This is Michael Maxwell with the Sioux City Public Library and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I am recommending Honey by Isabel Banta.
Are you a child of the Y2k era? Did you tune into TRL hoping your favorite music video would play? If so, Honey, a deeply nostalgic novel by Isabel Banta, is for you! Banta liberally lifts from the pop culture mythology of the early 2000s, creating composite characters that are clearly Frankensteined together with parts of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, and even a dash of Gwen Stefani.
If the legendary celebrity drama of that tabloid era is your cup of tea, you’ll find Banta’s book quite therapeutic. At times, it almost reads like an alternative history of what could have been. Banta leaps from perspective to perspective, even including ephemera from this fictionalized Y2k world like music reviews and teen magazine headlines.
I found myself smirking each time I caught a reference to our world coyly placed in the narrative of Honey. Then Banta’s story suddenly snuck up on me and twisted a nostalgic knife right through my heart. I finished this novel by letting out a long breath, and I realized that this time has passed far enough into our collective cultural rearview mirror that we can take a much clearer look at it through fiction. This book made me excited to read more stories set in the 2000s, an era which seems to be particularly trendy in today’s publishing.
Check out Honey by Isabel Banta and other blinged-out nostalgia reads at the Sioux City Public Library today!
Support for Check It Out on Siouxland Public Media comes from Avery Brothers.