Hollywood Dream Machine

The meltingly coy smirks sported by the couple on the cover of the saccharin-titled Hollywood Dream Machine deliberately mislead the reader about the content of this book. I imagine that the publisher's intention was to capture a generation of teenage girls weaned on glamour and its attendant superficiality. This bluff is worth calling, however, because between these suspect Zindel delivers a sensitive analysis of subjects likely to be of interest to third and fourth-year girls: the changing nature of friendship; an exploration of the first forays into sexual relationships; the trials and blessings of the family unit. Zindel neatly avoids the stereotyped 'happy ever after' ending which books for this age group so often fall foul of and confines her descriptions of the Hollywood circus to those details likely to appeal to a level-headed observer. A piece of sharply observed and restrained writing - in spite of the publisher's attempts to indicate the contrary.