American fantasy

A nostalgia cruise for a once famous boy band and their diehard middle-aged fans provides an opportunity for second chances in this disappointing outing from Straub (This Time Tomorrow). Back in the 1980s and '90s, Boy Talk ignited millions of teenage girls' dreams, including those of Annie, now a 50-year-old divorcée who moved on from her adolescent fandom years ago. Still, she books a cabin on the cruise for herself and her younger sister, Katherine, who's still a "rabid" fan. Katherine cancels at the last minute, however, leaving Annie alone at sea with the superfans. During a photo op with group member Keith, "the nicest one," Annie asks if he's okay, and her genuine interest causes him to break down in tears a moment later in the bathroom, overcome with emotion at the decades he's spent as "a three-dimensional cardboard cutout" for adoring fans. Straub stuffs the narrative with a crowded cast and extraneous subplots, including two involving a lovelorn event producer and another Boy Talk member's life coach, and fails to bring much depth to a story about the ravages of aging and fame. Meanwhile, the eventual romance between Annie and Keith depends entirely on tropes. It's a miss. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME. (Apr.)

A boy band cruise is the site of one woman's post-divorce healing. Annie never meant to end up alone on a Boy Talk cruise, but that's exactly what happens when her sister breaks a leg and has to bow out of their vacation. Now Annie is sharing a cabin with a stranger, stuck on the cruise shipAmerican Fantasy with the 1990s band--and thousands of their biggest fans, known as Talkers. Annie doesn't consider herself a Talker, even if she was a fan back in the day. But reeling from a recent divorce and dealing with complex feelings about turning 50, Annie throws herself into the distraction of the trip. What she doesn't expect is to truly connect with the music, the band, the other fans, and herself. As Annie observes, "This was why people turned to religion or watched the Super Bowl at a sports bar instead of alone in their living room. It felt good to be a part of something where your passion was celebrated instead of mocked." All the Talkers dream of having a special bond with "the guys," but when Annie actually does meet Keith, a Boy Talk member who's clearly going through a hard time, she wonders if their connection is real or if she's just as delusional as the other (mostly) women on the ship. Straub depicts a wonderfully immersive world aboard theAmerican Fantasy, one where each woman assigns herself a favorite guy and everyone is bedecked in Boy Talk merch. For five days, the Talkers live in a fantasy world where the only thing that matters is their connection with a band that meant everything to them so many years ago. As Annie puts it, "Inside her head, which is where she heard the music, it had touched some lever so deep that it couldn't be reversed…the music was a direct vein to her own childhood, the least complicated part of her life." A delightfully nostalgic novel about how the things we loved in the past have the power to shape our future. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.