Namedropper by Emma Forrest

Namedropper Reviews

• 
  Hayley

  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 that she thinks she has. Even though the reader is allowed to see the flaws in her self-absorption, you grow attached to the narrator as though she is truly the reader’s friend. We are able to see the irony, but can indulge in the silly fun. The character development is incredibly strong with Viva: this is a coming of age tale, so her unique observations on life change throughout the novel.
  Believable in its hyperbole, Namedropper is a dizzying read, one that won’t take longer than two hours. The voice is so clear and strong, I will remember this novel for quite a while. As a writer, I hope to be conscious of setting a clear voice and developing strong characterizations.
  
• 
  dearlittledeer

  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.
• 
  Lynne Wright

  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.
• 
  Tory

  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.
• 
  Andrea

  Disappointing. If this can be published, then I should be able to easily get a novel published.
• 
  Anners

  Deeply "meh."
• 
  Andreanne

  I think the title says it all. It's almost a warning of all the namedropping ahead.
  
  I felt like this was a novel written by a liberal arts freshman trying to condense all of their knowledge in a very loosely told story. That said, it really gave off some strong first novel vibes. There's not much of a story, but there's a lot of nothing being said and as some might feel like this book is a waste of time, I thought it was agreeable but it was getting long pretty early on.
• 
  Rachael Martin

  This story of Viva and her misadventures reminds me a lot of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. While there are a few parts in the book where Viva's character starts to annoy me, I still felt like I could relate to her. She's a young adult trying to find her identity and place in the world which never goes as smoothly as one would hope.
• 
  Alison

  I read this when it was published in 2000, and wanted to read it because Ethan Hawke gave it a review that said the author has “voice”. The characters lacked depth, though, and it just was not my cup of tea.
• 
  Lara Glantz

  my first favourite book
• 
  Anna

  I expected much more from this book. Probably because of some good reviews by people I trusted. I found it pointless like: "The story isn't really going anywhere". Meh.
• 
  Sarah

  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 when it wasn't perfect. I think if I had found it when I was in high school I would of devoured it and loved it with all my being.( It would of been my Drew. Hahaha.)
  
  There were times in the story, such the confession that Treena is so super human that she doesn't need an alarm clock, she'd just tap the time she wanted to get up into her head and it always worked that left me with a serious case of the "Are you f'ing kidding me?"
  
  Another point that really bothered me was that I left the book never really knowing if Viva was pretty. We know she wasn't as pretty as Treena, but in general was she hot?
  
  The worst offence was when I realized that Drew was suppose to be Richey Edwards. What a cop out, or is it just fangirling? We know that Forrest likes The Manic Street Preachers.-
  
  my link text
  
  I bought Thin Skin a few year ago for about 3 dollars in the discount book bin. Much like this there are aspects of it that I really love, but I have never finished it. I still don't know if I can wade though the over emotional, are you f'ing kidding me, that I feel is Forrest's work.
  
  Richard
• 
  Liz

  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 if you have an amazing night with a new acquaintance, you should not try to repeat it. If you do, it will eventually become a carbon copy of itself so faint that it can barely be read. That's how relationships end: new acquaintances become old photo-copies."
• 
  Jenifer

  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 think I had higher hopes for this book when I began reading it so it was a tiny bit of a letdown in the end.
• 
  Melissa Wright

  This book was SO hard to finish, I didn't like Emma's writing style at all with this book. The story was dry and didn't have a nice flow. I honestly had to push myself to finish it. I wanted to have something good to say about Namedropper, and at first I thought Viva was funny and witty but towards the end of the book she annoyed me. I honestly couldn't recommend this book to anyone, it defiantly fell flat.
• 
  Anthony Sauceda

  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.
• 
  Annie

  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.
• 
  Madii Wade

  This was one of my favourite books by far. It isn't for everyone, as it is hard to get along with Viva, the main character. She reminds me of myself in the ways that her imagination is and the way she talks about her depression at the end.
  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would love to read the others by emma forrest.
• 
  Karschtl

  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.
• 
  Nanna

  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.
• 
  Mare S

  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.
• 
  Kirsten Dee

  humorous, loveable characters with exciting adventures in the UK make for a quick enjoyable read.
• 
  lindsey long

  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.
• 
  Allisonv

  Fun, clever, light read.
• 
  Brittany S

  Good and quick read, though I would have appreciated a bit more character development.
• 
  Lauren

  I remember nothing but devouring this book for the voice alone. I wonder what E. Forrest thinks of it these days.
• 
  Libby

  hotel book Hawaii
• 
  Kyra Leseberg (Roots & Reads)

  This book is in my top 10. Emma Forrest is an incredible writer.