, tongue-in-cheek tale of ambition, sex, scandal and showbiz.
Tease centres on pink-haired burlesque performer Tiger Starr – a heroine poised for superstardom as she prepares to take her seductive stage show to Vegas. Her big break is soon jeopardised, however, by sinister pink letters proclaiming to know her “secret”. With her past hanging over her and a stalker on the prowl, Tiger’s carefully crafted act begins to disintegrate. Everyone is a suspect until all is revealed in a ludicrously high-voltage finale. The action all takes place within a garishly neon-lighted, shamelessly consumerist (and presumably pre-recession) London media world.
Tease is as fluffy as a feather boa. It certainly doesn’t boast an original plot, yet there’s still a voluptuous pleasure to be derived from unabashedly camp descriptions of clouds of pastel powder, diamond-encrusted merkins and nipple pasties in heart-shaped boxes. All very shiny; just please don’t expect much substance.
Really good, to the point review. Wish Ms Blaize would go just a little bit out of her comfort zone though… Novel about a burlesque dancer? Quelle suprise!