... wildly funny and irreverent ... Nearly every sentence Kathi utters is darkly comic ... if penis jokes don’t make you crack a tiny smile, then it’s likely this novel isn’t for you ... Lane’s sentences are sometimes overdone ... He’s at his best when he allows his quirky characters to take over, especially when he describes Kathi and Charlie’s extensive travels ... Charlie’s foggy friendship with Kathi defies convention, and Lane’s writing lifts the novel far above its gossamer Hollywood setting, suffusing his portrait of Kathi with a complex sensitivity ... At the end of the novel, I felt a deep sense of grief for Carrie Fisher, who died in 2016. This story made me long for a universe in which Charlie and Kathi could be action figures themselves: icons whose sensitivity is a superpower that can save us.
... even though the novel itself is a work of fiction, it was impossible for me not to picture Carrie Fisher as the ‘bored star’, which gave my reading experience even more dimensions than ‘just fiction’, as I am sure it will for you, too .. I was immediately sucked into Charlie’s life and felt with and for him ... Lane’s writing is lighthearted and charming, despite the multiple serious topics this book depicts. He writes with humour without taking importance away from serious matters, which made this an amazing reading experience. His writing let me feel sadness and desperation and the brokenness within characters, just as much as the awkward and funny moments at which I would laugh out loud while reading ... is as much heartbreaking as it is hopeful and just as tragic as it is funny. This is a book for everyone. Everyone who ever felt lost, who ever felt too scared to make a change, or to take a chance. Everyone who has ever loved, ever lost, and who needs a reminder that underneath it all, we are all the same.
... a fizzy new novel that upends celebrity culture with an insider’s look at the care and feeding of big stars ... Lane nimbly sketches the ridiculous 'Holly-weird' life of the uber-pampered ... Some of the novel’s sharpest scenes come when Charlie meets for drinks with an unofficial club for personal assistants, where smart ambitious young people trade stories of humiliation and pass along tips for how to procure whatever their crazy bosses might require at a moment’s notice ... At times, however, it’s hard to understand Charlie’s devotion to a person so utterly self-absorbed. And there are stretches of this novel where its revved-up tone—lots of ALL CAPS and exclamation points—can grow tiresome. However, there is real sweetness in Charlie’s quest to connect, and readers will root for him to find happiness ... anything but boring, and could be the fun summer read so many of us are craving.
