The Stars in the Bright Sky

The Sopranos Cycle #2

by Alan Warner

Out of school & out in the world, gathered in Gatwick to plan a super-cheap last-minute holiday to celebrate their reunion. Kay, Kylah, Manda, Rachel & Finn are joined by Finn's gorgeous friend Ava - a half-French philosophy student & are ready to go on the rampage.

Genres: Fiction, Scotland, Travel, Humor, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Novels

394 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Note: There is more than one Alan Warner, this is the page for the award-winning Scottish novelist. For books by other people bearing the same name see Alan Warner

Alan Warner (born 1964) is the author of six novels: the acclaimed Morvern Callar (1995), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; These Demented Lands (1997), winner of the Encore Award; The Sopranos (1998), winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award; The Man Who Walks (2002), an imaginative and surreal black comedy; The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven (2006), and The Stars in the Bright Sky (2010), a sequel to The Sopranos. Morvern Callar has been adapted as a film, and The Sopranos is to follow shortly. His short story 'After the Vision' was included in the anthology Children of Albion Rovers (1997) and 'Bitter Salvage' was included in Disco Biscuits (1997). In 2003 he was nominated by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'. In 2010, his novel The Stars in the Bright Sky was included in the longlist for the Man Booker Prize.

Alan Warner's novels are mostly set in "The Port", a place bearing some resemblance to Oban. He is known to appreciate 1970s Krautrock band Can; two of his books feature dedications to former band members (Morvern Callar to Holger Czukay and The Man Who Walks to Michael Karoli). Alan Warner currently splits his time between Dublin and Javea, Spain.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

a sequel to the great 'The Sopranos' ( no, not the US TV series but a book about Scottish schoolgirls, and tremendously funny and full of life: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41... )
Of course his 'Morvern Callar' remains my book of the 90s.. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52...

I first came across Alan Warner when a Scottish temp at work lent me Morvern Callar in 1995 (I lent her Kelman’s ‘How Late it Was, How Late’, and never got it back). It (MC) was one of those books that I just started and had to continue, while walking or eating etc, it was so absorbing: strange but rooted in supermarket- checkout-girl reality, amoral yet searching for truth, poetic and demotic. The strange detachment of Morvern is compelling because you don’t know how she’ll react to events (eg the suicide of her 30 year old novelist boyfriend). I have to admit to falling in love with her, as much as you can fall in love with a literary creation. I bought copies for my friends, and all the women remarked how well Warner had got inside the mind of a 21 year old woman. In fact as there was no biographical information on (or in) the book they were convinced that it was a woman writing under a pseudonym. It became a favourite (much more so than Irvine Welsh’s stuff who he was compared to, simply because he is also Scottish) in my little gang. Then later came ‘The Sopranos’, lighter in tone but equally impressive in its ability to enter the mind of females, this time six of them, schoolgirls, part of a choir who have a trip to Edinburgh for a choral competition and the plot follows their shenanigans as they behave in the wild, but also normal way of most girls that age, and that culture (small town/working class – although a couple are more middle class). Superbly funny and again quite densely poetic but also full of slang and wonderfully detailed observation.

Then along came this book. I had stopped reading Warner – just didn’t fancy his last two novels from the blurbs (although friends tell me they’re good), but had to read this because it’s a sequel to ‘The Sopranos’, and I had to find out what had happened to fat Guinness drinking Manda, and Finn and Chell and the rest. (I named one of my story characters after Manda.) Here they meet up at Gatwick airport to go an unbooked holiday (they are going to do the lastminute thing and book one there) in 2001 when they are just in their 20s. Orla has died, and a new character, Ava, a rich half French philosophy student (Finn is at Uni with her) takes her place. Well, they start to chat and have fun and get drunk and talk about their luggage – straighteners have been brought but not curling tongs, someone’s brought an iron, they get pissed talk about lads, one (Manda of course) loses her passport, so they can’t go and are stuck for another two nights there (in the airport hotels), they go for a trip to Hever castle (in nearby Kent), and finally book a trip to Las Vegas but.. well I’ll let you find out. Suffice to say they never leave the ground (literally that is).

