Publication Date: July 28, 2020Publisher: MacMillan AudioRating: ?? She needs an assistant. He needs a hero. Charlie Besson is tense and sweating as he prepares for a wild job interview. His car is idling, like his life, outside the...
Publication Date: July 28, 2020
Publisher: MacMillan Audio
Rating: ??
She needs an assistant.
He needs a hero.
Charlie Besson is tense and sweating as he prepares for a wild job interview. His car is idling, like his life, outside the Hollywood mansion of Kathi Kannon, star of stage and screen and People magazine’s Worst Dressed list. She’s an actress in need of assistance, and he’s adrift and in need of a lifeline.
Kathi is an icon, bestselling author, and award-winning movie star, most known for her role as Priestess Talara in a blockbuster sci-fi film. She’s also known in another role: Outrageous Hollywood royalty. Admittedly so. Famously so. Chaotically so, as Charlie quickly discovers.
Charlie gets the job, and his three-year odyssey is filled with late-night shopping sprees, last-minute trips to see the aurora borealis, and an initiation to that most sacred of Hollywood tribes: the personal assistant. But Kathi becomes much more than a boss, and as their friendship grows Charlie must make a choice. Will he always be on the sidelines of life, assisting the great forces that be, or can he step into his own life’s leading role?
Laugh-out-loud funny, and searingly poignant, Byron Lane’s A Star is Bored is a novel that, like the star at its center, is enchanting and joyous, heartbreaking and hopeful.
Review:
Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio & Byron Lane for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
This book is by Byron Lane who used to be the personal assistant to actress, Carrie Fisher. It was mentioned multiple times, for legal reasons, that this is a work on fiction. In my eyes, that didn’t really matter. It was very clearly based on his experiences and this book did not sit right with me after Carrie Fisher’s death. This felt extremely exploitative. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never connected with Carrie Fisher or have seen a Star Wars move, but this did not feel right to me at all.
I am someone who really tries to connect with the characters and see character development. As this was a work of fiction, this should’ve been easy enough. I did not connect to Kathi Kannon or Charlie at all. I’m not sure if it was the narration, but this was rough.
The writing of this book felt a little forced only a few chapters in. It gave off very anxious energy and I didn’t like that. When I picked this book off of NetGalley, I really really thought that this would be a lighthearted read. I was wrong.
Lastly, if you are listening to this on an audiobook, make sure you’re using headphones or you’re by yourself. There’s excessive usage of language that is definitely not safe for work.
Overall, I gave this book two stars and I thought that was generous. I think it’s because it was of the narrator overall that I was able to finish this book completely. To be honest, I think I will be removing Byron Lane from my author’s list.
