Hmmm. I struggled to get into this. The main character is quite whiny and self-pitying which is not what I want to read and I felt like it was a thinly veiled autobiography of the author. There were some good moments between Charlie and Kathi, and the changes to Charlie's life outside of his job were better. I think the author would have done better to step further outside his personal experiences, despite the disclaimer that this is fictional.

I loved the idea of the story and the lens into being a personal assistant but the story was not very enjoyable overall.

This book was everything I wanted it to be! So well written with great character development! I can’t wait to read more of Lane’s works!

A Star is Bored is billed as fiction, but there sure are a lot of incidences that actually happened to Carrie Fisher, who the author worked for.

The first three chapters are a struggle. I really had to force myself to read them, but after that the story finally started to move forward.

It's not great as a novel, but. as a thinly veiled tell all it is a fun look inside of a celebrities life.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC for an honest review.

I honestly wasn't sure how much I'd like A Star is Bored when I started reading it. It had been on my radar, but it wasn't necessarily something I'd be trying to get my hands on. But I was sent a free copy and it was getting lots of hype, so I went ahead and read it. It's not what I was expecting, but it was absolutely an entertaining read.

Charlie works night-shift at a news channel in a job he hates. So when he gets an interview with Kathi Kannon, like the Kathi Kannon, his hero since childhood. When he's offered the position as Kathi's assistant (and consequently nicknamed Cockring), he quickly quits his night-job and gets sucked up into the crazy Hollywood life and Kathi Kannon's insane antics.

When I first started reading the book, I was immediately reminded of the play Buyer and Cellar, a witty play about a fanboy working in Barbra Streisand's basement mall. And honestly, I thought the book was about to be basically the same story.

But seriously, the book starts out with about a million disclaimers that no matter how similar situations may be to real life, and no matter how similar the characters may be, the book is absolutely and entirely a work of fiction. Because here's the thing - Byron Lane worked for several years at the assistant to Carrie Fisher for several years. And you can see the true similarities between Fisher and A Star is Bored's Kathi Kannon. There are even specific stories Lane has shared about Fisher that are nearly word-for-word the same as scenes in the book. And while I know those disclaimers are there for a reason, my assumption is that Lane doesn't want to get sued.

Yet once I knew that Lane worked for Fisher and I started to see the connections in the pages of the book, it made me feel like I was getting to know Carrie Fisher herself, which made me enjoy the book even more.

Though this isn't a memoir, it read like one. I was extremely annoyed as I first dove into the pages of the book - Charlie is quite whiney and I hated him. But throughout the story, it was nice to get to know him and watch his development, and I ended up really enjoying the book. Seriously, it was true entertainment.

The book was quite problematic in some ways - there's lots of insensitive comments made throughout the book that are harmful; some notes of racism and fat jokes. Mental illness is often occurrent in the story, a bit in a way that is made into a spectacle, but I actually thought some of the mental illness and addiction pieces were handled in a way in which, if not smart, instilled a since of awareness.

Kathi Kannon is infuriating and ridiculous and completely hard-to-handle, but also so charming and lovable. It's like having a best friend or family member that you have to cut off at times, but you still want what's best for them.

"My mother's death is not a hollow ghost but a solid and constant punch in my gut." - A Star Is Bored, Byron Lane

A Star is Bored is 100% not the book I was expecting, but I'm so glad to have read it. The writing itself was brilliant. The story itself gets an A+ for entertainment. It was one helluva roller coaster (or should I say dogsled?) of a ride. I read the physical book and listened concurrently, and I highly recommend the audiobook. It's definitely very fun. If you're into celebrity drama and reality tv shows, you will absolutely love this book. I am not big on either, but I still enjoyed it.

Bryon Lane had a job as an assistant to actress Carrie Fisher, and in the write-what-you-know line, his novel A Star Is Bored tells the tale of Charlie, a young man who longs to leave his job on the overnight shift at a local television news station. He gets the opportunity to become the personal assistant to Kathi Kannon, daughter of a Golden Age of Hollywood star, and a star in her own right, having created the role of Priestess Talara in the worldwide phenonomon series of science fiction/action movies.



Kathi has a drug problem and suffers from bipolar disorder. She has wild mood swings, spending days in her bed alternating with expensive shopping sprees and trips to Vegas. She gives Charlie a highly inappropriate nickname (she needs her own Human Resources Department), and he is charge of waking her each day with her medications and Diet Coke.