Strictly speaking I should have given this 4 stars because even I got a little bored in one or two places with the incredible attention to the detail of the quotidian, of the TV programmes, eg Big Brother that they watch, the account of the VIP lounge in the home town’s one nightclub (Rascals), the difference in sizes between GAP and Topshop, but there are set pieces that are so funny, as well as true and a little poignant that all is forgiven. Manda on coke (not Coca Cola) watching porn in the hotel room for example, or their encounters with various men, eg the waiter at the airport or the groundsman at Hever Castle (men are much talked about but seldom appear). Ava too brings another dimension with her ability to sail through life as an aristocrat and themes of class, and philosophy are explored (the main theme though, as others have said, is loss of innocence). I probably would avoid this group had I met them in the airport (not that I go to airports much) or in the pub but Warner gives them their proper due, once again he has enthralled me.

Quotes are needed and will be forthcoming when I get home…
Still at work, but managed to scribble this down in break, from a random page - Manda on Spain:‘Watch out for yon food they’re aye funnelling down your gullet. Pie-elle-yah it’s called. It’s minging. It’s bright yellow rice like yon you get with a carry out from The Light of India, but it’s got all sea monsters and stuff in and you try to lift a spoonful and it’s got the broke-off creeper pincer things of those sort of sea cockroaches mixed up in it. When all you want’s a good burger, eh?’

The airport with its alien landscape of beeping machines and franchises and huge black pipe work suspended from the ceiling, the moving walkways and Hoppa buses and ersatz ‘English pub’ is beautifully evoked:
At the back of Macdonalds, the Game Grid amusement arcade was empty. The machines seemed to talk to themselves, like burbling, jungle canopy wildlife… The Ezzy Dancer stood hugely before them, eight feet tall when elevated, embedded disco lights on top of the large speakers. The lights obediently flashed, reminding both Finn and Ava of sad village hall discos long past. Above.. a mania of information scrolled up the large pulsating screen, then disappeared at the top.. The dance step arrows were flying upwards while an urging, wry, male American voice – like a cynical sergeant from the Marine Corps – imprecated and threateningly encouraged from the woofer speakers. ‘Excellent.’ ‘You could be a professional.’ The voice sneered towards phantom dancers who were not there, tempting observers to insert money, mount the platform and dance.

[Jake Goretzki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came to this after deciding that ‘The Deadmans Pedal’ was my novel of 2012, pretty much.

To Alan Warner’s credit, it’s one brave task to take on – a novel set overwhelmingly and claustrophobically in an airport, with a large cast of characters that are doomed to be marked down for not being likeable by the ‘likeability’ seeking Richard & Judy reader. To be clear, the dominant character is an irritating twat.

My main criticism though centres around character interaction and voice. Granted, this is a ‘what happened next?’ from an earlier coming-of-age novel, ‘The Sopranos’ (but it’s a standalone too) – so perhaps those relationships have been forged and the work has been done there. But coming to the group for the first time here, I really didn’t believe in the idea that this ragtag band would actually still regroup in this way or retain its loyalties and connections. ‘Manda’ is an exaggeratedly stupid, insufferable Alpha Female and I just didn’t believe that the two plus old friends would still be humouring her and giving her centre stage, having entered their twenties and left town. She’s precisely the kind of person they’d have waved goodbye to years earlier. Her small town ignorance– which a number of the other characters also display – doesn’t really feel credible for a character in an age of TV and mass communication. So I found myself quite often thinking ‘She would know that’; ‘she would have known what that is’; ‘there’s no way she’d call Enrique Iglesias ‘Reaky Glaciers’ by accident’. The studied naivety just didn’t work for me. Or add up. On the one hand we’re to imagine she’s canny, heart-of-gold and folk-smart; on the other she’s a fucking idiot with the brains of an eight year old.

Beyond her, the rest of the cast struggled to come through for me – and six of them is, to be fair, a huge task for a writer to develop and push into interaction. I didn’t really believe in the Ava character; that she would have surrendered herself to this; the Jewish-French-English-Rose-Oxford-Junkie assembly. I wanted her to come to life more and to get an understanding of her rapport with Finn (the reason behind her joining the parade). I also didn’t think she’d have been embraced, in time, the way she was.

The other big flaw, I think, is voice, which didn’t really serve character. At times we have imagery that just doesn’t belong here. A business centre in a hotel is described as looking something like ‘a room of voting booths for an election in a developing world country’ (or something smart like that) – but whose observation is that? Not these girls’. At other times, where Warner was describing the airport interior, I found myself going “Alan, we know what the lifts look like in airports. You don’t have to notice and describe the mechanism of the lifts”. The characters certainly wouldn’t.

