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Glamourpuss
Alex Young, the twentysomething heartthrob of the hottest Hollywood soap is still marveling at his good fortune for landing such a plum part when all hell breaks loose. A notoriously disreputable supermarket tabloid catches Alex in a steamy kiss with another man, causing Alex to wonder if the glamour of Hollywood is worth all the trouble and heartache.
249 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 8, 2023
Smutty and smart gay comic fiction from the 90s that is as much ridiculous fun as the daytime soaps it parodies.
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June 3, 2025deliciously campy in the way that only 90s gay fiction (thinly veiled memoir) can be, surprisingly tender with a couple of quite banger lines about being young and in love.
June 13, 2023
This is cute and veryyy '90s. But also so unnecessarily racist and fatphobic which is, like, veryyy '90s. Trashy, delicious, and digestible. 250 pages of outdated pop culture references, queer melodrama, and soft smut. Unfortunately my favorite kind of book.
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May 17, 2009my ex tried to order glamorama. they sent him glamourpuss. i read it.
August 4, 2018
And now for something completely different. I only know of two titles by Christian McLaughlin (the other one being Sex Toys of the Gods), and I wish he'd written -- or would get on and write! -- more, because Glamourpus was one of the funniest books I ever read.
It was done originally by Dutton but the edition I have is the Plume/Penguin reprint of 1995.
This was McLaughlin's debut novel and I think we all expected him to go on and write a slough of books, hopefully with gay twists and great gay characters. Well, 13 years after I bought the reprint of Glamourpus, we were still waiting, and I never tracked down anything else by this writer.
I guess McLaughlin 's life took him in different directions -- and that's fair enough too. (Life usually takes us in directions we never guessed. McLaughlin could be enormously prolific under another pen name for all I know.)
Glamourpuss is about Hollywood having a laugh at itself. It features daytime soapie TV ... you know, things like The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless. In the novel the show is entitled Hearts Crossing, but if you see one of these things, you've seen 'em all.
One of the stars of the show is a new actor, Alex Young, who plays a cute sociopath named Simon Arable, the son of a mad scientist. And Alex has a major secret.
He's not a sociopath. He's gay. When the books starts, his fans don't know. Yet. He has a boyfriend who's just way too hard to get -- Nick. And he's trying to keep his love life under wraps.
Then a nation-wide gossip rag gets its hooks into Alex and runs a story that blows his secret, and ... suddenly Alex is not that popular in Hollyweird. His fans are dead nuts, and his part in the show doesn't look too secure. To top it off he's got a stalker. The story takes place in 1990-1991, when there was still a lot more homophobia than you have today. In today's movie and TV industry you have hunky actors who're out and proud of it, and beloved for it. Not the case in 1990 ...
The plot of Glamourpuss could also have been done dead-serious as a thriller. It would have worked if McLaughlin had played up the fear and dread aspect ... though he'd have had to write a different ending! But McLaughlin picked the right way to go and did it as a sexy gay comedy -- right down to the last line in the book, which makes anybody who knows anything about romance novels break a rib.
(Let me explain. Mills & Boone (Harlequin) actually used to run night school courses in how to write the romantic goo they publish. The DIY romance of the month course is called, And Then He Kissed Her. The last line in Glamourpuss is, "And then he kissed me." I laughed and laughed.)
In fact, I laughed right through the whole book. I'd recommend this for anybody who's looking for a funny, sexy gay read; anybody who knows for a fact Hollywood is gay-controlled and wonders why there aren't more gay TV shows; anybody who likes more or less contemporary books; and anyone who enjoys those movies where Hollywood makes films about itself (Hooper is still the best one I know).
The characters are numerous and well drawn. The book is written in the first person ... which is a neat trick, if a writer can pull it off. McLaughlin does, and the first person style gives him the opportunity to keep up a banter between writer and reader that far outstrips anything that can be done plausibly in third person.
