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A Novel
by Isabel Banta
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.
What are some books you loved reading in 2024?
Some of the books I loved reading this year are: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin Honey - Isabel Banta The Sicilian Inheritance - Jo Piazza Half a Cup of Sand and Sky - Nadine Bjursten Birnam Wood - Eleanor Catton (even though I was disappointed by the ending, I loved this book)
-HannahT
"[A] sweeping if surprisingly dreary ode to the pop princesses of the late 1990s and early 2000s...Like much of the pop music at its center, Banta's novel is long on style but short on depth." —Publishers Weekly
"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
This information about Honey was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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.
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