Customer Reviews

Star: A Novel

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I wonder who edited this book? I really wanted to like it too, but it was all over the place. In the beginning, Star is described as a natural athlete who is super smart, then she is described as not a natural at anything but a really dedicated hard worker, and finally, she is described as someone who didn't work hard enough and wasn't really good at anything. And that's just in the first five chapters! I just can't figure out why nobody else picked up on all of the inconsistencies. (That was just one example!) I know this is fiction, and I have to give Anderson credit for writing a book, but it comes off as unpolished, and I really blame whoever told her that it was ready for print. A little bit more time and it could have been a really entertaining read! Don't waste your time, it's not worth it. And Pam, if you are going to write another book, find a new ghost writer and editor!

I purchased this after seeing some favorable comments and knowing that it was a thinly veiled story of her life. And for the first few chapters it does have promise as this pretty, unworldly girl gets exposed to a life of which she never dreamed. But Pam is more than beautiful although she needs to drop most of the makeup and return to her original "girl next door" look. She has an engaging personality that comes across on screen and on guest spots such as Howard Stern. Her appeal is very "Marilyn Monroe-esque": Beauty, lust and cute charm when she opens her mouth.

But that only goes so far as everyone she meets in LA loves her, wants to help her, and also wants to sleep with her. And right when the book should be the most exciting, it becomes too repetitive. She goes from the small town girl you root for to the, well, the Pam Anderson caricature of herself that she currently is.

Did I like some parts of this book? Yes. But they are few and far between as the book goes on and I was happy to finish the book. Forget the hype. Don't read this book unless you have a specific interest in Pam Anderson. I agree with other reviewers. If you're going to write an autobiography, just right it.

Initially I was really looking forward to reading this book because I've always been intrigued by Ms. Anderson. I heard rumors that the book was supposed to be "losely autobiographical" so I expected the book to consist of an intense story and at least some sort of substance.
Instead this book is worse than a romance novel. In fact most romance novel authors could write something better than this book in their sleep. There didn't seem to be any depth to it. It just went on and on about how people tried to "stand in Star's way, but with luck things just worked out". The book depicts "Star" as this "incredibly innocent" young girl from Florida who makes it to the big city of LA and just takes it by storm because people are just so intrigued by how innocent she is.
Sorry but I just could buy the story. Even the most naive people have more sense than this character.
I really don't like the message that this book sends - what's scary is that something tells me that Anderson really saw herself as this character.
The only good thing about this book is that it's a fast and easy read that a 13 year old could easily comprehend. In fact I have a feeling that most 13 year olds would even think that aside from the weak sex scenes this is more of a "fairy tale" than anything else.
This book has totally slanted my once positive view of Anderson. If she is ANYTHING like this character, it just tells me that she's willing to "go with it" regardless of the situation just to "see what happens" rather than actually thinking something through. Being spontaneous is fine but COME ON!
The last thing I'm gonna say about this book is that what irritated me the most was the complete lack of effort put into it. Anderson - I get that you want to make some money the "legit" way, but at LEAST hire a better co-writer who will actually make your book worth while.

This book is just living proof of the (...)and sell-out of celebrity today and the major publishing companies, who should be hung for publishing trash like this and calling it works of serious fiction. Hemingway, Faulkner and Orwell amongst others have to be tossing in their grave. As God awful that Star is, it's even more fake (than Pam's breasts) to think she actually had any hand in putting a sentence into this work. I can see her now after a long hard day, firing up the computer and writing and writing, the whole five minutes she probably put into this crap. (...)

OMG I was so interested in reading this book until I got to the about the 40th page. I couldn't stand anymore HOW stupid Pamela Anderson made this Star turn out to be. This book also jumped all over the place. It was the most boring, unintelligable piece of trash I have ever read in my life. Matter of fact it's still sitting on my floor where I threw it 2 weeks ago.

I purchased this book after seeing Ms. Anderson's interview about it on NBC's Today Show. I have had a bit of a fascination with Pamela since she first hit the celeb circuit because though she is pretty, she has a certain "something" other than her looks that is hard to ignore. Sort of like a train wreck.

I was ready to put this book down and walk away after reading the first chapter. Even though Pamela had a ghost writer help her, the story read like a 12 year old's diary. Then, after the second chapter, it started to get funny. By the third chapter there were some pretty profound things coming out of the character's mouth that made me wonder if there was indeed more depth to Pamela Anderson than we have been privy to all these years.

Star Wood Leigh is a sweet, naïve girl from a small town. She happens upon fame through a series of lucky breaks and coincidences. The story takes us through her learning the ropes of Hollywood including many, many sexual escapades. Some of it is quite graphic. I found myself bored with a lot of the mundane details of her daily life which seemed to be included only as filler between the hot, racy parts. The most fun I think I had reading this book though was figuring out the "real" names of the people and places Star was encountering. Some funny ones are "Mann Magazine", the fictitious adult magazine started by "Marsten Mann" for the real magazine, Playboy and the famous rock star named "Jimi Deed".

