Supernova Hangover by Emma Jones

Set in the late 1990s and early 2000s this is a book about one young woman Toots Silver (really, it says Toots on your Birth Certificate?) who moves to London in the hopes of getting that big career break.  There are a few characters that revolve around her:

Rachel - Her flatmate whom she met on the train to London and they decided to stick together to face the best and the worst that London could offer.

Roddy - Owner/Editor (I was never clear which) of the magazine that gives Toots her big break.

Adam - Photographer for said magazine.

Simon - Bon Viveur in the South Of France

Clay Allison - Movie Star

Now, here is the problem - with the exception of Adam they are all horrible people in one way or another.  Hardly a redeeming feature between the lot of them.  This is a huge problem because the story really relies on you getting behind Toots and hoping that it is all going to work out for her and she will make the right decisions when it counts.  Instead I found myself hoping that she would fall under the nearest passing Routemaster.

The character of Roddy particularly annoys, he is such a stereotype that it is actually laughable.  Yes, I am aware that a stereotype is there for a reason but nobody actually inhabits one 100% but he does.  To some extent Rachel does too - she is so completely subsumed by the need to be seen as fashionable, on trend and to feel loved that she ticks every shallow, narcissistic box that there is.  Similarly you never get the feeling that Clay is anything other than a two-dimensional poster of himself hung on Toots' wall that she has imagined in to being.

Now, I understand that the media world of this time period wasn't particularly salubrious and all sorts of dodgy dealings went on.  What I don't understand is why everyone has to be so venal and dislikeable.  I have read many a book with this sort of character in them and yet there has always been something that endears you to them, a sheen of literary charisma if you like but that is completely missing here.  Maybe I just didn't get the memo about this book, but I really struggled to find much to enjoy about it.

I did flirt with a One Star review but there were some bits that I enjoyed in the book, just not very many of them.

THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE BOOK FROM THE PIGEONHOLE.