Make Me Famous - by Maud Ventura (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

AN INDIE NEXT PICK

"The exact thing we need right now: a fierce, fearless, and funny novel about celebrity and our almost pathological obsession with it." --Boston Globe

Daisy Jones and the Six meets Patricia Highsmith in this addictive, intense novel about the brutal and ferocious road to glory, from the award-winning author of My Husband, for fans of Yesteryear and My Husband.

Ever since she was a child, Cléo, the French-American daughter of two academics, has had only one obsession: becoming a famous singer. Over the years, to everyone's surprise but her own, she overcomes every obstacle and becomes a global superstar with millions of dollars, countless awards, and several Los Angeles villas to her name. But as any celebrity will tell you, getting to the top is one thing; staying there is another.

Now thirty-three years old, Cléo is taking her first real vacation in years, on a remote island with no one else in sight. With the never-ending spin cycle of her life finally on pause and no paparazzi peeking out from behind the coconut palms, she can work on her fourth album in peace. Except that with so much time to think, she can't help but ruminate on her past--including how, just six months earlier, things started to go very, very wrong . . .

Taking place between New York, Paris, Los Angeles, and the South Pacific, Make Me Famous is a brilliant sophomore novel from Maud Ventura that dives intoxicatingly deep into the machinations of one woman's complicated mind, and her relentless pursuit of fame.

Review Quotes

"Ventura's sharp knowing satire of celebrity culture is hit material." - People

"The exact thing we need right now: a fierce, fearless, and funny novel about celebrity and our almost pathological obsession with it. A literary rock star in France, Ventura's second novel should win her a horde of fans here." - Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe

"A masterpiece of cruelty. A thrilling read of our contemporary neuroses." - Psychologies Magazine

"A conclusion that's as unexpected as it is breathtaking ... relentless and exhilarating." - Version Femina

"Flits with just the right amount of lightness, but also cynicism and even cruelty ... funny and biting." - La Croix

"What will keep people reading is the calculated, purposeful, near-obsessive dedication with which Clèo pursues her titular goal. The final twist is a thoroughly satisfying payoff for everything that has come before." - Bookreporter.com

"Make Me Famous is brutal and thought-provoking, a rare page-turner that also invites the reader to consider deeper meanings of public images and private personas." - Booklist (starred review)

"Totally absorbing. I read this in one sitting." - Angourie Rice

"Don't miss. Had me weeping with laughter . . . [and] will have you thinking hard about the meaning of love." - Minneapolis Star Tribune on My Husband

"Delicious." - The Millions on My Husband

"Smashing ... Cleo's voice is bracing and undeniable, and Ventura pulls it all together with a shocking and deeply satisfying ending. This is unforgettable." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Gripping." - CrimeReads

"Maud Ventura has given us an exhilarating and fanciful study of celebrity while questioning the fundamental failings of our time." - Vanity Fair

"Fierce and funny ... exploding the boundaries between private life and marketing." - Madame Figaro

"This riveting emotional thriller requires serious willpower to not devour in a single sitting." - Oprah Daily on My Husband

"Irresistible. . . . Thrilling. . . . Ramadan's exacting translation holds the reader in her grip. . . . A bold and memorable first outing." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) on My Husband

"Ventura very cleverly explores themes of paranoia, class, and, above all, obsessive love through the couple's everyday neuroses, building their significance (and their darkness) to keep readers in suspense. The translation by Ramadan adeptly conveys both the setting and the growing tension. Fans of Caroline Kepnes' You (2014) or Gillian Flynn will find My Husband to be a new, satisfying, and unnerving take on the relationship-suspense genre." - Booklist (starred review) on My Husband

"An incisive character study of a woman's complicated interiority. . . . The author's finely crafted scenes reveal so much more than the narrator intends to share, and she expertly ratchets up the tension until nerves are unbearably frayed. . . . Ventura's cleverly constructed, one-sided portrait of a marriage delivers a breathtaking conclusion that is as unexpected as it is deviously brilliant." - Shelf Awareness on My Husband

"If you obsessively reread (or, let's be real, rewatched) Gone Girl, then this darkly comic French novel about a woman so deeply besotted with her picture-perfect husband that she goes to some truly crazy lengths to keep him within her clutches is almost sure to resonate with you." - Vogue on My Husband

"What a wonderfully tense, obsessive, enveloping novel--almost like a feminist, introspective spin on Fatal Attraction! Ventura's deftly spun debut is a sharply observed dissection of marriage that will haunt you for days." - Virginia Feito, author of Mrs. March, on My Husband