The Song Is You

Through all the powder, greasepaint and glamour, we’ve always known that the Hollywood that we see on the screen is an illusion. In The Song Is You, author Megan Abbott cuts through the illusion and shows the slick, sleazy and dangerous underbelly that was part of the film business of the late 1940‘s and early 1950’s.

By mixing real life stories with fiction, the author delivers a spellbinding noir narrative that is both a seductive mystery and a tour of the murky, sordid tinseltown that was kept tightly under wraps by the big studios’ publicity departments. These tragedies of real life aspiring actresses Jean Spangler and Barbara Payton, one an apparent murder victim and the other a example of how too much sex, alcohol and bad show more publicity could send someone on a downward spiral with no chance of recovery are ingeniously woven together with her own fictional characters to create an atmospheric story that had me running to Google more than once to sort the fact from the fiction.

I found The Song Is You to be a twisted, ardent tale about a Hollywood cover-up and one man’s guilty desire to know what really happened on that fateful night that he walked away. This is not a story for those that are sensitive to violence and sexual depravity, but frankly I totally fell under it’s spell. show less

This was possibly the first noir novel I've ever read, and I enjoyed the setting. In particular, I was struck by the fast-paced and witty dialogue that I think is probably inherent to the genre, as I am a huge fan of both Gilmore Girls and Firefly for the same trait. I also enjoyed this story's unique perspective on the murder mystery. Usually, when reading a thriller, the main character is a detective or the victim's loved one, i.e. someone with motive to solve the case. Occasionally, of course, the story is instead told from the perspective of the criminal. This book, however, had the unique distinction of being told from the perspective of a Hollywood PR man, whose job it was to cover up incidents which might make the stars look bad. show more Because the missing girl was last seen with a couple of very big name actors, he did his part back in the day to cover up everything he knew about that night and keep the cops off the actors' tails. Now, about two years later, he's being pulled back in and wants to learn more about the case while keeping the rest of the world in the dark. I appreciated that chaotic neutral approach to crime-solving.

I only had a few minor complaints about this one, the first being that I wasn't able to follow the characters' conversations in a couple of places. Mainly this is due to the 50's slang combined with the incorporation of characters who were real people in Hollywood at the time. I didn't know who Mickey Cohen was, for one, and in another conversation, it was established that one character had syphilis without ever actually saying it outright, and I could tell I was a page or two behind where I was supposed to be in figuring out what they were trying to say. This might not be a problem for true aficionados of that era or culture, but as someone who doesn't read this stuff often, I felt like the author may have misjudged what common knowledge readers might be coming to the book with.

The other complaint I had was in regards to the protagonist, Hop. On a few occasions, he's described as acting uncharacteristically violent, and it's described as though he isn't in control of it but that it's simply happening. With that element put into a murder mystery, I assumed it would be important in the end, but it actually didn't really end up mattering at all, and I wasn't sure what the author was trying to get at by including it in the first place. show less

"Hop" Hopkins, a Hollywood publicist becomes obsessed about the disappearance of starlet Jean Spangler in 1949. It's 1952, and he remembers he was involved in the events that led up to her disappearance. He spirals down into a disgusting world of sick movie stars and their victims. Based on a true story, the book is pretty riveting with a solution that's better worked out than I expected it to be. The characters are sharply drawn, and Hopkins especially is a flawed but compelling character. I didn't like the last Megan Abbott novel I read, but this one was much better. Not for the faint of heart!

Megan Abbott writes like a lover whispering in your ear. It's dirty and direct and it hits you right there. Many of us in the 10-10 group read Queenpin last year and were impressed with it. The Song is You is unmistakably Abbott - the same dark silky prose - yet it wasn't quite as satisfying as the other. Was it simply that our first time was more memorable?
Honestly, I think it was a failure on my part to connect with either Hop, the studio publicity man, or Jean, the starlet. It just wasn't there. Of all the characters the best friend, Jerry, was pushing my buttons - and there wasn't enough of him.
Still, The Song is You is a good read. You could pair it with some early Robert Crais and it will take more than one shower to rinse the show more 'seedy LA' vibe off of you. If you're looking for neo-noir, Abbott is the only woman you need. show less

Fantastic noir, great characters. Abbott does exceptional hard-bitten women. Not a pleasant book, being all about the worst of human behaviour, but well written story about a sleazy Hollywood PR fixer having a crisis of conscience he desperately doesn't want to have. Lots of stuff for those with a love of genre and period.

This is my second Abbott book. Looking forward to reading all her work.

Gil Hopkins is the handsome and charming publicist for a Hollywood movie studio around 1951. He's been in the city for a couple of years, has plenty of connections and knows lots of starlets and wanna-bes, whom he often takes advantage of. One particular night on the town with a couple of these girls and some big movie stars comes back to haunt Hop even years later, as the disappearance of one of the girls moves him to investigate if the rumors are true.

Jean Spangler, actress, disappeared in 1949. She was never seen again, according to Google. In this story, Abbott has created a publicist, Gil Hopkins ("Hop") , who for reasons of his own needs to track down the missing woman.

He was there the night she disappeared. But he left the bar. Now he needs to track down those he remembered were there with her, two years after her disappearance. Some are easy to find, others not so much, but getting any useful information from them is the bigger challenge. It is only a hunch that sends him on a different path, to where she might have gone, threatened by those who want her dead.

This "noir" tale is easy to read and I found it entertaining, but not as much as other books by this author.