Amazing Marina believes in her own greatness and that she deserves everything she wants, including a sexy bartender, Anna. Anna not paying enough attention is not a problem, because Marina can buy her flowers, expensive dinners and anything else she wants. She might have to break some rules to find out more about her love interest, but who wouldn’t be flattered by this attention, right? Marina is one hell of a character, a perfect chameleon charming if needed, ruthless and without scruples when feeling like it. She knows how to play the game, but maybe this time she will learn her lesson? This is a sharp, funny and dark take of an obsession, money and power, and all the bad things that lurk behind the glamorous facades. A perfect book with a bite, for the fans of Succession and gossip, a glimpse into the world of celebrities and fake lives.

Everyone knows Marina, the A-list movie star. But very few know Marina, the absolute monster. Years at the top have proved that whatever Marina wants, she gets. But when she meets bartender Anna, Marina discovers something that can't be bought: Anna's affection.

I really liked this book!! I found Marina an unlikeable character but that made me love her. I loved the exploration into obsession and some of the lengths people go to for others. I found this book quite funny at points and some bits were pretty bizarre!

I also liked that we got snippets from news articles and online forums which gave us a different side to Marina and helped to paint a picture of fans and celebrity culture.

I found this book intriguing and I was excited to pick it back up again each time!

I’d recommend this book if you like an unlikeable female who has a strange obsession!

3.5 stars

Marina is Hollywood's darling with a dedicated fan base, a swoon worthy boyfriend, a career that started off with a meteoric rise and hasn't slowed down to boot. Truly, it's hard to hate her, and she knows it. Behind closed doors, she is the ultimate definition of a diva - demanding, ill-tempered, unforgiving, judgmental, the list goes on. She's bored of her celeb, it's tiring having everybody love you so much so when she meets a bartender, Anna, who's playing hard to get, Marina's obsession only grows.

I was raised on E! News and "Wendy", so naturally, this was an extremely fun read for me! Hilarious, fast-paced, deranged, and ridiculous at times. This is a stellar debut and I would love to read more of Hannah Beer's work.

If you like unhinged, messy female characters, consider picking this up!

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC

This is a wild tale of the inner machinations of the industry of celebrity and how it provides safe harbour for depraved behaviour. It’s a great debut that will make you want to read Hannah’s next book, for sure. She has a great way of writing despicable characters doing dark deeds but weaving just enough humour in to stop you from despairing for humanity…so long as you like your humour with an edge.
Something I would’ve liked is to understand more about how Marina became the person she is. Was it nature, nurture, or a little of both? Was it a perfect storm of no morals and the lack of rules that super-stardom brings? Or was she destined to always be awful? So many questions!!
That being said, even without the depth of a backstory this is still a very good read and a perfect escape from the mundanity of our anonymous lives.

"If you told me three months ago I'd be feeling this good in a place this ugly, I wouldn't have believed you. But I'm full of surprises. I make my own fun"

Hannah Beer’s debut is yet another entrant into the subgenre I like to call “The *Lucille Bluth voice* Good for Her” novel - a novel where women behave outragouely, sometimes evilly, for revenge, scandal or for no reason at all. Marina, the mononymed narrator of I Make My Own Fun, provided me with a new reason for women to be absolutely terrible, and a compelling one: boredom! Marina is a famous and successful actor; one of the most adored and lusted-after women in the world. She’s also a complete narcissistic sociopath. When she meets Anna, a young, pretty bartender, her monstrosity goes into overdrive. And I ate! It! Up!

God this was outrageously fun. Marina is dreadful, but I couldn’t get enough of her - it was so much fun to get inside her head and watch her try to justify her terrible behaviour. Beer chooses not to give her a backstory and it works; she remains above such weak human trappings, an avatar for the very worst of celebrity culture. The way she treats the people around her is horrifying, but, through her eyes, we see that to Marina, other people simply don’t matter. She is, put simply, a mad bitch!
The novel makes great use of mixed media, including tabloid stories and reddit fanforums about Marina to build a fuller picture of the star, often deviating from the self-image we get from Marina’s POV. the novel escalates until you think Marina won’t go any further - and then she does! It’s an outrageous time - and that’s a very good thing in my book. Beer threads some social commentary into the narrative - Marina is about to turn 30 and Hollywood is obviously bonkers about it, and she’s closeted by the heteronormative norms of the world she works in - but she mostly focuses on the reader having a fantastic time, and roundly succeeds - an absolute romp, if you will!

I loved how we delved into the Hollywood circle and seeing the dark sides to fame / the prices to pay for the obsession with fame.

If you love books about unhinged women with absolutely no redeeming qualities then this is the book for you.

Marina is an A-list actress with hoards of fans who spend their time sharing their love for her online as well as speculating about her personal life - little do they know they know absolutely nothing about who she really is.

I Make My Own Fun follows Marina’s manic spiral into obsession as she becomes completely transfixed on Anna, who she meets in a bar.

This book is a very fast paced and is one to read in one or two sittings to really get the full claustrophobic feeling of Marina’s thoughts. It’s told from Marina’s POV but also includes forum posts from her fan and news articles about events in the book. I loved a mixed media book so I really enjoyed the forum aspect in particular, it made me think about the parasocial relationships lots of people have with celebrities and how you never really know these ‘idols’ despite thinking you do.

A clever and funny read - i’m excited to see what Hannah Beer does next.

This book was so fun. Filled with Hollywood glam, diva behaviour, obsession, and good old helping of unhinged that just grows and grows as the story progresses.