Charlie organizes Kathi's life (the label maker gets quite a workout), and spends a lot of time keeping her out of trouble and on track writing the book she has already spent the advance money on. As difficult as she is, she is also raucously funny, and there is never a dull moment with Kathi. They form a friendship, but as anyone who has dealt with a drug addict knows, that bond gets tested. Charlie discovers that his life is not his own, but belongs to Kathi, day and night.

A Star is Bored is hilarious, and also moving. Kathi and Charlie have a sweet relationship until they don't. Kathi's mom (the Debbie Reynolds doppleganger) fiercely loves her daughter, but all her efforts to help and protect her don't work.

If you have read Carrie Fisher's memoir Wishful Drinking or saw the HBO version of the stage show based on that, you will get an extra level of enjoyment from this endearing novel. I recommend it.

Thank you for ARC. What a fun and bitter sweet read because you know it’s kind of true and you know the real life outcome. Very heartwarming and I especially liked the sub plot of his relationship with his father. If you liked Limelight or are a Princess Leia fan, you’ll enjoy this.

This was a fun and refreshing read. :)

Author Byron Lane spent 3 years working as actress Carrie Fisher's personal assistant and though he insists in the forward and acknowledgements that all characters in this book are fictional, it is clear that his time with Carrie influenced this story.

Charlie Besson is from New Orleans and now lives in California working as a news writer. He doesn't love his job so when a friend tells him that his favorite actress Kathi Kannon is looking for a new assistant he jumps at the chance. Kathi is mostly famous for her iconic role as a priestess in a blockbuster space movie. She's also an author, the daughter of a famous actress....and has a history of trouble with substance abuse. (sound familiar?). Charlie is super nervous at his interview and Kathi is brash and sarcastic. She dubs him "Cockring" because it also starts with C and she says she can't remember his name. Charlie ends up getting the job and so begins his misadventures.

You can't help but picture Kathi as Carrie Fisher and I don't think that is a bad thing. The author is clearly fond of Carrie Fisher and it shows. I really enjoyed the story and recommend it to anyone looking for a fictional, humorous roller coaster ride with a troubled Hollywood star. There were quite a few laugh out loud moments along with some more serious bits. We also see Charlie come into his own and learn to love himself.

I adored the sarcastic nature behind A Star is Bored, leading me to laugh out loud throughout many moments of this novel. The premise was funny and because of my reality tv/celebrity obsession, it was easy to get lost in. It took on the style of a memoir more than a fiction novel, but that didn't take away from my overall pleasure. (3.5 stars)

Great read! The author draws you in with detail that makes you want to read on. I love when books making you feel like you are part of the story.

The life of an employee to the stars is such an emotional book to savor and enjoy. I don't know how much is true about Carrie Fisher, but I'm sure it is more on the truthful side. So totally enjoyable and sad at the same time for both Carrie and the author. Very thought provoking and sorrowful and joyous all at the same time

Simply sublime. A tender, delightful, hilarious escape. Lane’s debut is entirely promising and a departure from other memoir-esque titles in the category. Cringe because of the exploits, not their retelling, finally, for once.

3.5 stars

Byron Lane is an author, playwright, screenwriter, actor and former personal assistant to Carrie Fisher.

This novel, about a news writer who gets a job as a personal assistant to actress Kathi Kannon, was clearly inspired by Lane's time with Fisher, though he takes pains to point out that the book is fictional. In fact, the beginning of the book has this additional demurrer:

"But seriously, I repeat: This is a work of fiction. That you might speculate as to the identity of certain key characters dos not alter the fact that all of the characters in the book, including incidental ones, their names, the dialogue, the locales, and all the events recounted, are fictional products of the author's imagination.".....etc.
- My publisher's attorney

I'll add an addendum of my own: Photos I include of Carrie Fisher are not meant to imply she's Kathi Kannon.

*****

Twenty-nine year old Charlie is deeply in debt, has a tiny drab apartment, hates his job writing for a small Los Angeles news station, and is acutely depressed and mildly suicidal. Thus, when Charlie gets a tip that Kathi Kannon - Hollywood star and best selling author - is looking for a personal assistant, he quickly applies for the position. Charlie has loved Kathi since childhood, when he saw her play Priestess Talara in the film Nova Quest, for which he collected the action figures. It would be a dream come true if Charlie could work for his idol.

