"Honey is a sexy swagger of a debut. The ambition and grit of its heroine are matched by the dexterous smarts of its writer, and it is deeply satisfying to see the mistreated pop princesses of the millennium get the respect that they—as complicated humans—deserved all along."
—Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow
“Isabel Banta has delivered an all-access pass to the early-aughts pop world of my dreams in the form of this gorgeous, powerful, and unapologetic romp of a novel. Dripping with sweat, sex, and yes, honey, the character of Amber Young will forever redefine how we think of the perils of stardom, paparazzi, and becoming who you’re meant to be despite it all. Effervescent and full of energy, the lessons in Honey are as needed today as they were in the age of Y2K pop. A rare, shining star of a debut.”
—Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot and Madwoman
"Honey parts the shimmered curtains of Y2K pop stardom and ushers us to a place beyond the schoolgirl/jezebel binary: the rich inner world of a young woman discovering her own depth and life force, authentic sexuality and artistic intelligence. Show up for Honey with your sticky notes ready, because there's much to bookmark here: not only the deftly written heat, but a hundred keen and quotable observations about creating a life of truth and wholeness."
—June Gervais, author of Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair
“Honey was everything I was hoping it would be and more. Beautifully defiant, persistently empathetic, and the writing itself is absolutely crystalline.”
―Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie and I'm the Girl
"It’s a delightfully bubblegum novel of hot summer nostalgia that also lands some serious blows to the patriarchal mores of a cultural milieu we still haven’t fully shaken off."
―LitHub
"“While memoirs from former teen stars are starting to expose behind-the-scenes exploitation and abuse, this fictionalization brings readers close through the kind of rich, immersive worldbuilding and gut-punch depth of feeling that only a masterful novelist can provide…A provocative, quietly foreboding examination of the teen idol industrial machine, arriving at the perfect cultural moment.”
―Kirkus
“This delightfully nostalgic debut full of millennial-bait Easter eggs charts early aughts teen pop-princess Amber’s rise to stardom. Pressured by the demands of music producers, the media, and fans, she shakes off the need to please and finds her truest self. Honey is delicious.”
—PEOPLE Magazine | Summer 2024 Best Beach Reads
“Honey will make you rethink what you know about some of the most famous pop icons of the ’90s and 2000s and reimagines the superstars we idolized, oversexualized and underestimated.”
—PureWow | 12 Books to Read in June
“An ode to the pop superstars of the late 1990s and early 2000s… fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid and Brandy Colbert will enjoy.”
—Library Journal
“Honey is the debut novel every millennial needs in their beach bag… For fans of Daisy Jones & the Six and A Visit from the Goon Squad, Honey is an exciting read about the dark side of fame, early aughts pop culture and the transition from girlhood to womanhood.”
—PureWow
"[Honey] is a delicious, enthralling debut, one that treats its complex subject matter with the humanity such stars are only occasionally offered in reality.”
—ELLE, Best New Books to Read in Summer 2024
“If you grew up rushing home to catch TRL on MTV, this book is your new Bible. It follows a pop star and stunningly captures the stronghold pop had on us in the late-1990s and early-2000s. It’s sultry and it sizzles from beginning to end.”
—Debutiful, 15 Books to Read in June
“Essential reading for anyone still hooked on Y2K nostalgia.”
—Our Culture, 12 Books to Read in June
“Relive the ‘90s with this trip back in time through our “Free Britney!” lens of that decade.”
—Goodreads, Editors’ Picks for June
"In addition to beautiful prose and an enticing story, Banta’s depiction of women supporting women instead of tearing each other down stole my whole heart... a poignancy you’ll feel for days afterward."
—Electric Literature, The Best Books of the Summer, According to Indie Booksellers
"Like the best song lyrics, this debut novel bursts with pungent insights into people’s motivations, emotions, and relationships—phrases that linger in the reader’s memory."
—New York Journal of Books
2024-05-04
A turn-of-the-millennium pop star recounts her disillusioning journey to the top of the charts in this self-assured debut.
In 1990 New Jersey, 10-year-old Amber Young sings Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It to My Heart” at a local talent show, not realizing an agent is in the audience—or that this performance will direct the trajectory of her life. She lands a spot in the girl group Cloud9, where she befriends Gwen Morris, who soon goes solo and convinces Amber she’s good enough to do the same. Separately, the two achieve quick success, and their friendship continues via voicemails sent from recording studios and tour buses around the world. Both Amber’s intimate first-person narration and Gwen’s messages reveal a worrisome loss of autonomy, their bodies becoming hypersexualized vehicles for others’ desires, power plays, and entertainment. When Amber starts touring with massively famous boy band ETA, she grows close to one of the guys, Wes Kingston, despite knowing the media is desperate to see him with Gwen. This won’t end well, which we know from the get-go; the book opens with a flash from 2002, when Amber is on the cover of Rolling Stone talking about her role in a scandalous Wes and Gwen breakup. Amber’s fame comes quickly and easily, so the tension isn’t in her pursuit of it but rather in anticipation of its consequences. Readers who lived through the Britney vs. Christina TRL era will likely feel an ambivalence similar to Amber’s own. The pop craze was fun, but at what cost? It’s never quite clear how Amber feels about the music of it all: She says singing allows her to “understand the purpose of gods,” but it takes up so little space on the page it’s easy to forget that’s what she’s famous for. Then again, maybe that confusion is the point. While memoirs from former teen stars are starting to expose behind-the-scenes exploitation and abuse, this fictionalization brings readers close through the kind of rich, immersive worldbuilding and gut-punch depth of feeling that only a masterful novelist can provide.
A provocative, quietly foreboding examination of the teen idol industrial machine, arriving at the perfect cultural moment.