The ending (I won’t give it away) is also a bit set-piece-y and for-the-sake of it too, and doesn’t really reveal anything, other than that this novel is set around this date. A la 'On the wireless, Mr Chamberlain was heard saying "I believe it is peace for our time"'.

So, a really brave concept to take on - but not especially rewarding in its execution. It’s the kind of thing that might perhaps get more interesting as decades pass, as it’s a snapshot of current/recent consumer culture and lifestyle (the fashion, the food, the mores). Pardon the pun though - it never really took off.

[🐴 🍖]

10/10 didnae scum me out. as good as sopranos; prob better since, as the cast of chars are older, the squeamishness factor is eliminated. dialogue's a marvel. are there a few malapropisms that would never actually happen? some observations that read more like the navelgazing of a 40something novelist than scots girls on holiday? ya but i don't think they'd stand out in such sharp relief if the general level of verisimilitude, or as manda would put it, real-feeling-ness, weren't so high. speaking of manda: she's blossomed into one of those rly monstrous characters like you'd come across in a christina stead novel who just sucks all the air outta the room, but not w/o a lil twinge of pathos. felt like the 2nd book of a trilogy, which, maybe someday??

[Spiros · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Grossmith, playing Ko Ko (Martin Savage): "A terrible thing has happened. It seems you're the son of the Mikado!"
W.S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent): A terrible thing HAS happened, Grossmith. You've become a cockney.

As we rejoin our heroines, the alumna of Our Lady of Perpetual Succor, as they prepare to go on holiday from Gatwick Airport, we discover that a terrible thing has happened: this book has been written in English, instead of Warner's typical, lyrical Scots. Thus, Chell's catchphrase, introduced in The Sopranos as "Dinnae scum us out!" is rendered here as "Don't scum me out", which I feel looses a certain je ne sais quoi.
Aside from this, the book is typical Warner; the social and personal dynamics amongst the five girls from The Port, plus Fionnula's roommate from Uni, rich girl Ava, are fascinating. The three girls still living in The Port, Kylah, Chell, and the domineering Manda, are offset by the three University girls, Kay, Ava, and the natural leader Fionnula, (aka The Mighty Finn); over the course of the doomed weekend, antipathies and alliances are forged and renewed amongst them, as they all try to deal with Manda, who seems hellbent on destroying their vacation in the interest of furthering her own importance. In Manda Tassy, Warner has created a monster straight out of Jane Austen, and while most of the story takes place in airport hotel rooms, bars, and restaurants, which would naturally tend to the claustrophobic, the air is sucked out of any scene in which Manda appears, which is almost every scene in the book. Even an excursion to Hever Castle, in Kent, is claustrophobic: the six girls wedge themselves into a rental car, weather a thunderstorm, and get lost in a maze.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

“‘Aye. And this feels like them brilliant nights when we’s were eleven and twelve and that and we all used to do a sleepover at each other’s; does it, girls? Like pyjama parties we’ve had; eating crisps and talking and talking till you just fell asleep. When we were just wee lassies.’
‘Life seemed so. Exciting then. Eh, girls? Everything was still to happen to us, so’s it felt tons better.’”

I read The Sopranos in college for my Scottish literature/history course. Once you get used to the Scottish slang, it’s a quick read. It follows six small-town Catholic school girls on a choir trip to the city. While I was amused by the groups’ hijinks and troublemaking, I was deeply moved by the realistic depiction of female friendship.

The Stars in the Bright Sky picks up three years later, as the group of girls plans a holiday. Will they go to Spain or Las Vegas? Will they drink Guinness or champagne? Will they ever actually leave the airport?

A dark comedy, Alan Warner brings the characters alive in a way that I rarely see in contemporary fiction. They walk off the page. At surface level, the book follows the friends as they deal with alcohol, drugs, and poor planning. But at a deeper level, the girls struggle with classism, death, a loss of innocence, the limitations of small-town life, and the sense of jadedness that accompanies growing up. A hilarious and profound read — I wish Warner had continued on with these characters.

[martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The twist at the end. ??? So unexpected genuinely. I enjoyed this book because it just felt like I was gossiping with them, and it was very realistic as to what friendships as a girl are like. I actually ended up really liking Manda because she’s really entertaining and I don’t think the book would’ve been the same without her, but if I knew her in real life I probably would hate her

[Jack Deighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sequel of sorts to Warner’s 1998 novel The Sopranos where a group of girls from the school Our Lady of Perpetual Succour went on a trip to Edinburgh from their town – known in Warner’s novels as ‘the Port’ – for a choir competition, but they saw it instead as an opportunity for a night on the razz in the big city.

