Hollywood is Like High School With Money

I picked up this book in a shop called Chapters in Toronto which is basically the Canadian version of Borders. There seems to be a bit of a mystery over who Zoey Dean is, according to Wikipedia, Ms Dean is actually the pseudonym of Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld. Dean's most famous work is How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls which has been turned into the TV series Privileged. Hollywood is Like High School With Money is the tale of Taylor Henning, a 24 year old graduate who lands her dream job as an assistant at Metronome studio. Bright eyed and bushy tailed she sets out to prove herself in the world of films however she faces a barrage of backstabbing and undermining from her co-worker, Kylie. Afraid of being left on the sidelines, Taylor employs the assistance of the sassy Quinn Whitaker, the daughter of her high powered boss, Iris. Pretty soon Quinn has Taylor up to speed on ruthless tactics that are needed to get ahead in the movie business and Taylor finds herself exercising her inner mean girl antics. When a position as a creative executive comes up it looks like Kylie is a dead cert on bagging it but Taylor has other ideas and is determined to land the coveted role. She decides to raise the stakes in order to make her dreams come true.

I was hoping this would be a clever and fun read with well developed characters and I got exactly what I wished. Hollywood is Like High School With Money really gives you an insight into how the movie industry is run and I certainly learnt a lot about how ideas are pitched and the whole production process. It also shows how a person can lose their soul in the efforts to make it in a very fickle industry. I liked the main protagonist very much and found it easy to emphasise with her even when she was being down right manipulative. Her indifference to a sweet and friendly intern who saves her bacon during a rough patch really shows how far Taylor has gone to the dark side. My only griping was the ending which I found to be a bit too obvious and simplistic. Saying that this book is one of the best I have ever read.

Hollywood is Like High School With Money is available to buy from amazon here.