I agree with some of the other reviewers here that mention that the book has inconsistencies. One example would be how she was talking about one of her sexual conquests and she said he really cared enough for her to make sure she had an "O" too. But then on the very next line she described his lovemaking as selfish. Too many contradictions throughout the story. Also, the story didn't really have an ending. It just seemed like everyone simply got tired of writing and just quit.

I really don't know why Pamela didn't just write an actual autobiography instead of this "fictitious" novel. Her life was all played out in the tabloids anyway; so much of what we read about this character Star didn't surprise me.

Maybe now that the drivel is out of her system, Pamela will write a real book about her struggles as a mom and her health concerns and where she is going to go from here. In the meantime, read this book for some fun and escapism.

I am giving this book 5 stars because "Star" is a fun beach book read. Very enjoyable page-turner. A great way to beat the heat this Summer....buy Star, find a cool spot and lose yourself in the story for a few hours. Lots of bang for your entertainment buck. I don't expect Star to win any awards for classic lit. But, this book is 5-star fun in the sun.

Star is a fictionalized account of Pamela Anderson's life and tells her story with various names and places thinly veiled for privacy reasons. Star is the name of her character in the book. Her rise to fame apparently began one day when she attended a baseball game. Somehow that baseball game turned into a photo shoot where Star was the make-up artist. Her supposed good friend Brandi was the model for the shoot, but for some reason didn't live up to the expectations of the photographer. However, Star's good friends Billy and Skip got some pictures of Star herself, much to Brandi's disgust and jealousy, and somehow those pictures ended up in the hands of Jayne Hersfield, the executive editor of Mann Magazine.

One thing led to another and Star was offered a cover shoot for Mann magazine. So she had to leave behind her childhood lover/boyfriend Adam and rural Florida where she'd been all her life and fly to Los Angeles for the shoot. And thus began her career. The rest, of course, is history. The story goes on to describe how she nearly instantly became an icon, went on to bed hop with many famous men, attend orgies, and much more.

So, just how bad was this book? I can't begin to cover all the things about it I didn't like. But I'll try. First of all, the author tries WAY too hard to show how sweet and innocent Star is before her foray into modeling. Why, the sweet country bumpkin didn't even know what "Check Your Baggage" meant, ("What are you checking them for?") or what a "Blimp field" was, ("You mean they grow blimps in fields??") or that LAX is an airport. Come ON. I GET IT ALREADY. This way over-done effort to have Star appear innocent goes on throughout the book and frankly makes Star appear to be a complete and total moron. It's as though someone hands you a piece of pie and tells you it is sweet. When you might appear to be disbelieving, the pie is then smeared in your face and shoved down your throat violently until you decide to agree that yes, it is sickly sweet after all. (To the point of gagging.)

What made it hard to get through the first several chapters was the vague, choppy storytelling. There were too many characters in various scenes that weren't properly introduced into the story, making it confusing to figure out who was who. Once the story did get moving, things were a little better. However, this book, sad to say, appears to have been written by a 10 year old! There are no surprises, no skilled or enticing prose, and no solid plot (other than the recounting of what really happened in her life) to make someone continue reading. However, I continued because I knew I had to finish the book in order to review it.

After reading the first 4 chapters of the book, I began to seriously wonder who this book was marketed for. First off, there is a reversible cover which shows Pamela Anderson as close to nude as a book can get, which I discovered by accident when I removed the cover (as I usually do while reading hard-cover books.) Second, there is almost immediately a girl-on-girl love scene, which isn't the kind of thing that most women look for in a book. Third, if a guy picked up this book to read to find out about Pamela Anderson's life, they'd be bored stiff because of the girly plot. So I ask, who was this book marketed for?

Overall, it is safe to say that I did not like this book, and won't be recommending it to anyone. And I seriously doubt this book would have been published had it not been written by a celebrity.

Pam, vegetarians don't eat tuna nor use sable hair brushes for sexual gratification or other purposes. This book is an easy read, it reminded me of the 70s to early 80s teen books that were over simplified to drive home a point. I guess you can't expect brain surgery from someone working at a fast food chain...

It's very rare for me to struggle through any book; I love all kinds of books. But this book was VERY hard to get through. I wanted to like it,I don't have anything against Pamela Anderson,but wow,there were SO many problems. Inconsistencies, even typing errors such as one part where they name the boyfriend instead of the woman he's seeing as being married. A few times the writing itself made no sense. One sentence I read to 3 different people and they all just shook their heads in confusion. Poor editing. As for the writing, the comparisions to her life are so obvious it's a little ridiculous. I don't understand why she didn't just write a biography, it would've been more interesting. The character of Star is so "I am so dumb it's cute" - it's like they're trying TOO hard to make her a comical ditz - thinking they're making fun of a stereotype but it's not done in a very witty way. Even the sex scenes feel contrived and uncomfortable. Towards the end they're still developing plot when there are only a few pages left, then it abruptly ends. I hope Pamela's next book is written better, maybe a better editor or better help is needed. A big let down!