Jay is trying to find his passion. Can he write? Is going to Europe the answer. After t
Drinking and drugging can Jay find his niche.
Meeting a beautiful model and supporting each other can they find love and success.
Very good ending that will make you feel hopeful.

This novel. My heart. Destiny.
This book is about so. much. But above all, it is about the way that our lives are formed. A series of choices with outcomes we cannot know until later, much later, sometimes never, and thus our life blends together to become what it is. Satisfaction and regret. Soothing and scalding. Lovely and repulsive.
Haunting and unforgettable.
(Many thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my truthful review.)

Katerina is Frey's newest novel and flips back and forth between 1992 (Paris) and current day Los Angeles. It's a story about love, betrayal, sex and the emotions that flow through your body as your are consumed by them in particular during youth when you are "finding" yourself..

While fictional the characters clearly mirror Frey's life. The main character is Jay and his story flips back and forth to his youth as a writer living in Paris who falls in love with a woman named Katerina and his life in current day Los Angeles as a married man, father and successful author.

It all starts with an anonymous message pushing Jay's mind into the past and reminiscing of his prior life, including the controversy surrounding an infamous novel Jay had written. The writing is full of emotional highs and lows. The sex scenes are hot (unless you are a prude), F words are abundant and the story flows however at times the layout of the writing can be a bit maddening to read.

The read is worth your time and energy.

Katerina by James Frey is first-person memoir-style piece of fiction (apparently) that consists of a man 45-year old (ish) man recounting his days in Paris as a 21 year old. It consisted pretty much of drinking, sex, drugs, reading and writing and repeat. During his reverie he gets a Facebook request from someone he doesn't know. Because he has nothing better to do (putting off writing) he accepts it and they chat. At first he has no idea who it is, but soon figures it out. Could be good, right?

I have no need to read about someone else vomiting from over indulgence, waking up, passing out from over indulgence, screwing any female available, any place available. I like punctuation. I like paragraphs. In Katerina these things were inconsistent. Too busy being self-indulgent, reliving his earnest angst at being 21 and not interested in getting a job. This is a narcissistic look at the same things everyone feels and every one handles differently. Then we get to the finale-totally manipulative. Embarrassingly so. No spoilers-see for yourself.

I had to stop reading every 45 minutes or so and remind myself that I swore to finish this book. My son pointed out that a person could stop reading a book without finishing it. I didn't. Thank God it ended sooner than I thought it was going to. Are people so maladjusted that they consider this good? I wouldn't waste my time if I were you. You choose.

I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. #netgalley #Katerina

Admittedly I read the author's first book and while I enjoyed his writing style, I was upset to learn that his "memoir" was more fiction than fact. Despite that I tried to give him another chance. Unfortunately I just couldn't get rid of the bad taste, that his first book left with me. I'm disappointed, because I truly wanted to like this book.

Meet Writer Boy and Model Girl--Paris 1992--Jay has come to Paris on a whim. Basically his days consist of the following: Sleep. Read. Drink (a lot). Have meaningless sex...Lather, Rinse, Repeat. This part dragged on for me as, even though I'm not a prude, many scenes were so graphic that I had trouble finding anything likable about Jay. Alternating with chapters from present day, the novel goes back and forth as he is contacted through email by an anonymous woman who wonders if he remembers her. I knew what I was getting into as I had read Frey's other novels, but the stream of conscious writing slowed me down and I found myself skimming too much. Where was this going I kept asking myself? The present-day Jay is a writer, married father, and goes through his days mindlessly until the email stirs up emotions that have numbed him and prevented productivity. Fortunately, the end redeemed it for me; finally, here was a Jay with whom I could sympathize. So yes, I'm glad I read it.

When I started reading this My first thought was I do not like Romance stories and I will never red this. But I promised to read it so I forced myself to give it a chance and rate it on its merits. I AM so glad that I made that commitment. The story is about love not romance. It is the story of life and the choices we make and the people who influence us throughout our lives but it goes much deeper than that. This is about Life and Love, Choices good and bad, experiences, hopes, dreams and aspirations.
This is a book you read and get lost in. I laughed and cried and left myself thinking about my own life. The language was a bit much at first so if you are averse to vulgar language you might not like this story. There is also sex and alcohol and drug use. I am very glad that i was given the opportunity through NetGalley and Scout Press to read this preview and I hope my review can give it the recognition it deserves.

Katerina by James Fry was my first novel by this author and apparently has a lot of history I was not aware off. This story is about a man and woman who meet and fall deeply in love in Paris 1992. Neither is extremely likable during this time and make horrible choices. When the relationship ends badly, both go their own way. The story is told between the past and present and shares where life has taken them. Katerina by James Fry was brutal in its honesty and though slow in some areas, the story was engaging.

3.5 stars. Happy reading.

James Frey juxtaposes the passion of new love with the ennui of middle age in a stream-of-consciousness story that feels at times raw, at times bittersweet, and at times hopeful.