Charlie goes to Kathi's eclectic - and rather zany - house, where he has a nerve-wracking interview with the potty-mouthed actress, who likes to tease, joke, and poke fun. Charlie then has to wait for two harrowing weeks, with his phone glued to his hand, before he hears that he has the job. The position is far from a piece of cake, however. Kathi's former assistant neglected to leave an 'assistant's bible' detailing Kathi's schedule, habits, likes, dislikes, preferences, peculiarities, etc. and Charlie - who Kathi affectionately dubs 'Cockring' (ugh!!) - has to start from scratch.

After being schooled to wake Kathi up every day with Coke Zero over ice and her meds, Charlie learns to monitor every place Kathi goes for forgotten phones, sunglasses, earrings, bracelets, scarves, etc.; to clean her home of candy wrappers, soda cans, half-eaten brownies, 7-Eleven receipts, dirty silverware, and other detritus; to put away the books, jewelry, makeup, nail polish, and clothes Kathi scatters all over the place; to be ready at a moment's notice - day or night - to run to the store for something Kathi wants; to keep Kathi's apparel and papers organized; to sync Kathi's phone contacts with his, so he can keep track of her meetings and appointments; and so on. Most important of all, Charlie has a mission to keep Kathi - who suffers from bipolar disorder, alcoholism, and drug addiction - on the straight and narrow.

Kathi's mother, a mega-famous actress everyone calls Miss Gracie, lives in a house next to Kathi's with her long-time personal assistant Roger. In addition, an octogenarian maid and an elderly gardener - both of whom barely even pretend to work - also live on the estate.

Miss Gracie regularly gives Charlie thousands of dollars of 'vegetable money' - which he keeps in a purple backpack - so he can (try to) regulate Kathi's carefree spending. However, Kathi often just grabs the money and sashays out to a place she calls Vegas. Kathi returns from her outings with shopping bags full of merchandise, including gifts for Charlie, the maid, and the gardener. Kathi is very loose with her credit cards as well, and on one occasion buys a pricey fur coat and immediately cuts it up to make a (useless) jacket for her dog. There are strong suggestions that Miss Gracie had to dramatically downsize to support Kathi's flamboyant lifestyle, since both mother and daughter are no longer making films.

On the upside, Kathi is smart, good-natured, clever and fun - and Charlie gets to accompany her on jaunts around Los Angeles as well as trips across the U.S. and to other countries. Charlie describes a stay in a luxury hotel in New York, a trip to Australia and Japan, a gay cruise (where Kathi is the entertainment), and a quickie hop to Yellowknife, Canada, where he and Kathi ride on a dogsled and see the Northern Lights.

Charlie stores up amusing anecdotes about his adventures with Kathi, and uses them as social capital when he meets a man he'd like to date, in person or on OkCupid. Charlie has little time for boyfriends though, and does most of his socializing with other personal assistants. The assistants meet for the occasional drink, and have an email network for sharing information. Charlie can ask for advice about shopping; doctors; food - whatever Kathi needs. This comes in handy when Kathi (inevitably) falls off the wagon and needs help.

The book is advertised as laugh out loud funny, and I did get a few chuckles. For example, at the upscale Hoshinoya restaurant in Japan Kathi and Charlie are served a special dinner that's a "royal and gruesome affair."

Charlie describes the dishes as follows: lobsters "that are still alive, their guts exposed, waving their antennae, begging for mercy"; drunk live baby shrimp bathed in alcohol; live octopi "flipping us off with each of their tentacles"; and "the most exquisite delicacies in all of Japan, raw squirming critters and beasts and something tarantula-like." Kathi and Charlie's efforts to hide the food in Kathi's purse are hilarious! And what happens when the waitress asks what they did with the shells?

There are other amusing anecdotes in the story as well, but the book is largely a realistic peek at the lives of the (troubled) rich and famous. Charlie also has problems of his own. He grew up in rural Louisiana, saw his mother die when he was 12, and endured a bullying father who hated his 'effeminate traits.' Being with Kathi is healing for Charlie, and he notes that he felt only submission in his childhood, and only depression in his twenties, but now has "a reference for how it feels to be alive, to feel like I have a life worth living."

By the time Charlie leaves Kathi, to have a full life of his own, Charlie and Kathi have fallen into a kind of platonic love, both of them treasuring the time they had together, and being better people for it.

