9/10
For over two decades, John Green has been the king of the young adult genre. From his 2005 debut novel, “Looking for Alaska,” to his 2012 magnum opus, “The Fault in Our Stars,” Green has become a household name across the nation because of his ability to speak to the realities of teenage life. It’s safe to say that his most recent novel, “Hollywood, Ending,” lives up to the glory of its predecessors.
“Hollywood, Ending,” set in 2019, follows two young actors, Kai Laramie and Juniper Castillo, as they fall in love while acting in an Andy Warhol biopic and navigate the sudden attention that comes with it. They each carry their own emotional traumas, which surface both intentionally and involuntarily throughout the story. The book is split into four parts: The Shoot, The Test, The Junket, and The Comedown. The first and last parts are narrated by Juniper, and the middle two are narrated by Kai. The dual perspective allows the reader to understand the protagonists’ conflicting perspectives, leading to tension throughout the novel.
Juniper is a 22-year-old former child star who gained fame for her role in a Nickelodeon TV show. She is dedicated and ambitious, and works tirelessly to outgrow her categorization as a child actress. Beyond acting, she is emotionally guarded and a perfectionist in everything she does, largely due to her mother’s pressure for perfection while she was growing up. Her role as a journalist in the buzzy biopic Andy Warhol Never Gets Old is her first step in being seen as a serious, mature actress. Though she has had roles since the Nickelodeon show, none have done well enough to earn her recognition as an actress.
Although Juniper’s mother dies shortly before the events of the book, Juniper describes the neglect and abuse she experienced from her. Her mother struggled with alcoholism, often leaving Juniper alone for days at a time while physically abusing and financially exploiting her by stealing the money she earned from her role on Nickelodeon. The grief from her mother’s death combined with her resentment of her left Juniper confused and overwhelmed.
Kai is a 21-year-old actor on the rise, scoring his first major role playing Warhol’s assistant. Unlike Juniper, who grew up in Hollywood stardom, Kai grew up in a normal family in Indianapolis while doing school plays and local theater. He is charming and naive, and has quite the knack for telling people he loves them within five minutes of meeting them (as he does with Juniper during their first meeting). Despite this, he carries the weight of his childhood molestation by one of his high school teachers. This secret is a key point of tension throughout the book, causing rifts between him and his co-stars and crew when they downplay his trauma and suggest that he use it to gain sympathy points from the public.
This, among other things, leads Kai to reject the Hollywood “machine,” disliking its superficiality and cutthroat nature. He is specifically appalled by an instance where he saves Juniper from a drunk man who tries to climb into her car, just to find out that the whole thing was staged by the company to gain the public’s attention. He sees how personal gain is valued above authenticity and integrity in this Hollywood “machine,” but has to swallow his resentment to pursue his dream of acting.
When Kai and Juniper first meet in the lobby of a Pittsburgh hotel prior to the start of filming, they are immediately attracted to each other. Juniper is fascinated by Kai’s confident authenticity, and Kai admires Juniper’s dedication and tenacious drive. When Juniper takes Kai under her wing as filming begins, the two begin spending time together, both on and off set. They play lovers in the film, so naturally most of their scenes are together, which further strengthens their bond.
Green’s writing style, known for its wit and philosophical depth, shines through in this novel. Considering that this is the author who gave us sensational quotes such as “Some infinities are greater than other infinities,” and “The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is forgiveness,” it was expected that “Hollywood, Ending,” would make the reader ponder their existence at least twice while reading it. Still, this book showcases Green’s renowned literary skills in a fresh way. It covers mature themes with mastery and offers a critique of the modern-day attention economy in an engaging and insightful way.
Kai and Juniper are supporting actors to the film’s lead, world-famous actor Matthew Malone, who plays Andy Warhol. He is described by both as radiating charisma and generosity. Malone constantly praises the young actors’ performances and offers them advice on navigating Hollywood stardom, even agreeing with Kai that the industry is corrupt, which helps him feel validated. He is supportive of Kai and Juniper throughout the filming and promotion process, specifically offering support for Kai when the secret of his molestation is mysteriously leaked to the public.
