3.5 stars rounded up to 4
"Honey" is a book where you CAN judge it by its cover. Simple and eye-catching with some very obvious themes and topics: female sexuality and the consumerist nature of it within the pop culture sphere being very obvious ones.
The story is not quite the typical one. Sure, we have our main character, Amber, who is desperate for fame, and more importantly, the feeling of being universally liked. We have those who would exploit her, and those that would support her in this goal. But unlike most stories about characters who find fame and fortune, Amber does not lose touch with her roots, but rather remains painfully aware of them. How she reconciles who she was, who she wants to be, and who she is becoming, is the main focus of the story.
Let's start with the good: Banta's characters are compelling and carefully crafted. Aside from one blatantly evil character, everyone has shades of grey or of not being what is packaged on the outside. My favorite part of this book where this is most apparent is in one of the fictional quizzes of "Which Pop Star Would Be Your Best Friend?" much in the style of Buzzfeed quizzes aimed at teens. Per usual, you have three choices, each of which skews you heavily towards a particular option, but there is a twist: not one of the three characters/options even remotely match their given description.
I also appreciated the more subtle theming going on. Our three female pop stars are advertised in three different ways, echoing the tendency of society to divide women into three categories: virgin prude, unknown tease, or sexual (insert rude word of choice for prostitute). But again, each of these characters are so much more than their given label.
As for the not-so-good, I had two main gripes with this book. One would be the sex scenes, which in the beginning were necessary for the themes and topics, and were tastefully done. Towards the middle however, they started to get more and more explicit, to the point where I had a harder time differentiating whether the point was to emphasize the hypersexual nature of the times or for legitimate shock value. Not the worst thing ever, but I wasn't a huge fan.
The other gripe I had was the ending. I felt that Banta could have left some things (such as Amber's relationship status) a bit more ambiguous, whereas other major plot lines, such as her eating disorder, were left unresolved. I would have liked to see a much more rounded and nuanced ending similar to the story Banta presented otherwise.
"Honey" is a book where you CAN judge it by its cover. Simple and eye-catching with some very obvious themes and topics: female sexuality and the consumerist nature of it within the pop culture sphere being very obvious ones.
The story is not quite the typical one. Sure, we have our main character, Amber, who is desperate for fame, and more importantly, the feeling of being universally liked. We have those who would exploit her, and those that would support her in this goal. But unlike most stories about characters who find fame and fortune, Amber does not lose touch with her roots, but rather remains painfully aware of them. How she reconciles who she was, who she wants to be, and who she is becoming, is the main focus of the story.
Let's start with the good: Banta's characters are compelling and carefully crafted. Aside from one blatantly evil character, everyone has shades of grey or of not being what is packaged on the outside. My favorite part of this book where this is most apparent is in one of the fictional quizzes of "Which Pop Star Would Be Your Best Friend?" much in the style of Buzzfeed quizzes aimed at teens. Per usual, you have three choices, each of which skews you heavily towards a particular option, but there is a twist: not one of the three characters/options even remotely match their given description.
I also appreciated the more subtle theming going on. Our three female pop stars are advertised in three different ways, echoing the tendency of society to divide women into three categories: virgin prude, unknown tease, or sexual (insert rude word of choice for prostitute). But again, each of these characters are so much more than their given label.
As for the not-so-good, I had two main gripes with this book. One would be the sex scenes, which in the beginning were necessary for the themes and topics, and were tastefully done. Towards the middle however, they started to get more and more explicit, to the point where I had a harder time differentiating whether the point was to emphasize the hypersexual nature of the times or for legitimate shock value. Not the worst thing ever, but I wasn't a huge fan.
The other gripe I had was the ending. I felt that Banta could have left some things (such as Amber's relationship status) a bit more ambiguous, whereas other major plot lines, such as her eating disorder, were left unresolved. I would have liked to see a much more rounded and nuanced ending similar to the story Banta presented otherwise.