I like the book and admire Miss Gracie, who adores her difficult daughter and would literally do anything for her. My feelings about Kathi are more problematical. Kathi is a talented actress and writer, and a kind person, but she's also entitled and self-centered. Kathi opens pungent nail polish remover in the first class cabin of a commercial airplane; smears nail polish all over a cruise ship pillow; purposely spills melted ice on the floor of a limousine; is uppity with a saleswoman; dumps the contents of her purse out everywhere; and generally ignores the inconvenience she causes everyone around her.

As for Charlie, he's a nice fellow and (if he was a real person) I'd wish him happiness and love with his boyfriend 'Reid.'

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Byron Lane) and the publisher (Henry Holt & Co.) for a copy of the book.

Hilarious book about a celebrity’s personal assistance from a former personal assistant to Carrie Fisher! I have always wondered what the job might entail. I figured a lot of mundane, but some crazy. There is A LOT of crazy! This book is quite a trip!

In A Star is Bored, Charlie is adrift in a job he hates and estranged from his dad. Everything changes when he becomes Kathi Kannon's assistant. Kannon is the actress who played his childhood hero Priestess Talara, and while still rich and famous her career has slowed and she battles both addiction and mental illness. Byron Lane was Carrie Fisher's assistant, and knowing that you can't help but imagine Carrie doing everything Kathi does; this reads as very lightly fictionalized. But this book does a great job showing the perilous tightrope an assistant walks - Charlie feels himself reflected in Kathi's glory, and gets to go to amazing places and do cool things, but at the same time he has to manage the life of an unmanageable person. His own life is shunted aside as Kathi always takes precedence. Kathi is magical and funny but she's also incredibly stressful - Charlie is always worried she's going to die on him. While this book starts off reading like a series of anecdotes, it became more interesting as it went on, as Charlie wrestled with how to care for the self destructive Kathi, as well as how to care for himself. I enjoyed this one, but I definitely never ever want to be an assistant in Hollywood.

It took me a while to read the book but that is 2020’s fault not Lane’s. I have gone through spurts of not wanting to read anything to wanting to read all the time. This was a very interesting book and I know people will love it. I can’t wait to read other books by him.

I really wanted to like this book. The idea was great, lots of potential for humorous moments and outrageous behavior. I think if it could have been more about the adventures and mishaps of being a personal assistant to a Hollywood great, I would have enjoyed it more. I found all the whining of Charlie, who was extremely judgemental but seemed to have lost his self-esteem because of people judging him, annoying. I finished it because I was curious to see how long Kathie would keep him on and what fun/outrageous things she would have them do next.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC, this is my honest review.

A STAR IS BORED is a great combo of satire, roman a clef, and bildungsroman, written with an exuberant and inventive style.

I was expecting another pedestrian, fast, escapist read about working for the rich and famous in Hollywood, but this is a novel well above its gender, with deep and poignant observations about people and life, and with racy, electric dialog. As a former TV writer myself, I connected with the author at a fundamental level, and I hugely enjoyed his riveting passages of tell (versus show).

BYRON LANE is a talented new writer, with a very distinctive voice, witty as hell. His writing is both funny and deeply moving, poignant, and imaginative. The writing pops on the page in the most surprising ways.

I'd say the first part is more powerful and brilliant, and the second part is less so and more commercially written. Even so, this is my favorite novel of the year, and I recommended this book to all my friends, which I rarely do.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing the review copy.

A Star is Bored by Byron Lane reads more like a memoir than a novel, and that is based in part on the fact that this book is loosely based on his service as a personal assistant to Carrie Fisher. It could be described as a novel of self discovery or a "behind the curtain" reveal to celebrities and their relationships to their assistants....especially if the celebrity has an addiction and the assistant is responsible for their sobriety! It's like a train wreck and you can't stop reading, but since we know so much about Carrie Fisher, it could contain more truth than fiction! I enjoyed this book and would read more works by the author! Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 10%. I was intrigued by the premise of this - a fictional account of an assistant to a movie star who sounds a lot like Carrie Fisher written by an author who used to be Carrie Fisher’s assistant. From reviews I saw and the description I pictured a funny and sometimes touching read with laugh out loud scenes.

Maybe I didn’t read far enough to get there but I’m going to start here. So far - I just feel sad for Charlie. He talks a lot about his history with his dad which isn’t great. And there have been multiple instances of him thinking about (joking about?) suicide which isn’t funny to me. Maybe I’m not in the right mood or not the right audience but this is a pass for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading and listening copies.