Now adults, Kylah, Chell, Manda, Kay, Finn and Finn’s friend from university, Ava, are planning a holiday abroad. They meet up on a Friday evening at a hotel near Gatwick Airport preparatory to utilising a last minute booking for taking off to Europe, settling on Magaluf as a destination.

Much has changed since The Sopranos. In the interim one of them has had an abortion, another a baby - always referred to by mother Manda as ‘wee Sean’ - by a waster of a father, and Finn’s studies at Oxford have created a distance between them. She has, for instance, never been to Rascals, the Port’s newest night venue, which Manda in particular regards as the height of sophistication. (I use that last word in its modern sense rather than the original of world-weariness.) Despite, though, Ava’s upper middle class background they begin to settle down together and forge – or re-forge – bonds. Manda is something of a force of nature, overbearing and scornful, but also vulnerable. It is through her mislaid passport that the group’s plans go awry and they are forced to forfeit the already outlaid money and to spend the weekend in or around the airport and its hotels waiting for a cheap flight to Las Vegas. The interlude provides time for an eventful trip to Hever Castle and back plus copious drinking opportunities.

Incidental comments and snippets underline the contrast between those who stayed in the Port and those who left and Warner’s focus on the girls’ relationships lends a creeping claustrophobia to the situation. Their knowledge of and regard for each other, though, remain the central core of the book. Yet there are still revelations. In one break away from the others Finn describes Ava to Kay as “a legendary, awful cokehead” who, she hopes, has given it up.

Perhaps a not-so-subtle note of class consciousness on Warner’s part occurs when Ava says, “‘When you’ve plenty money there’s no such thing as a drug problem,’” because your parents can get a lawyer to get you off on a first offence. Yet if you live on a council estate the authorities will throw the book at you. Ava continues, “‘It’s all semantics. What problem? You have a supply, you have no drug problem.’”

As befits his characters the dialogue tends to the earthy but Warner’s ability to get inside the heads of young women eager for a bit of hedonism (some of whom are customarily given small chance of that) is impressive.

I did not much take to The Sopranos when I read it, nor to the rest of Warner’s early work, as I said about his later novel The Deadman’s Pedal. However I found both that and his The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven more congenial. The Stars in the Bright Sky was published between those two books. Does it say something about me or Warner’s later writing that I had less of an aversion to it than to The Sopranos? (I’m not in a hurry to go back to that book and check, though. Too much else to read.)

[Ian Mapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nine years after reading the Sopranos, I am reunited with the girls (less the unfortunate Orla).

This time, they are meeting up in Gatwick Airport, attempting to book a last minute holiday. What could go wrong with this Gang attempting to organise anything.

The story is told almost totally in dialogue. Warner does a great job of capturing the speech, the patter, the banter - and as a man, getting into the minds of young ladies.

So Imagine 400 pages of women talking to each other. It is at times hilarious, moving, revelatory and annoying. Sometime you just want them to shut up.

The characters are well defined but do merge a little. The major ones are the irrepressible Manda (god, you would buy her her Guinness just to shut her up) and new character, Ava (Half French, moneyed). The others merge a little to be honest.

As expected, things don't go as planned and they spend most of the book in the hinterland of Airport Hotels - with day trips out to places of interest - yes, further than the pub.

Ending is a touch weak - especially for me, where I struggled to pick up the time frame of when the book was set. The only clue was that they were allowed to smoke in Pubs - so I knew it was in the recent past.

All in all, an enjoyable experience.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alan Warner's The Stars in the Bright Sky is his sixth novel and the sequel to 'The Sopranos'. This was my first taste of the author and to be truthful, I am not a fan. There are many many great reviews for his earlier work and this one was nominated for the Booker Prize so I had looked forward to reading it.

The story is set in Gatwick Airport - a group of twenty-something women have decided to take a last minute holiday - they don't have a clue where they are going, and are old friends with a long history. There is some really wonderful characterisation, with each girl being developed well - but none of them are particularly likeable, nor are they interesting.

The majority of the novel is dialogue between the girls, and at times that dialogue is quite appalling - stunted and flat and very confusing - it's difficult to work out at times just who is doing the talking.

