Superstars? More supernova! Because this book was definitely explosive. It caught my attention from the very start.

‘Superstars’ reads like the hardcore nepo baby of ‘The L Word’ and ‘brat’, except it was originally published in French in 2000 and thus predates those pieces of media entirely. We don’t really follow a plot as much as experience the life of Louise, a DJ in her early 30s, as she drifts in a drug-fueled haze through the queer Parisian techno scene.

Louise is deeply unlikeable and at best completely delusional. At one point, she monologues about how she’s so mature and knows how act in relationships, but at the same time is in a secret situationship with her ex’s new girlfriend (who is 17, btw) and then cheats on said situationship with her current roommate and best friend (did I mention this is a book about lesbians? Lol).

The authentic 90s setting is really prominent and enjoyable. Louise is annoyed by Britney Spears and everyone’s baggy clothes (she’s clearly not like other girls) and she constantly watches MTV. The ravers also have a “standard survival kit” that consists of a TV, VCR, and stereo.

Louise struggles with a heroin addiction, which gets increasingly worse as she crashes-out more and more throughout the novel. In general, the hard drug-use that’s portrayed is pretty graphic and consistent, so be aware of triggers related to that before reading.

The writing and translation are both excellent; some moments in the novel are truly beautiful and made me pause. Overall, I enjoyed ‘Superstars’ and I’m excited that it’s finally being released in English!

This is apparently a queer French classic novel, so I'm glad that we're getting this in translation. We zoom in on a young woman who dabbles in electronic music, hard drugs, lesbians, and drama. Fantastic read over the winter here.

Superstars is an incredibly gritty telling of lesbian DJ rave culture in 1990s France. With unrelenting descriptions of drug use, messy relationships, betrayal, and some persistently terrible decision-making, we follow Louise as she struggles to navigate her life choices. Louise is a well-written and complex character - as our infuriating, unreliable narrator, you cannot help but root for her to come to terms with her identity.

I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the music itself. The writing style impressively allows the reader to feel the sweaty, claustrophobic, drug-induced euphoria of a rave event. With raw descriptions, the reader is able to feel the bass pulsing, the needle entering their arm, the desperate yearning that drives Louise into chaos.

After reading this novel, I understand why Superstars is considered a French cult classic. It's tumultuous; it's queer; it's an addicting page-turner.

In this book, we follow Louise, a restless and complex young woman caught between ambition, desire, and self-destruction, as she navigates love, friendship, and creative freedom in Paris’s 1990s queer music scene. Superstars’s strength lies in its raw authenticity : the nightlife, the music, and the emotional intensity feel lived-in and urgent. Louise isn’t always easy to like, but her flaws make her compelling and real. I'd say this is a striking read for fans of character-driven fiction focused on identity genres.

gorgeously tender and effective book with some good plotting and impressive vibes. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Superstars is a sharp, stylish novel that dives into the world of fame, creativity, and self‑destruction. Ann Scott writes with a cool, observant tone, capturing the rush and the emptiness that come with chasing success in the music and art scenes.

The story follows characters who are talented, flawed, and often caught between ambition and vulnerability. Scott does a strong job showing how intoxicating—and isolating—the pursuit of stardom can be. The pacing is smooth, and the narrative blends emotional depth with a gritty, realistic look at the pressures of artistic life.

What stands out most is Scott’s ability to balance glamour with honesty. The book doesn’t romanticize fame; instead, it explores the cost of constantly performing, reinventing, and trying to stay relevant. The relationships feel real, messy, and human, grounding the story even when the characters are living in high‑intensity worlds.

Superstars is an engaging, thoughtful read that offers both style and substance. It’s a great pick for readers who enjoy character‑driven stories set against the backdrop of music, art, and the complicated pursuit of success.

t’s a gritty, swaggering, beautifully chaotic portrait of 90s queer Paris, as it immerses you in a scene: the drugs, the music, the heartbreak, the ego, the yearning.

Louise, after recently turning 30, lands a dream of a record contract as a techno artist in the late 90s. This accomplishment is accompanied by a shift in her queer friend group as Louise has recently broken up with her girlfriend who immediately began to date… I sigh as I say this… A 17-year-old. Louise has a bit of an identity crisis, but through her we get a glimpse into this friend group and all the fun shit they got up to in the Paris techno scene.

“Superstars” by Ann Scott read like 00s trashy reality TV show (it kept bringing me back to Skins and Jersey Shore), and I’m not going to lie, I loved it for that reason. It was nice to lose myself in distinct scene. The dizziness of the drugs, the thumping of the club, the absolute chaos of the queer friend group who all seem to hook-up with each other seemingly at random (which could also be called into question as it is a harmful stereotype). But, as someone who is usually down for a drama debrief… I found it entertaining.

One of my major qualms with the book was its tendency to over-explain or indulge in far too many details. I’m not sure if this was due to the translation from French to English, or if that is all what was already packed in there. But, I don’t need to know every single item in every single living room we enter. Just list what is important, give me the vibe of the space and we will be all set.

