Fiction Addict

Genre: Chick Lit

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster

Publication Date:  June 2010

Reviewed by Jen Roman

While shooting a movie in Rome, It-Girl Mercy Talbot is seen climbing a fountain in the city center.  Before she has her chance to slip and fall to her untimely death, Juliette Greyson rescues her and takes her back to her family’s rustic Italian estate.  There Mercy falls in love with the grounds and insists that the rest of the movie be shot there.  Along with her own childish and drug-induced behavior, she brings along with her more self-absorbed actors, neurotic filmers, writers, and producers, and her recovering-addict, former rock star “self-help guru.”  With all these people on the grounds, Juliette and her cousin must deal with murder, mystery, and narcissism, just what they hate.  Julia is at her estate for a break from her own hectic life in the hotel industry of Hollywood, and Mercy brings even more.  Just what everyone needs!

This reader finds The Starlet to be just what it is advertised as being: narcissism, Hollywood-eque, and backstabbing.  There are plenty of drug-induced behaviors to keep readers entertained for a while, and there are even a couple of murders.  HOWEVER, this reader is not interested in the gossipy storylines of People, US Magazine, and such.  The murders don’t seem to flow well, and they are interrupted so many times by immature behaviors that it is hard to follow any mystery or murder.  For readers interested in a quick and fluffy read, this may be for them, but for an honest-to-goodness, get-into-a-good-plot story, it lacks.  If superficial is the way to go, then The Starlet delivers.

As mentioned before, there are a great many scenes in which the characters do drugs.  This is not the gritty, back-alley drug scene; this is glamorizing drug use to the highest.  People glamorize the drugs (OxyContin and cocaine) and rely on them as a way to get through the day.  And the night.  And the next day.  Sex is also common in this story, and Juliette gets carried away by two different men in almost as many days.  The descriptions are pretty intense and nothing is left to the imagination.  One man is rather promiscuous, and this is also described in detail.  Curse words abound in the novel, and the F-bomb makes a regular appearance.  For anyone looking for these “deadly sins,” the reader has found the jackpot.  For those less adventurous, they may choose to stay away from this book.

The book is what it is: for readers looking for sex, drugs, and murder, this is the perfect summer or beach read.  For those looking for something a little more substantial with a more down-to-earth plot and characters, The Starlet will not deliver.

Reviewed by Simon and Schuster.