With no plot as such, just constant drinking, drug taking and bitching the novel soon becomes irritating and quite tedious. I'm afraid I was left feeling very unsatisfied by this novel but am curious to try one of Warner's earlier books as he has been much praised in the past.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite dull, and, apart from the dialogue, quite self-importantly and pretentiously written. Very endless -- only Manda emerges as a real individual, and she is relentlessly unlikeable enough for that to be problematic. The other girls remain much more indistinct (perhaps we are supposed to remember their characters from reading the Sopranos 11 years ago?), and the freshness of Warner's voice has faded a lot since the Sopranos and Morvern Callar.

The inevitable "suprise" ending is not a surprise but at least means the book is over.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Edinburgh, I asked a bookseller to suggest contemporary novelists, and Alan Warner was one of his recommendations.

If this were filmed, it would look something like a Scottish version of Jersey Shore Goes on Vacation: Half a dozen 20ish women meet at Gatwick, prepared to buy tickets to the cheapest destination they can find; they get wasted and things go wrong.
But the author's asides on philosophy, architecture, etc. make this so much more than a funny 'beach' book. Brilliant ending.

[Celia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so bad. I picked it up in the library because a quote on the back said it was "impressive" how the male author captured the psyche of young women, and oh dear isn't it clear now that this quote was also written by a clueless man. I'm a young woman and there was absolutely nothing relatable in this book. We don't talk only about men and clothes, we don't use this type of slang, we definitely don't just throw away hundreds of pounds just because one of us can't be bothered to search for her passport in her stuff.
The ending was ridiculous and completely out of touch with the rest of the book. Adding one element of modern history doesn't make a book deep.
There is no point reading this book at all.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel boasts a larger-than-life group of childhood friends from Scotland whose thirst for life is only equalled by their thirst for alcohol and fancy clothes. Warner manages to subvert all snobbery with their surprising shows of heart, soul and intelligence. The pace of the story shifts a gear between sections and brings tenderness and insight to the brazen banter of this bunch of sorted, working class girls. It's the dialogue that stands out, frenetic, teasing, bawdy and bold. You feel you're in a nightclub with a happy hardcore soundtrack, a 24 hour bar and no exit and you just hold on for the ride. Really something else.

[Ry Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warner has a keen ear for language and doesn't shy away from issues such as class and monetary divides, but the focus of this book is simply people in all their messy complexity. This sequel to The Sopranos is a largely plotless novel about a vacation that never takes place, it's mostly about how the characters interact with each other. It avoids moralizing, and focuses on depicting instead. I liked it - not quite as much as The Sopranos, but still enough that I'll rate them roughly the same.

[steve watson` · Rating 5 out of 5]

poignant ending

[Palmyrah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very good writing in this book about five young Scottish women and their Anglo-French friend trying to get it together to fly off on a cheap package holiday. The characterization is very well done, and the individual voices of the six young women are so finely tuned you rarely need the author’s attribution to tell you who’s speaking. Alan Warner has a great ear and considerable psychological insight, and he understands young women very well indeed.

Equally good are his descriptions of scenes and settings, which focus on what at first seem quirky details but, if you pay attention, unfold into compelling evocations of time, place and mood. This trick is a speciality of the author; I enjoyed just as much it in another of his novels, These Demented Lands.

Unfortunately, the plot – such as it is – of The Stars in the Bright Sky began to lose its grip on my attention about two-thirds of the way through, and when a (seemingly rather gratuitous) druggy episode elbowed its way into the action, I found myself expecting all kinds of fireworks – which, disappointingly, failed to go off.

I didn’t make it to the finish. With the dawning realization that there wasn’t really going to be any kind of climax or resolution to the story, I skipped lightly through the last fifty or so pages until I came to the end, which seemed to have been slapped on because the author was tired of writing about these girls and their adventures any more. Very annoying, and not at all what I’d expected from a writer with so much evident talent.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Stars in the Bright Sky see the return of the girls from The Sopranos or maybe some of them as I hadn't read that yet (just ordered on Amazon, fingers crossed I did the banner thing right at the top) and now I've read this one twice

In this novel, the girls and Finn's friend from Uni Ava are going away on holiday but not sure where yet until they see the special offers the night before. Manda is there with Chell and Kylah who are all still in the same town, Kay is in university in Glasgow studying Architecture and Finn and Finn is down in London to study Philosophy with Ava.

