Well, I started this book a couple of weeks before the actual Oscars this year thinking it would be fun to review about the same time, but here we are. I got lazy and a month later I’ve finally finished Mary McNamara’s novel, Oscar Season.
I also could have sworn that I’d read and reviewed this book before, but searching my own blog tells me that I didn’t. Maybe someone else snatched it up at my nearby “little free library” before I could and only just recently got the chance. Either way, you know a book talking about the Oscars is going to catch my eye. And it was a mystery/thriller to boot?! Even better! The story focuses on Juliette, a flawless manager at Hollywood’s prestigious hotel, The Pinnacle. Since I’m not privy to all of Hollywood’s extravagances, I didn’t search to see if that was in fact the name of a real hotel. It is not. Don’t judge me! McNamara did a great job of weaving fictional places and people in and amongst real stars, places, and events. Credit to her for making me question myself a time or two.
Juliette is the perfect hotel manager by way of solving problems for everyone. She herself used to be a big problem back in the day, but she was saved and baptized into the world of hospitality. Making life a little more difficult for her this awards season is the fact that it hasn’t quite been a year since her husband left her for some young, British actress. Oh yeah, because they’ll be staying at the hotel since his script got nominated for an Oscar. Did Juliette probably write half of that script with him? You bet. She’s a better person than me at not letting that bring out the ugly side. Aside from that nightmare of a situation, Oscar season feels even longer than its usual four weeks because the man in charge this year is pulling a bunch of tasteless stunts.
Also, some people are winding up dead. And unfortunately, Juliette is a lot closer to it all than she’d like to be. That’s all I’ll say for sake of spoilers in case this story interests you, but I’ve got to say it was not my favorite. Juliette was somehow equal parts really likeable and equal parts eyeroll. For her still being hung up on her ex-husband, she sure catches a lot of eyes. What was most crazy to me was that even though this book was published in 2008, a lot of it still felt really relevant for the current Oscars. Crazy how little really changes after all that time.