Marina is an A-list Hollywood actress that has it all. The hot actor boyfriend, the adoring fans, and career that isn’t slowing down. However behind the scenes, Marina is a nightmare, and Marina gets whatever Marina wants. That is until she meets Anna, and bartender from London, and as Anna seems more and more uninterested, Marina gets more and more obsessed.

I Make My Own Fun is quick paced, easy to read, and honestly outrageous. I couldn’t get enough of Marina and her wild antics. This is told in multi media with a few news articles showing just how fickle media can be, and fan forums with adoring fans and some more skeptical. There are lots of people on the receiving end of Marina that I felt so sorry for but seriously Marina is a top class diva and I was loving seeing where her mind went to and what her next move would be.

Perfect for fans of evelyn hugo with a darker twist.

Similar in genre to the hit The seven husbands to evelyn hugo, I make my own fun looks behind the media and the pr to what our fake celebrities are really like and how out of touch the general public can be to the REAL going ons. But that is where the similarities end.

This is brilliantly, witty and savage portrayal of a terrible celebrity Marina and I was completely addicted.

Honestly great quick read at honestly a great time where there is so much discussion on celebrities manipulating the main stream media and pr.

Thank you netgalley and publishers for the arc in exchange for an honest review

I Make My Own Fun was an unhinged rollercoaster ride of a book. Think American Psycho in the world of the BAFTAs and British wealth.

Being in Marina’s headspace is a darkly comic hellscape - it is a twisted place but strangely charming in a way. She lures you in just to dig the knife deeper. It is the type of book you cannot tear yourself away from. Beer captures such a compelling and calculated voice with moments of absurdist humour from Marina’s incredibly privileged life. Everything is a manipulation and a pretence with her - nothing is ever real in this world of make-believe. All of this makes for addictive reading territory, amped up by the increasingly bizarre turn of events around her. There is a subplot that I adore and encapsulates the materialistic show of wealth that is a sickening exploitation and indulgence. But for Marina, none of it truly matters. The world shapes as she wills it to. After all, she has power, money and looks - what more could a girl want?

The glitz and the glamour are the type most of us can only ever read about and Beer weaves in this fascinating discussion around fame and obsessive fandom, with these snippets from Marina’s fan pages. They add a meta layer of having her every move dissected, after you have just seen the reality from Marina herself. It is a hilarious and unsettling perspective that reminds you just how much of a force Marina is. As much as you may be drawn to her, she is a powder keg willing to burn anything in her path.

I Make My Own Fun is an unhinged, darkly comic gem. Obsession, power and privilege intertwine in a deeply compelling read.

Oh what a great time! Marina is young, famous and beloved. Probably more so than any current real-life celebrity you can conceive of? She has multiple Oscars, box office hits, a seemingly perfect personal life and millions of adoring fans. But in private she is an absolute terror.

One evening after a film premiere Marina goes to a bar. There she takes a fancy to the bartender Anna. Anna is pretty nonchalant about meeting Marina which drives her wild. It eventually drives her to obsession.

I tore through this in two days, Marina is the kind of character you love to hate. Utterly detestable. Every single thing she does is loathsome. An incredibly moreish book that I really enjoyed my time with.

Acerbic, fun, twisted novel about celebrity, rage, obsession, and the kind of people who are allowed to get away with murder.

A cute, fun, beach read. Not quite my usual cup of tea, but I enjoyed reading it regardless. Not a heavy or dark book in any way, so if you want something light and fun then this would be great!

This was a quick fun read which I can see being a popular summer beach book.
I loved Marina’s world and I was fascinated with its depiction of the life of a megastar. It was these details where it really shon for me. I also loved the use of the forums and articles to depict the view of her from the outside.
It lost me a little bit in the third act which I did find a bit melodramatic, and Marina herself was a bit too one-dimensional.
Destined to be huge when released.
4 stars.

This one was a lot of fun! An interesting look at parasocial relationships and whether we really know anything about the person behind the public perception. It was a quick read, the writing flowed well and the story was engaging. It made me feel quite wary of my own feelings towards celebrities, although I’d hope none of my faves were like Marina!

I found this account of an increasingly unhinged celebrity so much fun! I found Marina completely un relatable which can sometimes be a bit jarring, but I was fully along for the ride. I lived vicariously through her as she always made the decision I wouldn’t. It went down an unexpected route than the one I’d expected of endless hedonism, and I loved the complete delusion of Marina against the revulsion of Anna.

This book was a lot of fun, and easy enough to read. The main character was hilariously unlikeable to the extent of bordering on cartoonishly villainous. Theme was a little muddied given the inversion of parasocial relationships we see play out, but just as a fun quick read I enjoyed it a lot.

Absolutely brilliant, loved it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an advance copy, I will definitely be recommending.

I guess I was expecting something different, darker. Felt like I was reading a young/new adult title very light, a few wry moments but formulaic, I can't help feeling that this type of story has been done to death (pun intended). Good for a beach read perhaps beyong that I'm not sure sorry.

I loved the premise of this. It's The Devil Wears Prada but with a sociopathic queer Miranda Priestley as the narrator.
It started off strongly and the mixed media format of interspersed fan forums worked but this element became tedious as the book progressed and they started to feel intrusive and didn't add much.
I loved the concept of this spoiled, artificial star with a disregard for others but she did become a bit one note two thirds of the way in and the story of her obsession with a bar tender felt thin and lacking in substance. The subsidiary characters felt underdeveloped and two dimensional. Although I enjoyed the start if the book, the final sections were less entertaining as the premise was wearing thin.
It's an enjoyable read but not earth shattering, although the prose is sharp and spiky.