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Scarstruck
DIG THIS DIRTY SCOOP! What Hollywood he-man’s got a secret yen for slim young boys and cigarette burns? What hot-to-trot starlet’s got a red-hot Commie past? And what Mexican bellboy gets mixed up in their whole swinging triangle while their Tinseltown down-low crashes like Sputnik? ADULTS ONLY can savor all the juicy AC/DC details of their “three-way” collision in this kinky sin-pit noir—a no-man’s land romance for tenderhearted perverts everywhere. “A bath of style, glamour, cigarettes, and the beauty that comes out of cynicism.”
— Autumn Christian, author of GIRL LIKE A BOMB
— Autumn Christian, author of GIRL LIKE A BOMB
260 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2019
73 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 11, 2019
Man, there’s so much going on in this book it’s hard to know exactly what to say, especially since LeVoit’s prose is so razor-sharp that all the pieces of it nest in together perfectly, like precision engine parts. A spin on the all those golden-age romance movies that goes much deeper than all the salacious details the author seems to bask in writing. It’s dark, violent, sexy, queer, and sad - full of hurt and desperation and baggage - but still a Hollywood love story, through-and-through, even with its refusal to shy away from all the messy parts of human relationships. Once again, Violet LeVoit has defied expectations and created something truly special. Bravo.
February 14, 2019
I don't like romance. I don't like erotica. Yet somehow I loved everything about this story. For one, LeVoit has a style and voice that is so distinct and engaging it's impossible to stop reading once you start. For two the characters and their relationships with one another are complex, flawed, and fully realized. The sex and romance are used as tools to explore gender, sexuality, power, love, and acceptance. Don't let your genre biases make you overlook this one, I can almost guarantee it will exceed your expectations and change your ideas about what the romance genre is capable of (it definitely did for me)
March 10, 2019
My favorite from Violet LeVoit so far. Stylistically beautiful, whip-smart, both cold and hot. Like drinking a cuba libre on a sweltering beach. Like I Miss the World, explores Hollywood, but through the lens of a romance that at first is a cynical expose on love, and then metamorphosizes into something truly beautiful. I don't want to give too much away, but highly recommended.
February 15, 2019
I've only recently got around to reading Violet Levoit's work, but after this and I MISS THE WORLD it's safe to say that I'm a confirmed fan.
SCARSTRUCK tells the story of a queer/poly/BDSM love triangle set against the backdrop of 50s Hollywood, and seamlessly blends warts-and-all romance with the gritty underbelly noir of James Ellroy's L.A. novels. Levoit has an amazing talent for bringing a tear to my eye and then ripping my heart out, then making me wince before finally shedding a tear again. All while making it look effortless, even though prose of this quality never is.
Violet Levoit is definitely a writer to watch, and the indie publisher King Shot Press continues to put out exemplary fiction that simultaneously messes with your head and your heart - I hugely recommend checking out both.
(FYI: features numerous graphic sex scenes that may not be for readers of a delicate disposition.)
SCARSTRUCK tells the story of a queer/poly/BDSM love triangle set against the backdrop of 50s Hollywood, and seamlessly blends warts-and-all romance with the gritty underbelly noir of James Ellroy's L.A. novels. Levoit has an amazing talent for bringing a tear to my eye and then ripping my heart out, then making me wince before finally shedding a tear again. All while making it look effortless, even though prose of this quality never is.
Violet Levoit is definitely a writer to watch, and the indie publisher King Shot Press continues to put out exemplary fiction that simultaneously messes with your head and your heart - I hugely recommend checking out both.
(FYI: features numerous graphic sex scenes that may not be for readers of a delicate disposition.)
April 1, 2019
Nick Mamatas is the bloke that got me into Violet LeVoit. He mentioned the upcoming release of Scarstruck and when I enquired further (having not been aware of her work up until that point) I was pointed toward LeVoit’s novella I Miss The World. I picked it up (thank you Kindle Unlimited) and was immediately struck by how damn smart it was, including an ending which was all sorts of fucked up.
