Namedropper

Thin Skin

Cherries in the Snow

(click for Amazon)		Meet Viva Cohen: a teenage schoolgirl bombshell. Her bedroom walls are plastered with posters of silver-screen legends, and underneath her school uniform she wears vintage thigh-high stockings. Her best friends are a drugged-out beauty queen and an ageing rock-star, and she lives in London with her gay uncle, Manny. Viva spends her days gate-crashing gigs, skiving her exams and trying to live life as glamorously as her number one icon, Elizabeth Taylor. But then she sets out on a pilgrimage: in search of real love, experience and Jack Nicholson. Wicked-tongued, star-fixated, clever and restless, Viva is like no other girl — and this is no ordinary summer... "Namedropper is as tart, crisp, and compulsive as a bag of salt-and-vinegar potato chips. It's full of surprises, and full of life." - Thomas Beller "Yes, Namedropper is really funny and young and edgy, all those things - but what I don't think has been said enough is how much soul it has. It's like a great, great pop song - Blondie's 'Touched By Your Presence', Blur's 'Chemical World': shiny, shiny but still so truthful. I don't get some of the vicious reviews on this page, or I guess they don't get it, or more likely, are jealous of Emma Forrest's age and success. Screw 'em. I hear her new book is even more amazing." - Amazon Customer review
(click for Amazon)		At 15, Ruby left home, got herself an agent and became a film star. Now 20, she is destructive and charming, and she cuts herself as a hobby. She has left the man who loves her, been fired by her agent, and is starring in a film opposite the delectable Asian. It is quite possibly her last chance. "Ruby is a brilliantly, painfully drawn character, worthy of Bret Easton Ellis or Jay McInerney. If you ever thought about becoming a star, let Thin Skin be a warning to you. -Jon Ronson "Although this is a novel about solipsism, which is always dangerous territory, it is never solipsistic. Forrest's prose is fresh and there are some truly outrageous similes (my favourite: "He rethought his words, upgrading them like a steward at the Virgin Atlantic check-in desk"). Ruby describes her bulimia, self-scarification and bloodline necklaces. Forrest acknowledges that this condition is not something that her character can escape, but also allows the reader to feel both sympathy and a grateful distance." - Matt Thorne, New Statesmen
(click for Amazon)		In Sadie’s head, she’s a novelist. In real life, she spends her day searching for the ultimate way to say red at Grrl, an ultra hip make-up company. In her sex life, she’s a modern-day Lolita who’s never dated a man under forty. Then Sadie falls in love with Marley, a graffiti artist with a firm commitment to another woman: his eight-year-old daughter, Montana. Sadie isn’t used to competing for a man’s affections and certainly not with a little girl who is uncannily like herself. Real love could just be too grown up for her… Cherries in the Snow is a novel about womanhood, love, and lipstick. Flippant, sexy, acid and smart, this is Emma Forrest at her most dazzling. "I don't mind her writing so knowingly about sex, but I wish she hadn't grown up to write so well about sadness. A gorgeous book" - Julie Burchill "But if her themes have gotten deeper, Forrest hasn't lost her knack for acidic observation. Or, for that matter, her ability to steep her books in pop culture without making them seem trendy or gimmicky. On the subject of Holly, Sadie muses that, "You have that intense, romantic love for your best friend and if it ends, the breakup is absolutely traumatizing." Insights like those can cut like a knife. " - Amazon Customer review