Find the Time, the Time Will Find You, "Hollywood, Ending"
In every part of writing about this book I hesitate. How do I start writing about a book when what convinced me to read it was a clip of someone saying to go into it blind?
My mindset has frequently been that I need to set aside time to read, so the designation can be my motivator, but that is not how I want to feel about reading. My experience used to be that I would reach for my book as often as possible. I was a middle schooler walking as fast as I could to each class, so that I could get in a couple pages. That bit of time to get in a few pages still exists, but I seemingly have lost the desire. When I have spent so much time thinking and reading and using my brain, shouldn’t I use those few minutes for brief mindlessness?
Not when the book I’m reading really truly excites me.
Hollywood, Ending
Hollywood, Ending, published in late September, is John Green’s first adult novel. Between the authorship and buzz online, this was a read I was very excited for. And yet, with all I’d seen online, I did manage to go into this book with no knowledge of the plot, themes, or characters, which is how this book should be read.
Now for the plot, themes, and characters. The novel is split into four parts: the first and last from the first person perspective of Juniper Castillo and the middle two from Kai Laramie. Juniper is meticulous, recklessly careful, and haunted by the death, or rather the life, of her mother. Kai is quick to love, carefully reckless, and painfully haunted by a ghost of his own, one he’d rather keep hidden. The two are secondary leads in an Andy Warhol biopic that gains attention because of its leading star, Matthew Malone. This is a big break for Juniper after a less than artful career as a child actor. This is Kai’s first real acting role.
The story is about their love, their dynamic, and their relationship, but I would not call it a romance. Juniper often contemplates their “Obstacle", the reason they cannot be together, as if they were leads in a Rom Com. For Kai, love is an instinct that should be immediately shared, but something he has a hard time accepting. Ultimately, their relationship is something I think should be consumed but not defined.
Something about the first couple pages almost turned me away. Juniper describes herself as attractive in an interesting way but Kai as attractive attractive, an unappealing narrative. If it were a different author, if I wasn’t anticipating liking this book, I might not have kept reading.
This is one of the first first person pov books I’ve read in a minute. I was hesitant to like the perspective, but it also feels much easier to read. It supports the inner reflection vital to Hollywood, Ending. My biggest issue with first person pov is the challenge of switching between characters' different reflections, but again, I think it works in this one, in part because Kai and Juniper are struggling in similar ways and in part because I let myself feel the challenge. I didn’t want to switch from Juniper to Kai and then I really didn’t want to switch from Kai to Juniper.
The book feels modern in a way that recent releases I often read don’t. Juniper talks about Sweetgreen and Star Wars tv shows and her ipad, but she also talks in ways that make me unsure whether Hollywood, Ending feels like a 2019 period piece or if this is just John Green’s writing style.
Oh and there are things about Green’s writing style I do love, like how Green says someone is statuesque as in like a statue, not its actual meaning. Or the realness of someone misunderstanding pride and joy as pride enjoy as a child. And of course John Green named a lesbain character Ellen (or made a character named Ellen a lesbian?).
There are many themes worth noting, one of them being the frequency in which Green focuses on the internet's relationship to celebrity: the access it provides and the access it has taken away. I think there is a big disconnect between celebrities and fans on social media. It feels shocking when a celebrity posts what seems like their real life and less shocking when they eventually archive the post. When Juniper is constantly taking photos on set and in costume, I am struck with how unreal that is. It’s as if there is a rule instilled in me that photos can only be posted during the publicity stage; there must be a gap between when they are taken and when the public sees them. Something about Juniper immediately posting selfies from set feels so disconnected from current celebrity culture and much more reminiscent of early 2010s celebrity Twitter. Fans have lost the privilege of immediate connection, but there’s less simplicity than that. Juniper’s entire intention in sharing her private life is tailoring an image of herself. She wants to separate herself from online perception of most child stars, but again there is more commentary when she is initially told to only post in civilian clothes; it is the media that has to share this story; a corporation has to manipulate an image, not an individual.
Taste of the Text
I started this section because one specific passage stuck out to me, but this time I dogeared dozens of pages and took photos of almost as many. I’d much rather give you a taste of the characters.
Juniper: “I do not want to want to be loved by strangers, but I do not want to want most of what I want.”
Kai: “I realized it was kind of a performance. I was doing it because it looked cool, even though I was the only person who could see how cool it looked.”
It almost feels like a waste of time to rate a book five stars, as if I didn’t put thought into it and therefore call it perfection. But I have no better rating for this book. It is a book that made me take photos of a dozen pages because the pages were too fresh for me to write in the margins, but I had too many thoughts to leave them be. Hollywood, Ending is good. It’s worth your time.
Something about writing about a very new book that I really do think you should read makes me doubt my descriptions of these characters or really anything beyond sharing the very random thoughts I had while reading. Of course all of my writing is my interpretation, but with this one it feels especially subjective.
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