They're Not Your Friends
A Novel
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Look Out for Falling Stars
Charlotte “Lottie” Love has a thing for celebrity. Actually, it’s more of an obsession. All her life she’s lurked in the shadows of Hollywood, desperate to step into the light. When she lands a job at Personality magazine, her dreams of red-carpet strolls, popping flashbulbs, and the attention of white-hot heartthrobs finally start to come true. Even Hollywood’s latest “It” boy falls for her, and everyone wants his story. Can Lottie score the scoop? Ask Lem Brac, a British boozehound in the twilight of a mediocre career who knows an exclusive with the It boy would save his job. Lem looks for help from his new (and only) friend—Mike Posner, a young hotshot reporter just hired away from a New York tabloid. But Mike has some damaging secrets himself that are about to surface. He needs the interview too, and it’s anyone’s guess how far he’ll go to get it.
Welcome to the world of entertainment journalism and star worship, where you’re only as good as the gossip you dig up. Written by a former People magazine correspondent who knows the underbelly of Hollywood hearsay all too well, They’re Not Your Friends slips past the velvet rope and grants access to a wickedly funny—and sometimes scary—celebrity magazine scene.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Zutell (I'll Never Have Sex with You Again) spent five years as one of People's L.A. correspondents, and her very funny debut novel damns Hollywood hotcha culture, reproducing its lower-end pitches perfectly, if not delivering much in the way of a story. After promising her dying mother that she won't become an actress, Valley ingenue Lottie Love sets out to conquer Hollywood as the chief party correspondent for the celeb rag Personality. The higherups favor New York City import Mike Posner (who, unbeknownst to them, often fabricates stories); conversely, British expatriate Lem Brac, a drunken has-been, can do no right. As tension rises, whoever can land a plum profile of press-shy, boy-on-the-rise Chris Mercer is assured a big-time reputation and serious dollars. Zutell makes her cardboard characters convincingly stereotypical as they hit parties, do poisonous office politics and generally adhere to tabloid codes of conduct. The wisdom of the beleaguered Brac shines out especially, and he gets off some good jibes. The novel's jittery feel nicely matches the pressure to get the story, and Zutell nails L.A.'s obsession with body parts and surgeries. It might evaporate on the beach, but this light read catches Tinseltown at its worst.
