Hollywood Nobody by Lisa Samson

Scotty Dawn has all the freedom a fifteen-year-old girl could want. As she and her mom, Charley, travel to movie sets for Charley's work, Scotty's allowed to go anywhere and be anything. But there are costs to such a life. Scotty doesn't know who she is, where she comes from, or who to trust. And who is the mysterious man they've been running from? Does he hold the clue to Charley's big secret?
Scotty writes in her Hollywood Nobody blog, and the answers she finds are darker than she had expected. Will she discover who she can trust and finally make sense of her world?








The Review:
My Ranking: `6 out of 10
Ages: 16 & up


I picked up Hollywood Nobody about a month ago and ended up setting it down to finish a few other books that needed to be reviewed. Yesterday I picked it back up again and finished the somewhat small book this morning. I found the way it was written - a personal journal - very funny and insightful, as I could tell exactly what Scotty was thinking, and I also loved the add-in of an occasional post for her blog - Hollywood Nobody. I normally don't enjoy first-person accounts as much as third person, as I like to know what the other characters are thinking, I thought that Hollywood Nobody was excellent in first person and not once while reading it did I wish it was from a different perspective. I thought that Scotty's view on Hollywood was a cool one to look through and I thought Samson did a good job with that!

Scotty was a very humorous, blunt character that I enjoyed learning about. We had a common ground - we love our cheese and meats. Of course, Scotty's mother, whom she calls Charley, never permitted her to eat meat or cheese so that may be why she enjoyed it so much...but I still agreed with her 100% when she got all excited about having cheese! lol
While there were a few qualities of her that I didn't enjoy, such as her deceitfulness(explained further in content advisory), when all is done, I found Scotty a sweet and funny character that I wouldn't mind knowing in person.

Seth was a nice add-in. I found his personality charming and very friendly. His and Scotty's relationship was close and I thought they were very funny together. He was a great older-bro type, even though Scotty had a crush on him all throughout the book. ;)

Charley made me chuckle on more than one occasion! She was such an interesting, unique character. Ha! She was, to put it mildly, just plain weird! :P I loved her character though, and though she made some bad choices, she loved Scotty more than anything.

As for the content, I could write a mile long paragraph for this if I was to point out everything. So I shall point out the major things and a brief heads up on the minor things. The whole nature of the book should make it at least somewhat obvious to what type of content is in it. After all, it does take place in "Hollywood".

First off, there are several instances where Scotty mentions and casts down thong underwear and bathing suits. In one instance she is referring to how ridiculous Tom Cruise has become, another saying how she even though she isn't a Christian(only because she knows very little of God, yet is curious), she knows God disapproves of them(and low rise jeans), and another she is talking about how stupid the bathing suits are and that they should put more fabric on them. There is also an instance where Scotty is blogging and she says she has a new favorite actress because the woman loves cheese, and Scotty says she likes to "show off her girls" a bit, but forgives her because she likes cheese. One of the comments on the blog post said that she didn't mind that the actress shows off "her girls" because "you should flaunt them if you've got them".  There is a mentioning of a woman being called "slutty". There is also a part where Seth mentions how his past relationships haven't gone well and Scotty writes "Translation - had sex and regretted it." and later after he mentions he didn't want her to make the same mistakes he did, she writes how she was wondering if Seth was trying to drop a hint at her being better off without sex cause a guy wouldn't want to "touch her with a 10ft pole anyway". There is also the mentioning of a girl wearing bikini and looking ridiculous because it was like 65 degrees outside. Another thing is that a girl is caught doing drugs in her room along with two drunk thirteen year olds. 
Scotty has a crush on a guy and calls him "Hot" often in her journal.
Scotty is also deceiving and disobeys her mother, going behind her back when she's asleep. She never gets in trouble for such behavior, even after her mother found out. 
Wow - I still manage to write a mile long content paragraph! :P It is all what you would expect in a teen novel. I did have some respect for a few of Scotty's disapprovals, but some of the things she still said I found uncalled for. Other than that, just a bit of crush talk and such. 

Honestly, I had hoped for a cleaner book. After all, it was written for teenagers and is labeled "Christian fiction", but I wouldn't give this book to anyone younger than myself(16) and wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, really. As much as I would like to read the next one and see what happens(this one's a bit of a cliffhanger), I think I am going to pass. I really wished it hadn't had as much stuff in it.
One thing I did really like though was that Scotty attended a Christian tent meeting and when she had a desire to learn more about God and realized that it was all just a show. She thought the woman prophet was ridiculous and that everything - all of it - was just a show put on. I loved that! She ended up by the end just reading the Bible and for that I was happy. :)

So, all being said, it was an interesting book but I can't really recommend it highly to anyone. Of course, this is totally just my opinion and you may see it quite differently. If you like a typical teen book and want to see Hollywood through the eyes of a girl who's seen it all, this would be an excellent book for you!

I received this free book in return for an honest review from Navpress. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.