Confessions of an Exploited Pop Star

Love, the pop star at the center of Candice Wuehle’s second novel, Ultranatural, feels familiar, like the idol we’ve all known since 1998 when she appeared on MTV singing and dancing through a high school in white button-down, pleated mini skirt, and thigh-high socks. Like Britney Spears, Love gets her big break as a teenager with a voice that is “velvety, too rich for a child,” yet fit for a “breathy baby doll.” Like Britney, Love wears a neon catsuit in a music video and performs with a “banana yellow boa constrictor that weighed more than I did.” Like Britney, Love shaves her head and goes to rehab. Like Britney, Love posts “strings of random emojis” to social media from a mansion tucked into the foothills west of Los Angeles; like Britney, her fortune is not her own to spend or control.