Millie Bobby Brown's new book is bad

[afeelingunacted]

presented without comment. https://t.co/0teDnXQWY8
- barry pierce, famed literary critic (@BarryPierce) September 22, 2023

• Barry pierce reviewed MBB's new book for I-D
• There is a now deleted blogpost from her ghostwriter that reveals Millie handed over some research and the ghostwriter wrote the entire first draft (and subsequent drafts lbr)
• Pierce

Comments

[squirrels_oh_no]

LBR Millie knew exactly what she was doing - this was all to get it turned into a movie which she will star in and produce and with the book she will make even more cash. It doesn't have to be good it just has to make money.

At least Tyra Banks (and her weird middle aged male ghostwriter) said fuck common sense fo Modelland which was just tying into ANTM because that is the peak of celeb ghostwritten novels.

But shout out to the celebs who actually 100% write their own novels, few if any of which have been adapted. Can't think of one at least.

[alienclit]

Modelland is too batshit to be written by anyone other than Tyra. I've read like idk the first 200 pages and it's truly one of the wildest things I've ever read. I cannot believe any professional writer had a hand in that.

[squirrels_oh_no]

Yeah and it took a while (years) to fully come out that some white guy in his 50s did the heavy lifting on creating the horror acid trip that is Modelland. But tbh it's much more readable than many celeb ghostwritten YA novels. The mid-10s were filled with so many packaged books written by authors on commission for a flat rate and it's clear none of them gave their all lmao. But somehow that has since shifted to some authors making their primary earnings doing commissioned tie in novels for marvel and star wars and stuff.

[warwarwar]

Is it fun to read or not worth it?

[alienclit]

It got too much for me. I have a friend who read it TWICE and now I question his sanity (for a multitude of reasons).

[corrykennedy]

it's fun but insane

you can tell tyra actually played a role in plotting and writing it, if that tells you anything

[veracity]

Just watch Alison Preglar's videos. She read it allowed with voices and all.

[rubie_dubidoux]

someone can correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Lauren Conrad actually write her own YA books? they were not great art or anything but I could've sworn I saw someone list that as a rare example of celebrities actually writing

[rubie_dubidoux]

(ok I looked this up and apparently she did have a "collaborator" but at the very least is on the record as saying she was actually outlining and writing herself soooooo who knows lol)

[epicdonald]

the book club i'm in is actually reading a book right now that wasn't even written by a celebrity (but the author is a struggling actor) and it's so transparent that it was written with franchising & selling the rights in mind. and on top of that the writing is bad so i was irritated our book club even picked it. and funny enough since this is a MBB post, it really reads like a Stranger Things knock off.

i feel bad naming the book and putting the guy on blast - also it might doxx my book club and by extension me - but i've been trying to read more fiction lately and it's disheartening how often i get vibes from a book that it was just written in the hopes of selling the rights to adapt it.

[afeelingunacted]

how often i get vibes from a book that it was just written in the hopes of selling the rights to adapt it.

Yessss. There are a lot of popular mainstream books that are written like a movie treatment. I felt this way about Where'd You Go Bernadette?

[silverstarry]

I read a horrible book several years ago and the author didn't even try to hide the fact that it was originally a screenplay that he turned into a book (and barely at that). Normally if I don't like a book enough to read it again, I leave it in one of the little libraries in my neighborhood, but this book was so poorly written (the plot itself as well as the grammar and format) that I felt too guilty to inflict that god awful book on an unsuspecting reader.

[silverstarry]

Off the top of my head, Steve Martin and Tom Hanks have both written fiction books (not just thinly veiled autobiographies) which were well received (and of the many celebs who have claimed to write fiction, these are two that I believe were actually written by the celebs themselves). Shopgirl was made into a movie. I thought this was the weakest of his three novellas but I also think it was the easiest to turn into a movie.

I read Molly Ringwald's novel a few years ago and I remember liking it.