Hollywood Nobody by Lisa Samson – Book Review

Hollywood Nobody by Lisa Samson, is a charming, quirky book for teens about a fifteen-year-old girl, Scotty Dawn, on the road with her mom and searching for love, understanding of life, and possibly even a relationship with God.   Scotty’s mom is a movie set food designer who constantly drags Scotty across the country and seems to be keeping a number of deep dark secrets.  Scotty, a driven, self-confident, and hilariously funny teenager, begins an anonymous blog to help deal with her confusion over her mom, and the interesting and unique challenges of being a movie set kid.  As Scotty learns about relationships, life, and discovers the truth about her family, she also begins a tentative search for an understanding of, and a relationship with, God. 

Although this book is obviously geared towards young teens, I enjoyed reading it a great deal.  Scotty is an extremely lovable character, and it was easy to get drawn into the complexities of her emotions and difficulties, both as a regular teenager and as a young woman with a dark mystery shadowing her every move.  Samson does an amazing job grabbing and holding the reader’s attention, and the pace of the book moves quickly without becoming overwhelming or confusing.  Backed by NavPress publishers, the book is obviously spiritually motivated and based in the Christian faith, but Samson allows the story to shine on its own without attempting to force a Christian message into every page.  I will say that there were times when the subtle plot line of Scotty’s search for God was included a bit awkwardly into the story, almost as though the author would get lost in the original plot and then would force a religious reference into a line here or there to stay on track.  But all in all, I thought Hollywood Nobody was an amazing book.  I would recommend it to any parent for their young teen reader as a way to promote a Christian message, reaffirm the importance of self confidence and self discovery, and to simply give your kids a chance to read a great book!