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booknrrd's review against another edition
4.0
Stay Up with Hugo Best is about a thirty-year-old woman, June Bloom, living in NYC who had just started working as a writers' assistant on a late night television show when the show was canceled. June is an aspiring comedian who has admired Hugo Best for years, so when she runs into him in the hallway of a small comedy club/bar where she just performed to a very dismal audience, she is surprised and flattered when he invites her to his place in Connecticut for the weekend. Yes, she knows that he probably expects sex, and although she tells him she is seeing someone, she is basically okay with it and goes with him. The bulk of the book is the weekend at the house. She spends more time fending off the advances of Best's 17-year-old son than Best himself.
The book is supposed to be a terrifically funny sendup of the late night comedy world with notes of 30 Rock. I don't really watch TV, so I'm probably not the right audience. I did appreciate the dark humor of it, but mostly I was sad. It was a little too note perfect and kind of depressing to me. I listened to the audiobook, which is read by Sarah Steele. Steele was fine. I don't she added or subtracted from the story.
The book is supposed to be a terrifically funny sendup of the late night comedy world with notes of 30 Rock. I don't really watch TV, so I'm probably not the right audience. I did appreciate the dark humor of it, but mostly I was sad. It was a little too note perfect and kind of depressing to me. I listened to the audiobook, which is read by Sarah Steele. Steele was fine. I don't she added or subtracted from the story.
lsouth's review against another edition
4.0
Stay Up with Hugo Best tells the story of a weekend shared between a 65-year-old late night show host and a 29-year-old writers' assistant. The novel is much less predictable than this premise might indicate - Somers takes a thoughtful and truthful approach in analyzing how the lives of the mega-successful and ultra-rich coincide and occasionally collide with the lives of the aggressively normal. Stay Up might be a light read, but it is by no means a frivolous one. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the power structures of the entertainment industry and the common threads of sadness found in all walks of life.
kenda_pilger's review against another edition
3.0
This book was pretty "meh". I stuck with it because it's short and I liked the narrator's way of describing things, but she was very passive throughout the story and just let things happen to her. I was expecting a little more humor, but this was mostly melancholy and sad. I wasn't crazy about the ending either, but it fit with the tone of the book.
meganj0107's review against another edition
2.0
I enjoyed some elements of this novel, but I have to admit that other bits fell a bit flat for me. I enjoyed the idea of it being a comment on the media industry, its inherent sexism, racism, and the privilege that is afforded to the famous, and there were some great one-liners throughout the novel that made me chuckle.
I did however find it a little slow-paced, and lacking in action. From the blurb, I had envisaged a crazy weekend of drama, chaos and maybe a fight against sexism, but not a lot actually happened. At several points June commented on how bored she was, despite staying in Hugo Best’s house, and I have to admit that it was a little boring to read about someone else being bored! I have been reading a lot of action-filled page-turners recently, so perhaps I’m just not used to the slow read.
It also had quite a depressing tone and highlighted the futility of a successful career and the high likelihood that you would never achieve your dreams - quite a depressing standing that wasn’t hugely helpful for someone still trying to decide on what path they would like their career to take!!
It was really well-written, and I liked the writing style! I enjoyed learning more about the comedy industry, as I enjoy comedy but have never really thought about what a difficult industry it is to break into. Perhaps if this is an area you work in or are interested in, you’ll enjoy this read a bit more!
Thank you to @TInderPress, @HeadlinePress and @RosieMargesson for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I did however find it a little slow-paced, and lacking in action. From the blurb, I had envisaged a crazy weekend of drama, chaos and maybe a fight against sexism, but not a lot actually happened. At several points June commented on how bored she was, despite staying in Hugo Best’s house, and I have to admit that it was a little boring to read about someone else being bored! I have been reading a lot of action-filled page-turners recently, so perhaps I’m just not used to the slow read.
It also had quite a depressing tone and highlighted the futility of a successful career and the high likelihood that you would never achieve your dreams - quite a depressing standing that wasn’t hugely helpful for someone still trying to decide on what path they would like their career to take!!
It was really well-written, and I liked the writing style! I enjoyed learning more about the comedy industry, as I enjoy comedy but have never really thought about what a difficult industry it is to break into. Perhaps if this is an area you work in or are interested in, you’ll enjoy this read a bit more!
Thank you to @TInderPress, @HeadlinePress and @RosieMargesson for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
haudurn's review against another edition
1.0
Flat characters, dull story. The author must have a hell of a publicist because this novel is not at all "hilarious" or even paced well enough for me to care about the characters or whatever story there is here.
alisonfrenzel's review against another edition
2.0
Well written, but basically a book about nothing.
kittyw's review
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
rachelmansmckenny's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this one. It filled the "I wish I could just read LUSTER again and again" shaped hole in my heart. The cover makes it look more light than it is. Really, it's about a messy 29-year-old comedy writer flailing after the late night show she works on wraps, and how her life becomes entangled over the course of the weekend with its 65 (cough cough) year old host's life. Moral ambiguity by the bucketful, amazingly satisfying banter, but again, not a light read.
drewsof's review against another edition
4.0
A slim hazy weekend of a book, one that pulls you in and along too fast to really think too hard about it until the inevitable Monday-of-an-ending looms over the horizon. This isn't quite the sexual-thriller you might expect it to be, nor is it quite so humorous as it first appears. It's something far more complicated, and perhaps it's because Somers doesn't spell it out for the reader that it ends up being a more successful book for those complications. Yes, there are questions of entitled older men behaving badly, of the way they set poor examples for younger men, of the ways in which the comedy industry and the TV industry are flawed, the ways in which we don't really see each other as human (let alone when one of the people in an equation is a celebrity). It's a sad book without being SAD, a funny book without being FUNNY -- and worth your read over some weekend. So long as you finish before that Monday comes.