Famous

Strasser, T. (2011). Famous. New York: Simon & Schuster. New Yorker Jamie Gordon, 15, loves taking photographs and brings her camera everywhere she goes. That's how she happens to snap a shot of a celebrity mother behaving badly in public. Suddenly, Jamie is becoming famous. Even at her exclusive prep school where many of the parents are well-known, she briefly becomes a minor celebrity. When one of her other celebrity shots becomes a People cover, even more attention comes her way. But fame has a short shelf life, and Jamie quickly learns that no one captures the public's attention for long. She jumps at the chance for an exclusive photo shoot at the Hollywood home of Willow Twine who is trying to burnish her tarnished image after a series of misadventures, including a stint in rehab. Although Jamie is sure that the two are becoming friends, it's clear from the start that Willow is using Jamie just as much as Jamie is using her. As the story moves back and forth in time, culminating in Jamie having to make a decision about what to do with a revealing shot of Willow, it is easy to see that Jamie, too, has become caught up in the world of celebrity and has changed in unflattering ways. Her self-absorption and awe for the famous folks whose shoulders she is now rubbing are palpable, resulting in her forgetting the individuals who really should matter to her.

While the author's decision to use multiple narrators and to tell the story through shifts in time and not in chronological order heightens the story's suspense, it also caused some confusion about exactly when certain things happened. More than once, I had to flip backward in the book to determine how old Jamie was at the time. The inclusion of Jamie's school friend Avy's own desperate search for fame and rapid downward spiral revealed another dark side to fame, but coupled with a stalker intent on "protecting" Willow, made the storyline somewhat clunky and unbelievable. Jamie's own transition is made clear through her text messages and emails to her boyfriend Nasim. By the time the story comes to its inevitable conclusion, it's clear that few can be trusted on the way up--or down--the ladder to fame.

Favorite Lines: "Here's one way to tell private and public schools apart. At lunch in private school we sit in the dining room at round tables covered with tablecloths" (p. 62).

"You were so busy thinking about yourself, yourself, yourself, and your career" (p. 148).