Superstars

by Ann Scott

Louise, la trentaine, est une ancienne musicienne de rock, reconvertie dans la techno. Un matin, au réveil, elle met un disque et replonge vers le passé. Elle a envie de revenir en arrière sans régresser. Louise a besoin et envie de choses simples : toucher la peau d'un garçon, écouter des chansons qui racontent des histoires. Elle est mûre pour une nouvelle chance. Et aussi pour un dérapage, sans doute inévitable

Genres: Fiction, Queer, Lesbian, LGBT, France, Historical, Adult

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[Alwynne]

Ann Scott’s novel’s a cult classic in France. It made quite a splash when it first appeared in 2000. Scott’s book grew out of a diary used to vent about the collapse of a brief but intense affair. An affair that led to being shunned by her closest friends. Set in Paris in the mid to late 1990s, it’s narrated by Louise who’s caught up in the city’s underground, queer, techno rave scene. Louise is 31 sharing a dingy apartment with friends Alice and Pallas. All three are broke but Alice and Pallas are used to better things. Alice is an aspiring artist. Pallas is unemployed but convinced she’ll be a superstar someday soon. Louise has abandoned her former life as a rock musician and trying to make it as a DJ. But when Alice’s art takes off she moves out and Pallas and Louise form a close bond. Louise prefers women but still has sex with men from time to time – she’s less likely to fall in love. Their relatively stable existence is shattered when Louise pursues much younger Inès barely 17, she’s still a schoolgirl. She’s also partner to Alex, Louise’s hugely successful former girlfriend. A situation that ultimately leads to Louise spiralling out of control.

Louise’s Paris is a whirlwind of sex, drugs and clubs. Her circle spends their time watching MTV, dropping E’s, wearing vintage Adidas and competing for who has the rarest, vintage tees. An arresting snapshot of Paris’s queer rave scene this felt closer in style and spirit to early Eileen Myles, Sarah Schulman or Michelle Tea. Although hard not to wonder if it influenced recent work by Constance Debré. But where Debré projects a studied indifference about the women she encounters, Scott’s world is messy and incestuous, her story increasingly frenzied, as Louise is consumed by desire and desiring. As a novel it’s baggy in places, awkwardly structured. But as a portrait of a, somewhat-rarefied, queer subculture and an era it’s strangely compulsive. Self-centred, self-deluding Louise is difficult to actually like – at times she’s close to repulsive - but at the same time hard not to root for. Translated by Jonathan Woollen.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Pushkin Press for an ARC

[jocelyn • coolgalreading]

i should've loved this but it became sort of a chore to pick up

[Kobe]

very messy very queer very chaotic but maybe a little repetitive?

[Camille]

‘Superstars’ reads like the hardcore nepo baby of ‘The L Word’ and ‘brat’, except it was originally published in French in 2000 and thus predates those pieces of media entirely. We don’t really follow a plot as much as experience the life of Louise, a DJ in her early 30s, as she drifts in a drug-fueled haze through the queer Parisian techno scene.

Louise is deeply unlikeable and at best completely delusional. At one point, she monologues about how she’s so mature and knows how act in relationships, but at the same time is in a secret situationship with her ex’s new girlfriend (who is 17, btw) and then cheats on said situationship with her current roommate and best friend (did I mention this is a book about lesbians? Lol).

The authentic 90s setting is really prominent and enjoyable. Louise is annoyed by Britney Spears and everyone’s baggy clothes (she’s clearly not like other girls) and she constantly watches MTV. The ravers also have a “standard survival kit” that consists of a TV, VCR, and stereo.

Louise struggles with a heroin addiction, which gets increasingly worse as she crashes-out more and more throughout the novel. In general, the hard drug-use that’s portrayed is pretty graphic and consistent, so be aware of triggers related to that before reading.

The writing and translation are both excellent; some moments in the novel are truly beautiful and made me pause. Overall, I enjoyed ‘Superstars’ and I’m excited that it’s finally being released in English!

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc.*

[Regan]

An Ordeal (trust me I wanted to Love this)

[Samuel]

- good very chic
- unusually poor, over-literal translation
- caught reading sex scenes by an old lady on the train :((

[Ludwig Hurtado]

girl, that's what you get for falling in love with a teenager !