Through one thing (Manda losing her passport) they miss their first flight, they get stranded slightly in Gatwick. I don't think the storyline is pivotal of what they get up to there, it's the how that is the important and Warner's use of dialogue and situation to create humour. He does that very well in this novel, reading at lunchtime at work, think others in the office might have thought I went insane (or at least had further evidence of such)

This was the second time of reading, I do really like the novel. It is funny

[Jo Bennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The gallus, hellraising Catholic schoolgirls from The Sopranos have grown up, and are at Gatwick airport ready to book a cheap last minute deal and unleash themselves on some unsuspecting culture. Orla has succumbed to Hodgkins lymphoma and her place is taken by Finn's London flatmate Ava, extreme in her beauty and wealth. Warner's skill in this novel is extraordinary, the easy thing would have been to keep the girls moving through new experiences and display their character via their reactions, but instead the sense is one of claustrophobia and quiet desparation, as the reader you are fully able to understand the lengths Ava goes to to make the experience variable. The climax was for me just brilliant, paragraphs of heartbreaking irony as the girls finally get ready to take on Las Vegas flying via JFK New York having got the frankly unbearable Manda upgraded away from them to first class.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much as I loved The Sopranos, I think I enjoyed the follow-up even more. Seeing where the girls have ended up just a few years later, how they've changed (and not changed, in some cases). It's just wonderful and I felt so connected to the characters.

The introduction of a new character -- Ava, Fionnula's friend from uni -- filled the absence from Orla's death while not displacing her memory. And Ava added an interesting dynamic to the way the other girls interact with each other.

Overall, I would highly recommend this, but definitely suggest reading The Sopranos first.

[Gary Bonn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gang of over-excited women and Gatwick Airport - what could possibly go wrong?

Like me, it may you a while to get into this; it took me a little longer to get the point. It's one hell of a point. Subtly written, excruciating at times, this is a book to savour and not rush. You'll find yourself thinking about it long after you've finished reading.

One day I hope that Alan Warner will say he likes my books as much as I like his. Thank you, Alan. A masterpiece. I love Manda! - one of the most beautifully portrayed characters ever written.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sequel to The Sopranos, published in 1998. It has not been published in the US, so I had to order it from amazon.co.uk. I enjoyed it a lot, though it had less cohesion, plot-wise, than its predecessor. Regardless, there are beautiful and touching moments in this book, it it was wonderful to be able to 'catch up' with loved characters from a decade ago. If you like Alan Warner's work, this is definitely worth the special order from the UK.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I came across this book in the library and picked it up without really thinking about it. This book was really boring to me. The only reason why I finished it, is because I don't like to start a book without actually finishing it. May I also say that I was freaking annoyed with the character "Amanda Tassy". I simply don't recommend this book and I'm sorry to say, but to me it was kind of a waste of time.

[Sara Molinaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm on the fence about this one; having never been a late teenage girl Warner seems to live on the brink of fantasy regarding their language and sexuality. Is every 19-20 year old bisexual? I'm skeptical. He does keep the dialogue moving along and the ending was totally surprising and pretty fitting, given the way the whole novel went.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Going along so well until the last three pages... then an awful, truly awful ending. An unnecessary ending, one with nothing at all to do with the characters or plot. I've been a big fan of Warner's for a while, but those three pages at the end were a big fail, in my mind. They redefine the book in an terrible, kitschy way.

[Gayla Bassham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this one a lot, actually. There is no plot, so if you go looking for one you will be deeply disappointed. But it is never dull and Manda is a marvelous character. I was sorry to turn the last page.

[Joanne Parkington · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute rubbish .. a complete waste of paper ... this was short listed for the Booker Prize .. Why?? From a set of annoying one dimensional characters to a completely uninteresting location and a predictable ending ... it was painful to read.

[Angus McKeogh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huge let down compared to The Sopranos. Pretty repetitive and boring. Found myself just not interested in what was happening. I managed to give it three stars because I finished it. But overall just nothing spectacular at all. And the ending just seemed contrived and gratuitous.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as great as his other books but entertaining and nice to check back in with him and the girls. Three and a half stars.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read populated by familiar, lively and interesting characters but just not in the same league as The Sopranos.

[James Haliburton]

Disappointing follow up to 'The Sopranos'. Lacking Warner's usual story-telling invention 'Stars' is a series of uninvolving set pieces.