At age four, Cléo Louvent tells her father that she wants to be as famous as Céline Dion. The only child of Franco-American academics, she is determined to become a celebrated pop singer against all odds. Despite her father’s warning to be careful of what she wishes for, Cléo ruthlessly climbs the ladder to musical success. As the novel opens, she is 32 and a global superstar. (Think Taylor Swift.) Cléo is also exhausted from fighting to stay on “top of the pyramid,” and is taking her first real vacation (costing her a half-million dollars) alone on a remote South Pacific island away from prying eyes, cell phones, the paparazzi, and her team’s incessant requests. In her solitude, she reflects on the journey that brought her here. French author Ventura’s first novel, My Husband, depicts a wife’s unhealthy obsession with her spouse. Her second portrays the making of a fame monster. The narcissistic and sociopathic Cléo is an awful person, an unreliable narrator extraordinaire, but she is also fascinating and darkly funny in her observations of celebrity culture. (“You have to reach a certain level of fame before you are allowed to be rude.”) Her eventual comeuppance is chilling but oh-so-satisfying. An intense and compelling psychological study on the costs of fame and ambition.
