Kathy Charles creates a world both familiar and strange in Hollywood Ending. There are clues to the tone of this book in some of Hilda’s favourite films – Mulholland Drive, The Blues Brothers and Sunset Boulevard – ranging from controlled and dark oddness to lightness, tragedy and romance. Charles also makes use of Hollywood mythology and symbols, such as fallen stars and scandalous pasts. She gives her young characters just enough weight through their macabre interests and their personal experiences of loss, grief and the search for depth in ordinary life.

Despite being highly, if darkly, entertaining, the book hints at deeper issues, such as the extent of superficial distraction in contemporary Western society; hence the nostalgia for meaningful films and stories about the past, plus the effect of this superficiality on emotionally perceptive youth, drawing them to seek meaning in the most harrowing aspects of existence.

The three main characters, the death references (from Charles Manson to John Belushi), thematic confidence (not shying away from plots involving murder, deception or suicide), and the accessible and naturally cinematic framework all work well in this subversive, engaging and energetic novel. Film buffs and Generation Y/Xers will enjoy it most.