Publishers Weekly
08/24/2020
Celebrity blogger Hilton (Red Carpet Suicide: A Survival Guide on Keeping Up with the Hiltons) recounts his exploits—and surprisingly self-aware regrets—in this delicious memoir. Growing up gay in 1980s and ’90s Miami, Cuban-American Hilton (“back then,” he reveals “my name was Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr.”) was taunted for his weight and sent to a therapist to “make sure I wasn’t gay.” But he got the last laugh by toggling between New York City (“a mecca for gay men”) and L.A., where he started a red-hot gossip blog. No one was exempt from his snarky repartee as he climbed the fame ladder—something he claims he now regrets, along with other “self-destructive, impulsive” behavior such as selling not-yet-released books online, running up credit card debt and declaring bankruptcy, and alienating Kim Kardashian. Hanging out with the likes of Paris Hilton, Amanda Bynes, Amy Winehouse, and Lady Gaga, Hilton mercilessly spread insider secrets, including the time when John Mayer put his tongue in the author’s mouth. Hilton also waxes poetic (and rather touchingly) about his three children, conceived via surrogate, and how they’ve softened his world view. This is catnip for Hollywood gossip hounds. Agent: Daniel Kim, Arena Scripts Literary & Film Agency. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
“Those looking for a light, dishy read would be remiss to ignore a book by the king of gossip himself.” —Booklist
“I loved the pop culture journey he took me on. Every chapter reflects on a pivotal year in his career and life while also reflecting in celebrity moments. Fun and inspirational read!” —Lucy, Goodreads
“If you think you might enjoy this book...YOU WILL. And no matter what element you're coming for you won't be disappointed. A super fun read that's also a really nice look 'behind the screen' at his life, career, celebrity friends, and family.” —Michael, Goodreads
“He brings us a very personal and powerful testament of his way of living and seeing the things he's seen. He makes sure we know he's just as human as anybody else and he admits to the things that years later he regrets, and things he’s absolutely proud of.” —Sophie, Goodreads
Kirkus Reviews
2020-07-29
A blogger tells—or retells—all.
Though you know him as Perez Hilton, he was born Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. in 1978 to Cuban American parents in Miami. Shockingly dull until the celebrities begin to appear, the book, written with Eriksson and Svensson, contains surprisingly little insight about the allure of celebrity. “It’s strange, but when you’re young, you don’t think about the future at all,” writes Hilton in a typically banal passage. “As you get older, however, it’s all you ever think about.” Attempting to find his footing in the entertainment industry, he bounced between New York and Los Angeles “from fiasco to fiasco, with no idea that I’m at the start of a successful career.” His lucky break occurred when, working as a receptionist at the E! channel, he witnessed Janice Dickinson’s assistant stealing pills from her purse. “I stared at him, thinking, Man, this is wild!....Right there and then,” writes Hilton, “I felt an immediate urge to write about what I had just seen on my blog.” Soon thereafter, his blog was dubbed one of the most hated in Hollywood. By the mid-2000s, he had solidified his brand, coining celebrity nicknames (“Brangelina”) and defacing their online photos with crude drawings and captions. Around 2007, he writes, “the tone of my website went from bitchy to downright nasty. The more snarky names I gave the celebrities, the more penises or coke or boogers I drew on pictures of them, the more people visited my page. By this point I was getting between seven and eight million unique hits a day.” After the “hate storm” unleashed by his clueless “It Gets Better” video—he had failed to see the connection between the suicide of gay Rutgers student Tyler Clementi and his own ruthless outing of well-known people—he changed his tune. A little. On the whole, the narrative is fairly tame and unremarkable, featuring numerous pull-quotes and photos without captions, the cutest of which shows Hilton with his children.
A tepid text for die-hard fans only.