[Leonie]

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/4 (3.25 stars, rounded down here)

Picture the TV shows friends and the L word having a baby and that’s exactly what you‘ll get when you read this. Though, add to that a wild mix of chaos and a rather unlikeable main character who, at 31, thinks she knows all about life but totally doesn’t.
Speaking about the main character, more often than not, I felt sorry for Louise though I did think she was pretty unlikeable in the way she acted (i.e having an affair with a 17 year old who simultaneously has a relationship with Louise’s friend) and all of the supporting characters are (just like Louise) always hooked on some kind of drug. The novel shines, though, through its atmosphere. Even while not being born/raised in the 90s, one could picture Paris in the 90s sooo very well and I loved living through this story!!
Overall though, I think if you’re a fan of very crazy, chaotic but atmospheric stories and don’t mind unlikable characters then this might just be for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest and voluntarily given review.

[Hanna]

This book was written so specifically for me personally, that it’s hard to provide an objective review of its literary qualities and merits.

For 300 pages you are stuck in the head of an insufferable French scorpio in her early 30’s as she justifies the series of horrible decisions and sleeps with a variety of men, women, exes, friends, teens and inbetweens.

On the surface level it is not unlike a salacious tabloid article or a melodramatic daytime soap opera, reinforcing lesbian stereotypes galore. What elevates the book in my eyes is the masterfully crafted prose, its own unique voice (kudos to the translator!) and the very real and very deep emotional landscape that anchors the blasé, sensationalist plot.

[Jade]

queer and sexy and dirty… but also very repetitive and not really sure the point?

[Jillian B]

The vibes in this book are IMMACULATE. It follows a sapphic friend group of DJs and party girls in Y2K-era France as they lust after and feud with one another. In her early thirties, the main character, Louise, is the oldest of the group, and she’s just signed a life-changing record deal. The problem is that she’s becoming disenchanted with the techno beats they signed her for and longs for rock music. Her life becomes more complicated when she falls for the worst possible person, someone with the potential to alienate her from her closest friends.

I’m starting to get really into translated French literature and this is one of my favourites I’ve read. It’s like Rent meets Cat Marnell’s How to Murder Your Life but set in the nightclubs of Paris. I’m a big fan!

Thank you to the publisher for giving me access to an eARC of this book!

[Marco]

300 pages that felt like 3000

[leila]

book of drama, good but repetitive

[Madisen Armstrong]

awesome book to read if you want to ultimately come to the author’s stellar conclusion that being a lesbian is the same thing as having a heroin addiction (and that those things are both choices)

[Pula]

bought in Paris (in THE Shakespeare & Co bookshop well of course), not realising this would now be my third Astra House book... I think I might have a favourite publisher this is so cool

[Kim Goodwin]

This was a blind buy at a bookstore, and the description grabbed me immediately: 90s Paris techno scene, lesbian drama. How could I not pick it up?

The 90s setting was so fun to read. I loved the details of the keyboard manuals and all the very contemporary analog time stamps. Living in today's world, you can't help but romanticize an era with tons of technology but none of the phone addiction lol

The scenes that landed hardest for me were the party scenes, especially early on, the exhilaration of the music. I loved all the music references, the DJ Hell shoutout, all her gear, all the clothing brands from that era. If this had just been the story of her making the record and playing parties, I could've read that forever.

Then there's the relationship drama. Louise, how she's writtenas the grounded, wronged one, the good partner, when she's actually a disaster. Tbhh worse than everyone else, because at least the others seem to know they're selfish and rotten and own what they want. Louise's savior complex and self image as "the good one" felt way more insidious to me.

It was very dramatic. The love triangle, the total lack of grounding in the relationship. Maybe that was the point, though, to show Louise's addiction. Her trying to become Alex, the envy in that. Louise doesn't actually possess the thing she admires in all her past lovers, that sense of being tethered to a passion. She's fundamentally listless. Even by the end, she's already fixating on the potential new lover she meets at Nikki's place.

