I didn't like to perform. I liked to be loved.
'Like Daisy Jones soaked in Britney Spears' Curious' HOLLY BOURNE
'It's a delightfully bubblegum novel of hot summer nostalgia' LITHUB
'A sexy swagger of a debut' EMMA STRAUB
It is 1997, and Amber Young has received a life-changing call. It's a chance thousands of girls would die for: the opportunity to join girl group Cloud9 in Los Angeles and escape her small town. She quickly finds herself in the orbits of fellow rising stars Gwen Morris, a driven singer-dancer, and Wes Kingston, a member of the biggest boy band in the world, ETA.
As Amber embarks on her solo career and her fame intensifies, she increasingly finds herself reduced to a body, a voice, an object. Surrounded by the wrong kind of people and driven by a desire for recognition and success, for love and sex, for agency and connection, Amber comes of age at a time when the kaleidoscope of public opinion can distort everything, and one mistake can shatter a career.
Inspired by the starlets of the 90s and noughties who became as infamous for their personal lives as their hypersexualised music videos and lyrics, Honey is a novel about the journey from girlhood to womanhood and how far we are willing to go in the pursuit of love . . .
Readers LOVE Honey
'Honey is going to be one of THE books of the summer'
'A knockout debut novel'
'Daisy Jones meets 90s/00s early pop!'
'From start to finish the nostalgia I felt while reading this book was UNREAL!'
'This definitely gives Britney Spears, Mandy Moore and Christina Aguilera vibes'
'I was captivated every second'
'My favourite book of the year so far, hands down'
'I loved each and every character' Isabel Banta is a writer, book publicist, and indie bookseller based in Brooklyn. She graduated from the University of Virginia. Honey is her debut novel. A coming of age story that follows a pop star as she skyrockets to fame during the Y2K era, for fans of Emma Cline's The Girls and Taylor Jenkins Reid. Zaffre fiction's big bet launch for summer 2024, a book that can reach across the milllennial-gen Z divide and appeal to those who remember the era of Britney vs. Christina and Backstreet Boys vs. N*Sync - and those who wish they'd been there for the tacky fashions, gel pens, bejewelled flip phones and inflatable armchairs. Honey is a sexy swagger of a debut. The ambition and grit of its heroine are matched by the dextrous smarts of its writer, and it is deeply satisfying to see the mistreated pop princess of the millennium get the respect that they--as complicated humans--deserved all along Honey was everything I was hoping it would be and more. Beautifully defiant, persistently empathetic, and the writing itself is absolutely crystalline Isabel Banta has delivered an all-access pass to the early-aughts pop world of my dreams in the form of this gorgeous, powerful, and unapologetic romp of a novel. Dripping with sweat, sex, and yes, honey, the character of Amber Young will forever redefine how we think of the perils of stardom, paparazzi, and becoming who you're meant to be despite it all. Effervescent and full of energy, the lessons in Honey are as needed today as they were in the age of Britney and Christina. A rare, shining star of a debut Honey parts the shimmered curtains of Y2K pop stardom and ushers us to a place beyond the schoolgirl/jezebel binary: the rich inner world of a young woman discovering her own depth and life force, authentic sexuality and artistic intelligence. Show up for Honey with your sticky notes ready, because there's much to bookmark here: not only the deftly written heat, but a hundred keen and quotable observations about creating a life of truth and wholeness Like Daisy Jones soaked in Britney Spears' Curious An utterly addictive, juicy read that perfectly captures 90s and 2000s pop culture and the entertainment industries of that era. Full of drama, heartbreak, ambition and desire - Honey is ultimate
