Miss Me's English Class (Book Club): The Most Famous Girl in the World by Iman Hariri-Kia
The first inaugural book club post!
Hi chickies!
If you celebrated, Merry Christmas or a Merry Chrismukkah, as Seth Cohen/Adam Brody would say. Or if you didn’t celebrate any holiday at all, Merry Day of Nothing Being Open!
Like advice columns, all good magazines have a book review or book club, so this magazine must have one. A book review is a dream for me. I loved English class growing up, although was deeply traumatized by my junior year English teacher. I got a FIVE on the AP exam and that man *did not believe me* because he made it clear he thought I was stupid. Granted, I was ignorant at the time, but I was also 17, and just regular ignorant for a 17 year old.
The format for English Class will be: (A) why I picked the book; (B) a short, spoiler free summary of the book’s premise; (C) some questions for the readers; and (D) my overall thoughts/review of the book.
Why I Picked the Book
The inaugural book for the Miss Me Magazine inaugural book review is The Most Famous Girl in the World, by Iman Hariri-Kia. I intentionally picked a “chick-lit” type of book that is not so chick-lit-esque. Like yeah, there are the classic tropes, but also, they’re done as a satire of the genre. Not that the romantic comedy genre is laughable, but the genre is used as a literary device to satirize our parasocial relationship with celebrities, with scammers, with judging people on the internet, etc. By making the book ultra-campy, it makes it easy to see how selfish the characters can be, how ludicrous Poppy’s fans are, how insane fame and parasocial relationships are because the whole book feels kind of insane and ludicrous.
I picked this satire of a genre by women, for women, denigrated for being by women and for women, because I think it’s important to highlight how much depth the genre does have. You can get a lot out of reading books you enjoy, if you think hard enough about them. Ultimately, I think if you’re thinking and discussing and analyzing a book, it doesn’t matter how high minded the book itself seems. And if you’re not thinking and discussing and analyzing a book, it also doesn’t matter how high minded the book itself seems, because you’re getting nothing out of it. I know a lot of people who read the most engaging, challenging books, and despite that, their lives and perspectives remain unchanged, unchallenged.
I also think it’s important to read from diverse voices and not just voices telling stories of pain, but also fun, lighthearted stories too. The author is Iranian-American and tells the story from Rose’s perspective, an Iranian-American herself.
Spoiler Free Premise Summary
Rose is an Iranian-American journalist who, two years ago, originally broke the story of a scam artist named Poppy after obsessing over Poppy’s every move for months. When Poppy is released from prison, Rose starts to spiral again, and her downward decline is hastened as her sources from her original story start to die. Rose suspects Poppy is at the center of this all somehow. Pepper in a hot arch nemesis, two stellar bffs, and plenty of relatable self sabotage, and this book becomes the colorful genre-romp it’s meant to be. Part thriller/spy novel, part romance, part satire of both genres, this book is sure to capture at least one of your interests.
Questions
The author peppers in a lot of pop culture references, including to DeuxMoi (a Miss Me Mag favorite). I couldn’t help but feel that this dated the book the second it went to print. But I also thought about how one of the things I love about OG Gossip Girl is how “of the time” it is. It makes the show even more campy than it already is and it’s pretty campy to begin with. The author has spoken about this book being a riff on a few different genres, an introspective look at the genres. How does her usage of these pop culture references play into the reflective lens she’s putting to these genres and classic tropes?
Throughout the book, the chick lit classic tropes are present throughout, but there’s also a sense that the author is in on the joke a little. It seems almost like she adds these as commentary. What are some of the classic chick lit tropes and how does the author almost wink at the audience with some of these tropes?
The book is supposed to be about our para social relationship with celebrities. What do you think about the choice to tell the story from one perspective? Permit me another Gossip Girl comparison: Gossip Girl was supposedly *spoiler* Dan Humphrey, but the show takes you beyond just his POV, even if it’s narrated by Gossip Girl in parts. Many books switch POVs to give each character depth. Do you think this choice was intentional? What do you think was lost or gained with just one POV?
The most obvious comparison with Poppy is Anna Delvey, but can you think of any other public figures we have a similar fascination with because of their criminality? Did those other figures pop up in your mind as you read?
Having all the victims be male and the protagonist and antagonist both be female seemed to be a girlboss move by the author. Did your perception of Poppy change because she was a woman and her victims were men?
THE ENDING. If a second book were to come out, what are your plot predictions for it?
Overall Review: 3.5/5
I liked the book and I like the idea of the satire, but I think the satire took me out of the book and even the book’s theme about
parasocial relationships and fame. I felt like I would be into the book, then something like a pop culture reference or the campy dialogue or a predictable moment would take me out of it, kinda flowing in and out. Maybe that’s part of the satire? That we shouldn’t be 100% bought into any one influencer’s story about themselves at any one time because it is a performance? I keep going back and forth on how much I liked it. I’d only recommend it to someone prone to over-analyzing, such as myself. If you take the book at face value, it falls a little flat, but taken as a satire, it’s an interesting concept.
Did you read this book? What did you think? Are you also prone to over analyzing???
Ily a milli,
Steph