How to Die Famous

"I really like this book, which came out earlier this year. Of all of the books I’ve chosen, I think it’s the one that’s closest to the sort of book that I write. It’s about a teenage boy called Abel who gets a part in a popular TV drama. He’s doing it so that he can, on the sly, investigate the death of his brother who died under mysterious circumstances. He’s from England, and when he gets to Los Angeles he’s drawn into this glittering world of fame and riches and privilege. But he discovers that there’s a much darker side to the TV show, and that it has destroyed more than one life already. He’s at risk of it destroying his life, too, if he’s not careful. It’s a really interesting book, because the author used to be a celebrity journalist so he knows all about this world. You can really sense his love for fame and stardom coming through in this book, but at the same time he explores the darker side of celebrity. In the book, you’ve got this TV show that’s taking kids who have nothing and promising them the world, and then using them and controlling them and moulding them into whoever they want them to be. One of the characters remarks that they have so much that they don’t feel like they can complain, even when they’re uncomfortable about what’s going on. There’s a really interesting juxtaposition of these amazing settings — the beauty of it all and the fame and all the parties — and this much darker side where these teenagers are being used by the adults in control, and then tossed away if they won’t do what they’re told. Yes. One of the characters has an interesting relationship with her mother, who’s pushed her into this life and is very controlling and has such high expectations for her. And you can see the character, Ella, rebelling against it, thinking: “I don’t know if this is me”. In the book, there are four main characters, with four points of view. It’s great because everyone’s playing a role on several different levels. You’ve got the parts they’re playing on the TV, and the parts that the TV company are forcing them to play for the media and the press. Then you’ve also got the versions of themselves that they reveal through their narration, but you don’t know how much of the real them they’re holding back because they’re not sure how people are going to react to them. So that’s really interesting. Benjamin Dean has such a distinctive voice in his books and this one has a really clever ending. He also ended his last book, The King Is Dead , on an unanswered question like in this one."