If the book has a downside, it's only that the narrative is VERY American. If you're a fan of all things US, you're going to lap this up. If you're not that far into American culture, you might find the narrative a bit abrasive. I don't call this a downside ... because it's a story about Hollywood, and how are you going to tell it without Americana? (Some critics and readers are not so understanding. Example: the stupidest criticism I ever read of the Lord of the Rings movies was that all the characters have English accents. How ludicrous would an American or Australian, French or German accent have sounded in Middle Earth?!) Personally, I don't have a bone to pick with Americana. I like reading about other people's cultures.
Highly recommended. AG's rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
It was done originally by Dutton but the edition I have is the Plume/Penguin reprint of 1995.
This was McLaughlin's debut novel and I think we all expected him to go on and write a slough of books, hopefully with gay twists and great gay characters. Well, 13 years after I bought the reprint of Glamourpus, we were still waiting, and I never tracked down anything else by this writer.
I guess McLaughlin 's life took him in different directions -- and that's fair enough too. (Life usually takes us in directions we never guessed. McLaughlin could be enormously prolific under another pen name for all I know.)
Glamourpuss is about Hollywood having a laugh at itself. It features daytime soapie TV ... you know, things like The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless. In the novel the show is entitled Hearts Crossing, but if you see one of these things, you've seen 'em all.
One of the stars of the show is a new actor, Alex Young, who plays a cute sociopath named Simon Arable, the son of a mad scientist. And Alex has a major secret.
He's not a sociopath. He's gay. When the books starts, his fans don't know. Yet. He has a boyfriend who's just way too hard to get -- Nick. And he's trying to keep his love life under wraps.
Then a nation-wide gossip rag gets its hooks into Alex and runs a story that blows his secret, and ... suddenly Alex is not that popular in Hollyweird. His fans are dead nuts, and his part in the show doesn't look too secure. To top it off he's got a stalker. The story takes place in 1990-1991, when there was still a lot more homophobia than you have today. In today's movie and TV industry you have hunky actors who're out and proud of it, and beloved for it. Not the case in 1990 ...
The plot of Glamourpuss could also have been done dead-serious as a thriller. It would have worked if McLaughlin had played up the fear and dread aspect ... though he'd have had to write a different ending! But McLaughlin picked the right way to go and did it as a sexy gay comedy -- right down to the last line in the book, which makes anybody who knows anything about romance novels break a rib.
(Let me explain. Mills & Boone (Harlequin) actually used to run night school courses in how to write the romantic goo they publish. The DIY romance of the month course is called, And Then He Kissed Her. The last line in Glamourpuss is, "And then he kissed me." I laughed and laughed.)
In fact, I laughed right through the whole book. I'd recommend this for anybody who's looking for a funny, sexy gay read; anybody who knows for a fact Hollywood is gay-controlled and wonders why there aren't more gay TV shows; anybody who likes more or less contemporary books; and anyone who enjoys those movies where Hollywood makes films about itself (Hooper is still the best one I know).
The characters are numerous and well drawn. The book is written in the first person ... which is a neat trick, if a writer can pull it off. McLaughlin does, and the first person style gives him the opportunity to keep up a banter between writer and reader that far outstrips anything that can be done plausibly in third person.
If the book has a downside, it's only that the narrative is VERY American. If you're a fan of all things US, you're going to lap this up. If you're not that far into American culture, you might find the narrative a bit abrasive. I don't call this a downside ... because it's a story about Hollywood, and how are you going to tell it without Americana? (Some critics and readers are not so understanding. Example: the stupidest criticism I ever read of the Lord of the Rings movies was that all the characters have English accents. How ludicrous would an American or Australian, French or German accent have sounded in Middle Earth?!) Personally, I don't have a bone to pick with Americana. I like reading about other people's cultures.
Highly recommended. AG's rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
March 26, 2023
Alex is in college in the theater program. He meets Nick and wants to switch to law but, in the end, knows theater is a better fit for him. He has fallen for Nick but Nick is in a relationship, no matter what Barney is like. Alex takes what he can with Nick but eventually moves to LA for acting jobs. Getting on a soap opera for a short run leads to a longer run on the show. He still longs for Nick but knows nothing has changed. He gets involved with Trevor but when Alex is outed and the soap changes his character's arc, life gets more complicated especially since Trevor is also getting a chance on a prime time show. Can Alex uncomplicate his life? Will Trevor choose Alex? Will Alex and Trevor ever have a chance?