Kai and Juniper’s relationship throughout the book is rocky, to say the least. Juniper buys into Hollywood expectations much more than Kai does; Juniper often refers to their “Obstacle”—the factors that keep them from being in a relationship. She says that in every romance movie, the main pair face an obstacle that keeps them apart to create tension. She applies this same logic to her own life and constantly tries to identify the obstacle keeping her and Kai apart. At first, it’s Kai’s trauma. He admits to being “a bit f*cked up when it comes to [love],” and is unable to share intimate moments with other people without thinking about his experience with his predatory teacher. Kai feels guilty for feeling lust for Juniper because he associates sexual desire with pain and exploitation.
Later on, once filming has wrapped and they have started promoting the movie, they share a moment of bliss, as if they have no obstacles and can finally be together. Juniper has supported Kai in working through his trauma, and though it is definitely still present, he no longer feels limited by it in his relationship with her. They share many intimate moments and find sanctuary in each other away from the spotlight, grounding one another when fame feels suffocating. They even land the leading roles in an upcoming fantasy movie, Gods of Andromeda, together.
Then the day of the premiere arrives. With their love burning brighter than ever, attending their own premiere should be a thrill for the young couple. Instead, the event becomes a total disaster when Kai discovers that Malone was the one who leaked his sexual abuse to the public. Malone defends his action by claiming that he was trying to help Kai’s career by drawing attention and sympathy to him, but this doesn’t shake Kai’s feelings of betrayal. He asks Juniper if she knew that the leaker was Malone—which she denies—but he nonetheless feels betrayed by her as well for playing into Hollywood’s corruption. Ergo, the “Obstacle” has returned.
These events lead Kai to impulsively fly to Jamaica, where the Andy Warhol Never Gets Old crew can only locate him through his credit card history. Juniper follows Kai to Jamaica to convince him to return, but their reunion is hostile when he refuses to come home or apologize for abandoning her. Kai feels that Juniper loves the industry more than she loves him, and thinks that the industry is full of corruption and manipulation that she ignores. He doesn’t want his passion for acting to mean that he has to give up his authenticity and privacy, which he feels that Juniper is asking him to do. From the staged attack on Juniper to Matthew leaking his assault, Kai feels overwhelmed by the whole industry and never wants to return. Kai’s abandonment of Juniper brings up traumatic memories of her mother abandoning her when she was young to go on drinking sprees, which makes her feel anxious and desperate to bring him back.
Eventually, the two make up when Juniper fires her publicist for calling the leak of Kai’s trauma “gold” for his PR, which Kai appreciates. She also offers to give up her role in Gods of Andromeda to stay with Kai, which convinces him to film the movie with her so that she can keep her leading role since she would not be able to star in it without him.
The book ends with an epilogue in which Kai and Juniper go through with filming Gods of Andromeda, though production is cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. They spend the lockdown together in Indianapolis, and enter therapy.
“Hollywood, Ending,” centers around the modern-day attention economy and how it shapes interpersonal relationships. It leaves you wondering if anything in pop culture is authentic, or if it’s all staged to feed the Hollywood “machine”—the entertainment system that sacrifices personal and artistic integrity for the pursuit of fame and wealth, such as how Kai had to sacrifice his artistic integrity to be successful during the Andy Warhol Never Gets Old process. Green expertly explores how private lives are diminished in the spotlight, and how the desire for fame can lead to corruption and betrayal.
Beyond this, “Hollywood, Ending,” is a celebration of human connection. Two broken people falling in love and healing each other is a played-out theme in literature, but what happens when those two people are incapable of fixing each other? This is what Green proposes. The beauty of Kai and Juniper’s love story is that they acknowledge that both of them are broken beyond repair, and they love each other anyway. Kai will never be able to approach love the way the average person would, and Juniper will never be able to stop sabotaging her personal relationships to achieve her mother’s goals for her.
So yes, John Green is back. And with the release of “Hollywood, Ending,” marking the end of his hiatus, he might be better than ever.