Scarstruck is not as in your face - at least in terms of the violence - as I Miss The World, but then it’s not trying to be. It’s a love story - love triangle - set in LA in the late 50s and, as suggested by the cover (which, by the by, is gorgeous) it’s drawing from a rich reservoir of the pulps, and the gossip columns and their eternal search for all things salacious and titillating, especially in regards to Hollywood. Ron Dash is a pin-up boy and film-star who likes young men. Lana Arleaux is a blonde bombshell who has mental issues (although it might just be that she likes sex too much). Neither in their true state is palatable to the public, so their agent - a conniving prick named Edgar Rockwell - convinces both of them to marry (each other, of course). What happens next is a love story, one where a gay man “tries out” the heterosexual lifestyle and falls in love with a woman - which I know sounds awfully offensive and retrograde, but is so much smarter and layered then my shitty description makes out. This is very much a queer narrative, a complex one where love is found in unexpected places, but where a gay man begins to come to terms with who he is and what that means (given the prejudiced views of the time). It’s also very graphic, sexually, so if that sort of thing makes you blush maybe this isn’t for you. But really it should be. LeVoit has captured the 50s ethos (I loved the excerpts from the gossip mags) and also given us flawed but deeply interesting characters who you hope will carve out their own unconventional version of a Hollywood ending.
I loved it.
Scarstruck is not as in your face - at least in terms of the violence - as I Miss The World, but then it’s not trying to be. It’s a love story - love triangle - set in LA in the late 50s and, as suggested by the cover (which, by the by, is gorgeous) it’s drawing from a rich reservoir of the pulps, and the gossip columns and their eternal search for all things salacious and titillating, especially in regards to Hollywood. Ron Dash is a pin-up boy and film-star who likes young men. Lana Arleaux is a blonde bombshell who has mental issues (although it might just be that she likes sex too much). Neither in their true state is palatable to the public, so their agent - a conniving prick named Edgar Rockwell - convinces both of them to marry (each other, of course). What happens next is a love story, one where a gay man “tries out” the heterosexual lifestyle and falls in love with a woman - which I know sounds awfully offensive and retrograde, but is so much smarter and layered then my shitty description makes out. This is very much a queer narrative, a complex one where love is found in unexpected places, but where a gay man begins to come to terms with who he is and what that means (given the prejudiced views of the time). It’s also very graphic, sexually, so if that sort of thing makes you blush maybe this isn’t for you. But really it should be. LeVoit has captured the 50s ethos (I loved the excerpts from the gossip mags) and also given us flawed but deeply interesting characters who you hope will carve out their own unconventional version of a Hollywood ending.
I loved it.
September 22, 2020
This is the story of Ron Dash, a Rock Hudson-style movie star suffering through the golden age of film. As this is late ‘50s Hollywood, Ron’s self-loathing manifests in ugly ways, namely he enjoys burning his lovers with cigarettes—look, good writing is good writing, and/but great writing goes beyond the lurid concepts to show the humanity behind the seeming cruelty of a given character’s actions. That she’s able to find the tenderness and pathos behind the sadism is a testament to LeVoit’s writing. It’s clear she cares about Dash in the same way Cormac McCarthy cared about Lester Ballard in Child of God. This is great writing, pure and simple.
After a scandal threatens his career, Ron is coerced into a “lavender marriage” to Lana Arleaux, an alcoholic whose star is fading quickly, and in my mind the star of the show. There’s a depth to Lana’s soft-focus world-weariness that immediately wins you over. Her quick wit, her compassion for others, her sense of self-awareness in an ugly business where people lose sight of who they are—Lana feels like the protagonist of a classic Hollywood tragedy. LeVoit does the work to make Ron human, but it’s through Lana that we come to care for Ron.
This book captures everything that fascinates us about Old Hollywood—the corruption of the studio system, unscrupulous gossip reporters, the racism of 1950’s Los Angeles, the looming menace of the Blacklist—and LeVoit tells the story with an unflinching sense of tenderness, even giving us a classic Hollywood happy ending. Perfectly executed book that takes lots of risks.
