The Actress

What started out as a “behind the scenes” look at (fictional) Hollywood star making quickly devolved into a vapid, soap opera tale. Normally I would have ditched this but it earned three stars ‘cuz I just had to know how the author was going to end the train wreck relationship that dominated the book......more

This would have been a fine guilty pleasure summer read, but the author has the oddest writing style, and I found it distracting. Her character descriptions are especially peculiar: almost every person in the book is allowed just two brief adjectives. For example: "Reggie wore cats eye glasses and a......more

I understand that this is absolutely not a perfect novel, but anything including the guilty pleasures of fame and Hollywood that is vaguely literary is right up my alley. I especially loved the tidbits about the film festival circuit as I've been to a few of those myself (as a spectator, of course!)......more

The hype around Amy Sohn's "The Actress" is that the novel is based on the marriage of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. That was enough enticement for me, and I was expecting juicy details. It's a false promise, though. In my mind, the main character, Maddy Freed, seemed more Nicole Kidman than Katie, a......more

Terrible yet compulsively readable. Some of the writing was laughably bad. My enjoyment level was more like four stars, but I can't bring myself to rate it that highly.......more