My other hiccup was the portrayal of the 17-year-old who finds her way into this group, there is a lot of explicit details given regarding her character and various people falling in love with her. While reading all I wanted to do was take her out of the novel and say “run away from all of that please.” I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt, wondering if it was a commentary on the sexualization of young queer women, and maybe it was, but overall it just felt a little off to me. I was questioning if it was making a statement or leaning into the fetish of it all. For my sake, I’m hoping it was a statement. She more so seemed to be a vessel for people to project their idea of “youth” into, wanting to be with her while also wanting to be her. I don’t know, the 90s/00s were a gross time, I wish the messaging was more clear, but maybe that was the point because I haven’t stopped thinking about it.

Thank you so much to the publishers and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review, I will be posting a review to my Instagram @bookononist soon.

A little bit of the L Word meets Glamorama, I thoroughly enjoyed Superstars by Ann Scott and felt wrapped in the drug-fueled electronic scene of Paris in the 90’s.

Bonkers 90s lesbian chaos! Reminded me of Valencia by Michelle Tea but French and even sleazier. The ick factor of the age gap between Louise and Ines was major, but it was the complete opposite of romanticised. Some really fascinating observations about gender and sexuality dynamics in nightlife which hold true between then and now and I really enjoyed the way Scott painted a distinct and transporting picture of European rave culture. Messy, raw, problematic excellence.

"Superstars" is about an artist named Louise, who struggles between genres, women, and drugs.
The story starts at 100—which instantly had me hooked. Louise is at rock bottom and it does not seem possible that she can get any lower, but she sure tries. I loved being able to get an inside look at the French rave scene and the pervasive drug use that exists within it. The writing was so descriptive that it was stress-inducing when Louise was high and I had to read it through her point of view. It really is a great read for someone who wants to be uncomfortable because of the graphic drug use, sex, and problematic age gap relationships. I do not think I even liked any of the characters but I really enjoyed reading about them.
This was originally written in French and has been translated into English by Jonathan Woollen. He deserves a lot of praise because this is translated very well. I really appreciate having the opportunity to read it.
Also, Louise would have loved when McDonald's started serving breakfast all day.

Superstars by Ann Scott is not just a novel about the 90s in Paris, it is an experience through the lense of Louise who doesn't always seem grounded or truthful.

Louise is a thirty one year old woman who has been hanging out most of her life while also wanting a "real" music career. She is mostly submerged in the techno scene, clubs, raves, sex and lots of drugs. Louise is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Louise finally catches a break when she lands a lucrative record deal. She now has the means to create the music she always dreamed of. But it seems like she can't center herself and leave the world that has all the things she wants but holds her back creatively.

I loved this novel! It was unique and different but very compelling and heartfelt. I felt like a voyeur watching all the characters navigate their drug infused lives. There are beautiful moments in this novel too. Reading about the Paris scene in the 90s seemed like fabulous good time.
Thank you Netgalley and Astra Publishing House for this eARC. All opinions are entirely my own.

This book is grimy and filthy and full of what being twenty feels like. It felt like early 00s urban queer mess. Drugs and music and aspirations and friend groups that are toxic and family all at once.

Superstars follows the queer rave scene in the 90s through the eyes of Louise. She is in her early 30s and just secured a record contract and wants to make herself known in the electronic music scene.

But not all is simple in Louise’s world. She finds herself pulled in multiple directions with the people in her life. There’s Nikki, the rock and roll friend she turns to when things go south (he’s seen as the voice of reason at times). There’s also Alex her ex girlfriend, Ines (Alex’s seventeen year old girlfriend). We also have Pallas, Louise’s toxic roommate who always spots Louise on rent.

The romance is there too, as we see Louise slowly gravitating towards Ines (and her issues), which is a red flag when you start dating amongst the friend group.

Ann Scott captures the club scene with great detail, including the drug use. During the first few chapters I truly felt like I was there in Paris tripping on LSD. There’s also parts later on where Louise is using heroin, so trigger warning.

Jonathan Woollen did a fantastic job with the translation. The dialogue flowed and they captured the feel of being at a club.

One thing I also really liked about the book is how you get a music history lesson interspersed through all the drama.

Overall, Superstars is about going against the flow and becoming your own unique person, rather than just staying stagnant.

Thank you Netgalley and Astra House for the review copy.

In 2000, Ann Scott released Superstars, a novel about young women in the Paris rave scene, and it became a cult sensation. Twenty-six years later, we get an English translation, and the story feels like a time capsule, a reminder of how the late nineties so far removed that we can look back with nostalgia and horror. The story’s central character is Louise, a DJ and artist trying to figure out how to navigate her way through the dance scene. She is older than the rest of the women she parties and has sex with, in her early thirties compared to everyone else being in their early to mid-20s (except her biggest love interest Ines, who is seventeen). Louise is drifting from party to party, from drug to drug, and from woman to man to woman. Louise is not the most likeable character and her biggest flaw is that she does not see this in the actions and reactions of all of her friends. 