After a scandal threatens his career, Ron is coerced into a “lavender marriage” to Lana Arleaux, an alcoholic whose star is fading quickly, and in my mind the star of the show. There’s a depth to Lana’s soft-focus world-weariness that immediately wins you over. Her quick wit, her compassion for others, her sense of self-awareness in an ugly business where people lose sight of who they are—Lana feels like the protagonist of a classic Hollywood tragedy. LeVoit does the work to make Ron human, but it’s through Lana that we come to care for Ron.
This book captures everything that fascinates us about Old Hollywood—the corruption of the studio system, unscrupulous gossip reporters, the racism of 1950’s Los Angeles, the looming menace of the Blacklist—and LeVoit tells the story with an unflinching sense of tenderness, even giving us a classic Hollywood happy ending. Perfectly executed book that takes lots of risks.
February 25, 2019
Va va voom, indeed. Romance and erotica are not normally my genres of choice, and there's a great chance that I would have passed this up had it been written by any other writer. Thankfully, anything by Violet LeVoit moves to the front of my reading pile. This book was phenomenal.
While Scarstruck is a romance novel, it's also so much more. It's a story of Hollywood's glamourous veneer and the grit and pain of the reality beneath. It's thick with themes of trauma, homophobia, toxic masculinity, and repression. It's LA by way of James Ellroy and James Robert Baker; a crime novel where the offense is people being true to themselves.
This book is a standout in a year already promising for fiction. I cannot wait to read whatever LeVoit has coming next.
While Scarstruck is a romance novel, it's also so much more. It's a story of Hollywood's glamourous veneer and the grit and pain of the reality beneath. It's thick with themes of trauma, homophobia, toxic masculinity, and repression. It's LA by way of James Ellroy and James Robert Baker; a crime novel where the offense is people being true to themselves.
This book is a standout in a year already promising for fiction. I cannot wait to read whatever LeVoit has coming next.
June 2, 2019
I enjoyed the hell out of this book. My favorite thing about Scarstruck, and the thing that makes it stand out against other really good books for me, is what LeVoit does with word choice. Her language is purposefully evocative at all times without becoming overbearing. The apt turns of phrase and unexpected, spot-on metaphors plunge the reader into the seedy underbelly of 1950s Hollywood and into the characters' worldviews. This is a book that takes advantage of its medium to the utmost. This is a story that could only ever be written.
August 31, 2019
Excellent writing as always from LeVoit. Minus 1 star because I wanted to punch the plot in its face.
March 20, 2025
Fun noir with a happy ending
April 20, 2025
Such an interesting read. The things that people do when they’re closeted in this piece is a wild ride
May 2, 2019
I first wrote about Violet’s work a couple years ago when I reviewed I Miss the World. Oof, I’m still reeling from that book in the best ways. Scarstruck is a wildly different sort of story, but no less gripping. Like its predecessor, Scarstruck is set in Hollywood, but this time we’re in the 1950s – rife with homophobia, McCarthyism, and celebrity gossip rags hungry for scandalous news. This is a story of what happens when two of Tinseltown’s hottest actors have such huge secrets that they’re thrust into marriage with each other in order to keep up conventional appearances. At its gloriously queer heart, Scarstruck is a romance novel about relationship anarchy and scorching hot, kinky sexytimes set in the same neo-noir world of one of my all-time favorite movies, L.A. Confidential. What begins as a salacious celebrity tell-all tale turns out to have an intensely tender and earnest heart. Those concurrent qualities are a testament to Violet LeVoit’s deft craft. The last thing I expected this story to do was make me cry with catharsis, but it sure did. I can’t wait to see what Violet creates next.
January 22, 2024
I expected this to be a lot pulpier than it turned out to be. The story’s events would have been scandalous for the time in which it took place, but by today’s standards I rather thought despite the kink component, it was more on the wholesome side. Still, it was a great story about complex people battling the expectations of the Hollywood machine.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews