Assistants Book

Yes, I read this book and all I have to show for it is..oh, wait, I DIDN'T even get a crappy tee shirt.
Actually, it's not THAT bad, and I stuck with it for its slight humor value and the fact that I had to find out what happened. I rarely do not finish a book.

Ar first, I was exclaiming at every other page that this was a bald-faced rip-off of John Niven's really excellent book Kill Your Friends, soon to be a motion picture. (I have some slight embarrassment at loving that book and wonder how it can ever be filmed as there is not one scene that could possible be shown in it.) Kill Your Friends was about the music industry, divulging secrets you really almost didn't want to know but were happy to hear about. The Assistants is about Hollywood and the lowest echelon employees who toil for the movers and shakers.

It had some fun possibilities and there was some fun in it. The writing is such that the author needs to throw in a five dollar word once in a while so you know she has it in her. Puissant? In a novel that relies almost completely on industry slang, swears and uncomfortable sex scenes, words like that are show-offy. The much-better-written Killing Your Friends could do anything it wanted and did, but Niven could write circles around this author.

The hook--separate chapters written largely about the experiences of each of the five main characters , rotating constantly--keeps you mildly interested and gives you a chance to see them all meet each other and form certain bonds. The characterizations leave much to be desired, but the stories aren't too bad and if the ending hadn't been so happy-happy it might have worked reasonably well. I would not go out of my way to pick this up, but if you want a short, very light, read that you can fit in your bag or briefcase, this might keep you interested for a couple of afternoons.