Sweet strawberries: Child Actors and the Price of Fame

This is actually another book review of a light hearted (chick lit?) book called Life is Sweet by Elizabeth Bass.

The child actor in question is now the owner of a cupcake shop where the signature bake is a strawberry cupcake. Too sweet and sickly for me but then I don’t like chocolate cakes particularly either – now coffee and carrot cakes and courgette and lime, yum yum…

What we find out about is the price of a short lived career as a child actor and its constant intrusion into adult life and how difficult it is to persuade fans that they are not ‘friends’ and therefore are not entitled to know all about you i the most minutest detail. That what you see on the box is not the truth of a person and the actor is playing a part – get that? – playing a part….

So this book explores the issues of fans and their belief systems in the context of a former child actor still struggling to convince people that she is not that person anymore even after 17 years and that yes, really, her cake shop is her way of earning money now.

As cupcake books go, it is nice to see a different use of the theme. In terms of exploring issues around fans and actors it is better. I am therefore going to give it 4 stars. but for me it was not weepy and did get a little sickly – but then as I said above, strawberry cupcakes are so not my thing!