Five top novels that examine celebrity culture

Olivia Petter is an award-winning journalist, author, and broadcaster based in London.

Petter's first book, Millennial Love, was published in July 2021. Described as “honest and funny” by Pandora Sykes, the book is based on Petter's podcast of the same name and blends social commentary with memoir and interviews.

Her debut novel, Gold Rush, will be published in July 2024.

At the Guardian Petter tagged "five novels that examine celebrity culture." One title on the list:

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Celebrity culture is a recurrent theme in Reid’s novels. All offer nuanced depictions of fame, but Malibu Rising stands out. Set in Malibu in 1983, the novel focuses on the famous Riva family, comprised of four very different siblings and their absent father, legendary musician Mick Riva. Their mother, June, raises their children alone and it’s her story – specifically the way she’s forced to put up with her husband’s starry-eyed nothingness – that gives this book its emotional heft.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Malibu Rising is among Shilpi Somaya Gowda's ten novels with rotating perspectives, Laura Griffin's seven suspense titles in which paradise is not what it seems, and María Amparo Escandón's eight top books about living in Los Angeles.

--Marshal Zeringue