Thank you so much to Gallery Books for the gifted copy of the book!
Thank you so much to Simon Audio & Libro FM for the complimentary audio!

This book is out now!

My view of Avan Jogia may be a little different than those younger than me. I did not grow up watching him on "Victorious" but I knew who he was on the show. The first show I watched with him in was the show "Twisted" which was prematurely cancelled. Of course I thought he was a good looking guy but didn't really go beyond that. He was not someone who I followed or kept up with unless his name came across my Twitter feed. Unfortunately he was on Nickelodeon during the height of all the horrendous allegations of what was going on behind the scenes at the network. He alluded to some discourse about the set in his poems.

This is just a small sample of a poem called slimemouth that stood out to me:
"You are my childhood just as much as I am yours
I spent my childhood making TV for you to watch
when you had to look after your little brother,
or if school sucked
or if you just wanted to stop growing up for a second.

So really, You are like my childhood.
And now I am older,
As you have so kindly pointed out,
And so much happier,
So here is some unsolicited advice from your elder.

Don't idolize your childhood."

Poetry in general is hard for me. I am trying to interrupt them as best as I could but its hard. I thought he kept them short and to the point. Even with listening to the audio, I feel like his voice came across so strongly in his words. Just naturally in my pop culture/Hollywood world, I was SO curious as to who he was talking about in some of his poems.

Avan was the narrator of his work and honestly I hope he goes into book narration because his voice and tone is so calming to listen to. His voice timbre is just so good! It would not have made sense for anyone else to narrate such personal stories.

The concept of child stars fascinates me beyond belief. Some can make it out unscathe and others drown. No matter how many insights there are, it will never be enough. And unfortunately Hollywood will never change.

PS - I absolutely adore Avan and Halsey together!!!

*I do not rate Non Fiction books*