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82nd out of 90 books
—
123 voters
Namedropper
by
Emma Forrest
Meet Viva Cohen: her bedroom walls are plastered with posters of silver-screen legends, and underneath her school uniform she wears vintage thigh-high stockings. Her best friends are a drugged-out beauty queen and an aging rock star. She lives in London with her gay uncle Manny. A bitingly funny and fiercely intelligent first novel, Namedropper takes you on a rowdy romp fr...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
August 15th 2000
by Touchstone
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Namedropper follows Viva as she falls in love for the first two times, realizes the cracks in her friendships that will seemingly last forever, and hurdles towards the end of days in school. The most enjoyable part of this novel is the narration. Forrest’s Viva is fully realized. Her conversational tone and unselfconscious, confessional style is believable in the way only a teenage girl writing in the voice of another teenage girl can be. She is dizzying, without the hint of self-deprecation tha...more
I think it's best to start this review with what came to mind the most while reading it:
Those words at best
Were worse than teenage poetry
Fragment ideas
And too many pronouns
Stop it, come on
You’re not making sense now
You can’t make them want you
They’re all just laughing
- Taking Back Sunday- Timberwolves at New Jersey.
That being said I really wanted to like this book. I had such a crush on the idea of this book, and as I wrote in another blog, because I had such a crush on it I was harder on it w...more
Those words at best
Were worse than teenage poetry
Fragment ideas
And too many pronouns
Stop it, come on
You’re not making sense now
You can’t make them want you
They’re all just laughing
- Taking Back Sunday- Timberwolves at New Jersey.
That being said I really wanted to like this book. I had such a crush on the idea of this book, and as I wrote in another blog, because I had such a crush on it I was harder on it w...more
I swooned over her memoir, Your Voice in My Head. This was a woman, I thought, that I could be good friends with -- smart, incisive, sensitive, pragmatic.
So i figured I'd love her novel too.
But... it sucked. Sucked hard like a Dyson.
It was a lightweight bit of tragically unsophisticated fluff that read like it was written by a 17-yr-old trying to sound cool. Which, given that her writing career started in high school, it probably was.
Blech.
So i figured I'd love her novel too.
But... it sucked. Sucked hard like a Dyson.
It was a lightweight bit of tragically unsophisticated fluff that read like it was written by a 17-yr-old trying to sound cool. Which, given that her writing career started in high school, it probably was.
Blech.
picked this up and put it down like 8 times because of the cover, just didn't grab me? BUT: cute! characters weren't really developed at all but that was ok. there was tons of unbelievable stuff too, also ok. writing reminded me of pamela's so that was pleasant. lighthearted in an I Capture the Castle kind of way.
I read this book in college shortly after having a fling with a touring musician. Namedropper is admittedly a girly and fluffy book, but for its great timing in my life, it remains one of my favorites. This quote really summed up how I felt that summer:
"I perused the magazines at the news-stall as I waited for my train. Skyline were on three covers. All of them showed a close-up of Dillon's face, with the rest of the band in soft focus. Part of me wanted to see him. But the other part knows that...more
"I perused the magazines at the news-stall as I waited for my train. Skyline were on three covers. All of them showed a close-up of Dillon's face, with the rest of the band in soft focus. Part of me wanted to see him. But the other part knows that...more
So I finished this yesterday in my bed, and I must say, it was a bit weird! Especially in the start and the last page. A bit confusing with all the napedropping, but yeah, it was allright, and I'm happy I read it.
Viva hangs around London, Viva goes to Edinburgh, Viva goes to Brighton, Viva goes to LA and Vegas. She hangs out with a holy trinity of rock stars. Yet it's almost like nothing happens in this book. The characters and the mood are more important, and that's what I like about it. There were some sentences that I wanted to jot down and other parts that I thought were trying way too hard to be witty. Very real for a book that was written by a young 20-something from the POV of a 17 year old.
I enjoyed this book alright...I judged the book by the cover for sure, it just really caught my eye in the store. It was a very quick read, only took me a few days. There were a few British references that I didn't quite get but it wasn't too hard to understand the context. It would be better to read the book now when the pop cultural references aren't too dated and irrelevent. Readers of a different generation in the future may not get a lot of the references or understand why they are funny. I...more
I remember nothing but devouring this book for the voice alone. I wonder what E. Forrest thinks of it these days.
This book is in my top 10. Emma Forrest is an incredible writer.
one of my favorite books
hotel book Hawaii
I read this when it was first published, I would say around 00'-01, I had given it to a ex who loved it. I gave it to her thinking I could get another copy easy, but found that it was hard to come by, soon after I forgot about it.
Emma Forrest is great, born and raised in London, published by 18 I believe, and was at the time living in NYC, and apparently now lives in L.A.
Emma Forrest is great, born and raised in London, published by 18 I believe, and was at the time living in NYC, and apparently now lives in L.A.
0 stars
"I feel like a broken record, scratched on my favourite song."
Hat leider nicht gehalten, was der Klappentext versprach...
Die 16jährige Viva ist die Hauptperson dieses Buches, mit wenig Bock auf die Schule und dafür großer Leidenschaft für Popculture im allgemeinen und Musiker im spezielln.
Die 16jährige Viva ist die Hauptperson dieses Buches, mit wenig Bock auf die Schule und dafür großer Leidenschaft für Popculture im allgemeinen und Musiker im spezielln.
Hmm… this one wasn’t quite as wonderful as bits of it made it seem. That doesn’t make sense, really. But the main character, the sub-characters, the general feel and some of it - was genius… but all together, it just didn’t work for me.
very sad. i borrowed this book from my friend jessica while i about to go to the hospital. im afaid it was the worst possible time to read a book about depression but i sure felt like i could relate.
stopped reading it. got too boring
Jul 25, 2007
Mare S
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
loved-and-reread,
chicklit
I love the writing, the way the narrator thinks is wonderful. It's one of those books that I read and wished I had written.
humorous, loveable characters with exciting adventures in the UK make for a quick enjoyable read.
Disappointing. If this can be published, then I should be able to easily get a novel published.
Good and quick read, though I would have appreciated a bit more character development.
Fun, clever, light read.
Deeply "meh."
May 22, 2013
Marcella
marked it as to-read
May 21, 2013
Tullia
marked it as to-read
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Emma Forrest was born in London and now lives in Los Angeles, CA.
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“I think that's such a beautiful sentiment. Love should only last as long as a very expensive and impractical bikini that looks stunning, but dissolves in the sea within days. So many pop songs tell of this terrible, tiresome love that they want to last forever. But that just makes me think of long-life milk, acrid and fake. Love should be like a movie trailer. Even if the film's a stinker, you get the best laughs and the biggest explosions in the space of two minutes.”
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10 people liked it
“This boy has negative charisma. He walks into a room and the oxygen starts to evaporate. I guess that's why girls sleep with him. They find his awfulness transfixing. He's like a lousy 1970's disaster movie that they can't bring themselves to turn off, even though it is making their life worse every minute they leave it on. ”
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7 people liked it
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