Louise is a pathetic character. Even though she has a record contract and an advance coming from Virgin Records for her debut album, the only reason most of her friends stick around is for her payday, the day her advance gets deposited into her account and she can pay back the money that she borrowed from all of them. Her friendship with the women and her place in the group barely makes it to this point because Louise has not only worked her way through most all of the friends sexually, she has some nights where she can no longer function due to her drugs and bad behavior. Louise is aware that her behavior is making some of her friend group distance themselves from her but she does not find their coldness as something she did. When her advance is deposited, even the money that they are owed is not enough to repair the damages that have been done. 

An unspoken thing about Louise with this group is her age. Since she is older than the rest of the girls, getting into the scene after a long relationship with Nikki, a guy who idolizes the Rolling Stones, and only embraces the rave scene due to her girlfriend Alex. I can see that her friends only accept her to a degree. She is someone to hang out with, but they do not trust her, probably see her as a bit of a poser, and none of them are close to her outside of the bedroom. I feel like there are some conversations about her behind her back, calling her creepy and pathetic. An older person in a young person’s scene is never fully embraced except for the things that she can do for them. Once she is too much of a hassle or is too annoying for them to be around anymore, they cut her off. She does not exactly understand. This might be that she has been in such a drug haze that she cannot recognize the way she is perceived and treated in her friend group. This becomes her downfall.

Superstar does feel like a time capsule, a walk down memory lane. I remember how popular some of the music she mentions was at that time. I did not go to raves or do heroin, but I would have been the same age as most of Louise’s friends at the time this takes place. When the discussion about the popularity of Marilyn Manson, particularly the album Mechanical Animals and the song “Dope Show”, I remember how much we listened to the CD in the car. There are also times when Nine Inch Nails and Aphex Twin are put on repeat in the background, and there were so many times when a CD would get played over and over while we did other things (not so much drugs as video games and reading books). I love the feeling and the vibes this novel brings, like a musical and cinematic moment in time is dusted off. Superstars also feels like many of the other drug books and movies that were very popular at the time, those stories where the drug use and the partying steal all of the time and creativity from many good artists that never finished their novel or their album. There could have been many more books telling stories equal to Superstars, but they were not written because the scene swallowed them up. Fortunately we get this novel and this perspective. It is a masterful document that very deftly illustrates how being young in the late 90s and early 2000s felt. I found this compelling and a little nostalgic to a time of renting videos for the VHS and smoking cigarettes absolutely everywhere. I am shocked that not only is this the first translation of Superstars, but it is the first of any of Ann Scott's books that has been translated into English. I hope we get to read more of her work in English.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Queue the L word intro.

It should be noted that this beats the L word to the punch by four years, but how much could lesbian culture really shift in that amount of time? Stumbling through the Paris rave scene over an unknown span of time, surrounded by sloganed-t-shirts worn by a crew of lesbian and queer women, we have the pleasure of following Louise on her coke and heroin fueled descent into pure delusion.

I found it so interesting to be trapped in the head of a woman whose destruction and apathy you can feel weighing on those around her, even though she doesn’t seem to perceive her actions could possibly have consequences. Sleazy, loud, and unafraid of itself, the first English translation of Ann Scott feels deeply reminiscent of authentic queerness. I love terrible women and I love queer culture and this absolutely rocked. Keep in mind that if you’re looking for deep morality in your lit fic, Ann Scott is NOT seeking sympathy or redemption for her girls.

*Superstars* by Ann Scott is an engaging and vibrant novel that captures the allure and complexity of life in the spotlight. Scott brings a sharp, observant voice to the story, balancing glitz and glamour with moments of genuine emotional depth.

The characters are dynamic and memorable, each navigating ambition, identity, and relationships in a world that’s as demanding as it is dazzling. Their journeys feel authentic, and the interpersonal dynamics add richness and intrigue to the narrative. Scott does an excellent job of showing both the highs and the hidden challenges behind success.

The pacing keeps the story moving at an enjoyable clip, with enough drama and tension to keep you invested without overwhelming the emotional core. What stands out most is the book’s ability to feel both entertaining and insightful.

*Superstars* is a compelling, character-driven read that offers a thoughtful look at fame, connection, and what it really means to shine.

Initially, I started this book and put it down. When I went back and restarted, however, I found that I couldn't stop reading. Superstars is a chaotic, messy cult classic that explores ideas of identity and maturation. Disturbing and fascinating in equal measure, Scott's exploration of queer culture set in the underground punk scene of the 90s is authentic, gritty and compelling. In Scott's hands, infatuation and disappointment go hand-in-hand, creating a story that is at once foreign, yet absolutely relatable.

The vibes in this book are IMMACULATE. It follows a sapphic friend group of DJs and party girls in Y2K-era France as they lust after and feud with one another. In her early thirties, the main character, Louise, is the oldest of the group, and she’s just signed a life-changing record deal. The problem is that she’s becoming disenchanted with the techno beats they signed her for and longs for rock music. Her life becomes more complicated when she falls for the worst possible person, someone with the potential to alienate her from her closest friends.

I’m starting to get really into translated French literature and this is one of my favourites I’ve read. It’s like Rent meets Cat Marnell’s How to Murder Your Life but set in the nightclubs of Paris. I’m a big fan!

Thank you to the publisher for giving me access to an eARC of this book!