I loved this book. There is angst and humor. I loved Alex. He does his best to show Nick he is there for him. He also does his best to move on. When he is outed, he follows his agent's advice and stays low keyed but that does not change things. When he is betrayed by a "fan" who is also supposedly a friend from high school, he takes action. Unfortunately, it is too little, too late. I felt so bad for Alex. I adored Sara, his best friend. She tells it like he needs to hear it but she has his back no matter what.
Nick, I had reservations about. I liked him but he was wishy-washy in his relationships with others. Like Alex, I could not figure out why he was with Barney. Barney was a bump on a log. So many times he made promises to Alex and broke them. I do not know how Alex put up with him. I would have kicked him to the curb so many times. Alex stayed in for the long haul but did eventually stood up for himself. I was glad he did. I think that was the wake up call for Nick.
The story was fun. I liked the flashback parts quickly followed by current day fan mail and what was currently happening. It was not hard to follow. I laughed several times through the book either about scenes or how sentences were worded or Alex's thoughts about things. This was a romp and so much fun to read.
I loved this book. There is angst and humor. I loved Alex. He does his best to show Nick he is there for him. He also does his best to move on. When he is outed, he follows his agent's advice and stays low keyed but that does not change things. When he is betrayed by a "fan" who is also supposedly a friend from high school, he takes action. Unfortunately, it is too little, too late. I felt so bad for Alex. I adored Sara, his best friend. She tells it like he needs to hear it but she has his back no matter what.
Nick, I had reservations about. I liked him but he was wishy-washy in his relationships with others. Like Alex, I could not figure out why he was with Barney. Barney was a bump on a log. So many times he made promises to Alex and broke them. I do not know how Alex put up with him. I would have kicked him to the curb so many times. Alex stayed in for the long haul but did eventually stood up for himself. I was glad he did. I think that was the wake up call for Nick.
The story was fun. I liked the flashback parts quickly followed by current day fan mail and what was currently happening. It was not hard to follow. I laughed several times through the book either about scenes or how sentences were worded or Alex's thoughts about things. This was a romp and so much fun to read.
August 13, 2025
This book is so 90's (complimentary, though at one point I considered throwing the book across the room when the narrator complained that he had to pay $15 for dinner and two tickets to a movie).
I read this because I read the author's other novel back when I was in high school, and decided to finally read his other book. It's too bad he didn't write any more and I'd love a follow up to either of them, but I think that these were the books being written in the 90's and then pretty quickly fell out of fashion... which is a pity. There's a place for silly books that make you laugh, and this did the job well.
I read this because I read the author's other novel back when I was in high school, and decided to finally read his other book. It's too bad he didn't write any more and I'd love a follow up to either of them, but I think that these were the books being written in the 90's and then pretty quickly fell out of fashion... which is a pity. There's a place for silly books that make you laugh, and this did the job well.
June 23, 2010
I read this book so long ago, that I probably should have re-read it before placing it on the list. The protagonist, Alex Young, is an adorable daytime soap star, outed by a tabloid rag, and subsequently thrown into one frying pan after another. Two things I do recall with complete clarity: that I laughed my ASS off while reading it and that I immediately purchased the only other book I could find by this author, Sex Toys of the Gods. Glamourpuss has it all: laughs, love, and shenanigans galore! Sex Toys was as much fun as Glamourpuss – I highly recommend both – as a matter of fact – as I sit here remembering how much I laughed, I think I’ll be re-reading them each again, post-hast! : )
From my post, The Inside Reader on Elisa Rolle's Reviews & Ramblings -
http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/98...
From my post, The Inside Reader on Elisa Rolle's Reviews & Ramblings -
http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/98...
July 21, 2016
This was one of the first, if not the first, gay novels I ever read. I've been wanting to re-read it now, from the lens of 20+ years of being out and see if it held up. If it was as brilliant and amazing as I thought it was. It is. The writing is witty and sharp and there are turns that are funny and smart and a bit of heartbreak thrown in. It's a great read and one I'm so glad I re-visited.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews