Honey, Isabel Banta
Honey, Isabel Banta
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

Honey
A Novel

Author: Isabel Banta

Narrator: Brittany Pressley

Unabridged: 9 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/25/2024


Synopsis

A coming-of-age story that follows the meteoric rise of singer Amber Young as she navigates fame in the late-90s and early-2000s era of pop music superstardom

It is 1997, and Amber Young has received a life-changing call. It’s a chance thousands of girls would die for: the opportunity to join girl group Cloud9 in Los Angeles and escape her small town. She quickly finds herself in the orbits of fellow rising stars Gwen Morris, a driven singer-dancer, and Wes Kingston, a member of the biggest boy band in the world, ETA.

As Amber embarks on her solo career and her fame intensifies, her rich interior life is frequently reduced. Surrounded by people who claim to love her but only wish to exploit her and driven by a desire for recognition and success, for love and sex, for agency and connection, Amber comes of age at a time when the kaleidoscope of public opinion can distort everything and one mistake can shatter a career.

With the captivating style of Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter and the raw honesty of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, Isabel Banta’s debut novel, Honey, redefines the narratives of some of the most famous pop icons of the ’90s and 2000s. It reimagines the superstars we idolized and hated, oversexualized and underestimated, and gives them the fresh, multifaceted story they deserve.

A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books.

About Isabel Banta

Isabel Banta is a writer, book publicist, and indie bookseller based in Brooklyn. She graduated from the University of Virginia. Honey is her debut novel.

About Brittany Pressley

Brittany Pressley is an Audiofile Earphones award winning narrator in NYC. She has recorded over 100 titles and has received several nominations for American Library Association's annual list of Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults. She is also an accomplished singer/songwriter and voice actress. Her voice can be heard on national and international TV and radio commercials as well as several animated series and video games. She is a proud graduate of Columbia University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by ashlyn on November 30, 2024

this book is basically if Britney Spears Memoir and Daisy Jones & The Six had a baby. the fact that this is her debut novel is insane, usually with debut novels there’s some imperfections but this was literally perfect......more

Goodreads review by Cortney - on March 20, 2024

This book had all the makings of being right up my alley (I started it the day after I received it over the other 30 books I have on my TBR pile), but it just didn't work for me. It was decent, but at the end of the day, I didn't particularly care about these characters or what was going on in their......more

Goodreads review by emilybookedup on June 12, 2024

ugh this one had so much potential but was lacking a lot in execution for me. the synopsis was so intriguing (a young girl turns into a mega pop star) and those plots always get me but with books of similar storylines (think Daisy, Evelyn, Hayley Aldridge, etc) this was lacking! i saw all meh reviews......more

Goodreads review by Delaney on July 28, 2024

The writing was beautiful & this had some PHENOMENAL quotes/lines, but the plot itself lost my interest quite a few times. Also (hot take!) I do NOT like song lyrics in books. Like PAGES of lyrics. I will skim them every time. It feels like someone is singing to me & I cringe internally.......more

Goodreads review by Jillian on July 05, 2025

It’s the late 90s, and high school student Amber lives in a cramped New Jersey apartment with her alcoholic mom and angsty brother. Her life is forever changed when she gets selected to join an up and coming girl group. Fast forward a few years and she’s a full-fledged pop star, Rolling Stone cover......more


Quotes

"Honey is a sexy swagger of a debut. The ambition and grit of its heroine are matched by the dextrous smarts of its writer, and it is deeply satisfying to see the mistreated pop princesses of the millennium get the respect that they—as complicated humans—deserved all along."
—Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow

“Isabel Banta has delivered an all-access pass to the early-aughts pop world of my dreams in the form of this gorgeous, powerful, and unapologetic romp of a novel. Dripping with sweat, sex, and yes, honey, the character of Amber Young will forever redefine how we think of the perils of stardom, paparazzi, and becoming who you’re meant to be despite it all. Effervescent and full of energy, the lessons in Honey are as needed today as they were in the age of Y2K pop. A rare, shining star of a debut.”
—Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot and Madwoman

"Honey parts the shimmered curtains of Y2K pop stardom and ushers us to a place beyond the schoolgirl/jezebel binary: the rich inner world of a young woman discovering her own depth and life force, authentic sexuality and artistic intelligence. Show up for Honey with your sticky notes ready, because there's much to bookmark here: not only the deftly written heat, but a hundred keen and quotable observations about creating a life of truth and wholeness."
—June Gervais, author of Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair

Honey was everything I was hoping it would be and more. Beautifully defiant, persistently empathetic, and the writing itself is absolutely crystalline.”
―Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie and I'm the Girl