Synopses & Reviews
From a PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow comes a charming and disarming tale of Los Angeles that navigates the fringe of celebrity excess from the other side of Sunset Boulevard. Jess Dunne is third-generation Hollywood, but her star on the boulevard has yet to materialize. Sure, shes got a Santa Monica address and a working actress roommate, but with her nowhere barista job in a town that acknowledges zeroes only as a dress size, shes a dead girl walking.
Enter Jesss mothera failed actress who puts the strange in estrangement. She dives headlong into her daughters downward spiral, forcing Jess to muster all her spite and self-preservation to snag a career upgrade.
As a personal assistant for a famous (and secretly agoraphobic) film composer, Jesss workdays are now filled with shopping for luxury goods and cooking in his perfectly designed kitchen. Jess kills at cooking, a talent that only serves her intensifying urge to dig in to Los Angeless celebrity buffet.
When her food garners the attention of an actress on the rise, well, shes all too willing to throw it in with the composer and upgrade again, a decision that will have far-reaching ramifications that could explode all her relationships.
All the while, her mother looms ever closer, forcing Jess to confront the traumatic secrets shes been running from all her life.
Oh! You Pretty Things is a dizzying ride at the carnival of fame, a fast-paced and sharply funny work that dares to imagine what happens when we go over the top in a town of gilded excess.
Review
“Shanna Mahins prose amuses, seduces, and kicks your ass all at the same time. The story, as fresh and urgent as tomorrows best gossip, grabs hold and never lets go. An absolute joyride!”
--Allison Burnett, screenwriter of Autumn in New York and Feast of Love
Review
"
Oh! You Pretty Things rocks my Amadeus! Funny, ironic, sardonic, sarcastic, clever, heartfelt…there is something so wonderful about a book thats so upfront and in-your-face, yet manages to subtly deliver an emotional punch that will linger with you long after youve turned the final page. Dont let the glitzy Hollywood facade fool you; this fabulous novel reveals much about the depth of the human soul.” --Garth Stein,
New York Times bestselling author of
A Sudden Light and
The Art of Racing in the Rain “Shanna Mahins prose amuses, seduces, and kicks your ass all at the same time. The story, as fresh and urgent as tomorrows best gossip, grabs hold and never lets go. An absolute joyride!” --Allison Burnett, screenwriter of Autumn in New York and Feast of Love
“Reading Oh! You Pretty Things is like eating a box of chocolates in bed—but without any calories. Hilarious, poignant, sharply observed, it is at once a caricature of Hollywood and a searingly accurate portrayal of life inside tinseltown. Shanna Mahin has given us a central character who is both hard-assed and lovable, and a supporting cast worthy of its own Oscar. I wanted another thousand pages of this books charm, fluidity, and mordant wit.” -Andrew Solomon, New York Times bestselling author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree
About the Author
SHANNA MAHIN is a high school dropout who rallied late despite her ninth grade English teachers prediction of a lifetime of wasted potential. Her writing fellowships include the MacDowell Colony, the Norman Mailer Center, and PEN Center USA Emerging Voices. Just like her character, Shanna is third-generation Hollywood.