Child Star

Reviews / Votes

RadioNIGHTWAVES (BBC RADIO 3), 28th March. Matt was joined by novelist Andrew O'Hagan for discussion on the phenomena of the child star InterviewsTIME OUT (2 April) - a 'discussion' with Matt and Andrew O'HaganANGEL MAGAZINE - a feature which ran on World Book DaySCOTLAND ON SUNDAY (6 April) - interview Events:Edinburgh (24 August)Vox 'n' Roll reading, with Ben Richards, on 19th MarchICA on 30 April, with Melvyn Burgess and Julie Myerson. 'Matt Thorne conveys Gerald's angst in a fresh, insouciant style. His lively narrative never slackens, littered with endless references to pop culture. This is his best book so far.'Charlie Campbell, LITERARY REVIEW 'Child Star is a sharp, social comedy.'Hugo Barnacle, SUNDAY TIMES 'Dark, funny and surprising.'Tim Teeman, TIMES 'Thorne has added a dimension to his fiction which is all the better for it.'Alfred Hickling, GUARDIAN '[a] breezy, absorbing novel...entertaining, atmospheric...The realistic surface of Thorne's fiction is a pleasure in itself, but its substance stays with you long after his everyday detail fades away.'William Cook, THE INDEPENDENT 'His lucid, unadorned prose is well suited to exposing the pretentions of celebrity culture, and Thorne details the lives of his dysfunctional moderns with compassion.'Oliver Robinson, THE OBSERVER '...it is as a study of a single character that CHILD STAR really excells...In the annals of forgettable men, Gerald Wedmore, 25-year-old has-been, will stay with you for some time.'Benji Wilson, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY '...an interesting novel, with some strong social themes...[and] a sharp polemical edge.'Julia Flynn, DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Thorne is an intelligent writer; the chapters thatmove between frantic past and doleful present are well handled and there aresome exquisite moments of sadness in the moribund silences of Gerald's life.'Royce Mahawatte, TLS 'Compelling...a great protagonist.'Susan Corrigan, I-D MAGAZINE 'Humorous yet poignent, this is certainly a novel for our times.'WATERSTONE'S BOOKS QUARTERLY 'The plot is great.'BIG ISSUE 'Thorne maintains a lively pace.'Chris Hall, TIME OUT 'In a sophisticated book - it is the writer's fifth - Thorne manages to take a side swipe at the glut of dull celeb-biogsnow on the shelves, freeze-frame today's obsession with 'reality' and ponderwhy the craving and passion we have for our 15 minutes of fame is an all-consuming one.'Dave Windass, BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH '...this sparky, witty novelexamines the consequences of fame at an early age.'George Byrne, EVENING HERALD (DUBLIN) Reviews in THE DAILY MAIL and METRO and mentions in THE TIMES and THE MIRROR. CHILD STAR is number 6 in the top 10 books in HEAT magazine (12-18 April), a 'must read' in TATLER and an 'In The News' title in the SUNDAY TIMES (8.6.03) We've also had some fantastic advance quotes:'Being immersed in a Matt Thorne novel makes me doubt the solidarity of daily life. CHILD STARis his best book yet: as idiosyncratically stylish as the finest of his previous work, but with a broader reach, a maturer tone, an impressive complexityof structure, and a real and unsettling psychological depth.'Sarah Waters 'Matt Thorne is the laureate of a very modern brand of dysfunction, charting the gruesome territory of burgeoning manhood with anger, panache and laconic precision. For those who indulge in any kind of nostalgia for their adolescent years, here is the antidote.'Liz Jensen 'Matt Thorne invites us into his world with such confident and compelling storytelling that the reader is gripped until the final full stop.'Lana Citron 'a skilful, funny and moving evocationof pubescence and a judicious stitch up of the world of television soaps. Why he wasn't on Granta's Best of Young British Novelists list is beyong me. He's almost the only twentysomething writer to have carved out a territory that's uniquely his.'Tibor Fischer, A