That's clearly the point of the storytelling and I wouldn't want it told differently. But I am curious whether we're meant to see through Louise, the book wants us to feel empathy for her. Because I never did, not even by the end. As someone said in one of the reviews, the girl
Is 17! WTH! Ugh ya, her being a child and her, and the preciousness of that described in the book was pretty yuck


Last thing! Also, very interesting the ending about girls not being good for her, I feel like I need to sit with that more. If this is supposed to be kind of a delusional new pattern, she’s repeating, if it’s supposed to be this suppression. Or if it’s meant at face value. Hm.

[maya]

messy nasty unpalatable women and lesbians being evil and insane to each other completely stifled by the seemingly very literal translation + repetitiveness

[Addie Buchner]

Messy, messy lesbian drama! Set in the 90s French rave scene and chock full of graphic sex and drug use scenes. Very raw and tough to read at times, but felt extremely authentic.

[Dorsey Ensor]

3.5

Did NOT like Ines being 17 and the fixation on her childlikeness.

The punk lesbian scene seemed a bit stressful!
#pride?

[Tess]

Bright lights big city meets the l word meets a y2k rave sounds like a good time but is actually a slog

[Mae]

(3.5 stars, rounding up)
This bitch Louise was a DAMN MESS! OH MY GOD.
I enjoyed this book, I found it entertaining and very dramatic. I am always going to eat up anything about lesbian insanity, even if the main character is completely self centered and delusional. I loved the depictions of the party scenes, the music, the clubs, the references to iconic DJs of the 90s like DJ Hell, Jeff Mills, and even an Atari Teenage Riot shoutout? A really great time capsule of the era, I loved the motif of always reading the time on the VCR, something so special about an era so obsessed with tech but still way before the smartphone. Despite not experiencing the 90s, I feel the book did a great job of depicting its grime. Sometimes I felt that the explanations of the lesbian friend group and their dynamics were a bit over literal, or of Nikki's guitar collection (did I really need to hear about EVERY guitar he owned in detail?) but then I have to remember that this is a translated book and certain aspects are going to get lost and simplified.
I do wish the book dove a little more into music and the techno scene, but ultimately that was an expectation I set for myself going into this book knowing very little about it. I do not think this book is for everyone, but I am glad it was for me, because I enjoyed it!

[Eva Jeanne]

je suis toujours super émue des récits lesbien qui dépeignent des moments que je n’ai pas vécu pcq suis un bb et qui ancrent ses moments dans la réalité. allo les lesbiennes ne sont pas nées hier, tout comme leurs lieux de sociabilité, leurs codes et leurs dramas. ici j’avoue que j’ai sauté des pages parce que les descriptions de dr0gue à la fin c’était compliqué pour moi a lire, surtout quand ça fait 150 pages que c’est quasi que ça. MAIS ça m’a fait rire de voir que Carhartt fonctionne avec notre agent et ça depuis avant 2002 bref merci !!

[Elise]

you know how the musical rent and is like okay that was pretty good but it's not exactly clear to me why i just watched a musical about this guy and his random and kind of irritating friends/acquaintances. what if you wanted a lesbian version of that? well you could have it. but it was pretty annoying almost all the way through

it IS very funny to be framed like a coming of age novel but you are 32 and you are cheating with your ex's gf who is 17. i believe that you could have came of age enough not to do that

read for a book club

[Kiana]

Maybe closer to 3.5 than 4 but idk I had a pretty good time with this one. Very messy, VERY hot, kinda like the L Word if any of them had good taste in anything. Need to go out dancing to techno ASAP! Also liked this better than Valencia even though Valencia takes place in my city !

[Bryn]

What did I just read lol. I both hated this book and felt compelled by it. Yikes, Louise would get cancelled so fast today. This felt very Lolita meets On The Road meets the most toxic bisexual you've ever met. But, still I couldn't put it down. What a ride.

[Jack McMorrow]

9/10. Loved how messy this was. Truly took me for a ride and I loved.

[Isabella Spradlin]

I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I read it faster… it felt like there wasn’t a clear plot to hold onto

[Elena Macdonald]

really did not like this. narrator does not understand lesbianism nor community.

[Amelia]

yikes! readable but at what cost

[Alex Provasnik]

Very entertaining