Jay alternates between 1992 Paris, when he was 21, and 2017 Los Angeles, when he is 46, as he tells us about meeting Katerina, aka Model Girl, their turbulent relationship, and its fallout. When we meet Jay, he tells us nearly immediately that while he lives a good life with a wife and children he loves and a pool guy and all of the accouterments of wealth and privilege, he is bored. He tells us--and anyone else who will listen--that he wants to "burn the world down" by writing books that make "change people" because when you scorch the earth, it leads to renewal. As he nears 50, he clearly wishes for renewal. What he doesn't seem to understand is what Katerina tries to tell him: "If you burn the world down, it's very likely you burn yourself in the process."

You are ever aware that Jay's sense of himself is a bit skewed. Even at 46 as he reflects back on his time in Paris, he seems unable--or incapable--of recognizing his weaknesses. His repetitive and forceful apologies to Katerina for a mistake he made seem almost bizarre because the thing he feels he needs to apologize for is actually something I think was a justified behavior on his part.

I spent nearly all of this book not liking Jay, nor did I like Katerina. Their connection seems to be almost entirely sexual, which leads me to the biggest weakness of this book: you don't buy into Katerina being the great love of Jay's youth. He tells you that they have conversations, but he never tells you what they talk about, other than getting high, getting drunk, and having sex. You definitely get a sense of their physical attachment, but emotional? Not quite. So when she contacts him a quarter of a century later, you might be surprised that he remembers her at all.

Still, though. Despite the occasional sense of a travelogue (I really want to go to Paris now, thank you, James Frey) and the lack of emotional depth between Jay and Katerina, this book sort of bleeds into you. You will find yourself thinking about your own life, your own malaise, your own detachment and dissatisfaction. You will wonder in what way you can burn the world down so that you can experience renewal. Because renewal is really what this book is all about. You make mistakes in life, you experience losses and hurts, and from those blackened pains rise the chances to rejuvenate, recharge, and reaffirm.

Scheduled for publication on the blog on 9/11.

Katerina is melancholy tale of addiction, passion, love, and loss. I found this book a bit difficult to read with crude content and too much cursing. I did appreciate the creative manner in which it was written. Felt as if the author was pouring his soul onto the pages, developing intimacy. The first third of the book was hard for me to get into, yet I enjoyed it better later in the book, as the story developed. Thank you NetGalley for my advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for providing a copy of this book. Even considering me as a reader that can be interested in all kinds of books it was hard to connect with the story and the characters. Crude with lots of f.... words. A book that was just not my kind.

This was my first book by this author and it was ok. It was raw and emotional and alternating between time periods. It was an ok read

If the song, Love Never Dies by Andrew Lloyd Webber was turned into a novel, it would be Katerina by James Frey. Just as the song says: “Love gives you pleasure and love brings you pain and yet when both are gone, love will still remain,” the protagonists in this love affair bring much pleasure and pain to each other. Their passionate, soul-connected, lust and love never die, underscoring a truism about life: True love and all its accompanying emotions don’t go away after a breakup, a marriage to another person, or even death.

Author James Frey writes what he knows. He is a recovered addict and alcoholic who falsely portrayed his breakout novel, A Million Little Pieces, as a memoir, appearing on the Oprah Show to huge acclaim only to be outed that he fabricated many of the book’s facts.

His latest novel Katerina is a work of fiction stylized as a meta-memoir, that leaves the reader wondering how much of the protagonist’s personality and experiences were really fictionalized or exaggerated accounts of the author’s own life and experiences.

Again, unlike A Million Little Pieces, this novel Katerina is a work of fiction, clearly stated so. Frey’s style of writing is known to break with convention. He writes in a stream of consciousness way that ignores the rules of grammar and punctuation with a prolific use of curse words in almost every scene. I like his style. I like his voice. I like his stories. They make me feel something. They make me feel a lot.

In Katerina, Frey writes in the first person, present tense, all dialog without quotes. The protagonist Jay is out to burn the world with his breakout novel. Jay drops out of school and heads to Paris refusing to be a part of the machine—to work, vote, save, obey, pay taxes. There, he spends his days in a drunken, drug-addled haze trying to write his great novel when he meets “Model Girl”, Katerina, a model from Oslo, living in Paris and working to support her widowed mom and her brother back home. Katerina and Jay fall in mad, passionate love. They are young and reckless.

The novel switches back and forth between Paris 1993 when Jay and Katerina meet and live out their love affair and Los Angeles 2017 as Katerina contacts him on Facebook messenger and they begin a flirty correspondence.

The story comes to a gut-wrenching conclusion as Jay and Katerina reunite in Zurich after 25 years that is a commentary on true love and how it can live in your heart without living in your life.

Katerina is a very emotional story. If you eliminate all the repetitive swearing, the story is uniquely told, but neither new or interesting. I had read James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces and had hoped that this book would be more mature.

I was an instant fan of James Frey -- A Million Tiny Pieces is still one of my favorite books -- so I was thrilled to find out he wrote a second novel! Katerina is written in the conversational style that I love from Frey, and the story is amazing. I cant wait for his third book!

The first word that comes to mind when I think about this book is RAW. Raw emotion, raw writing, raw energy. James Frey's novels have this quality about them that makes them very unique. His writing is edgy and pointed. Some pages have one word, per line the whole way down. Chapters seem to alternate between story and poetry. Some readers may find this challenging to switch their thinking between two very different writing styles, but I really enjoyed it. I loved the chapters solely dedicated to colorful writing and very intense descriptions of the main characters tumultuous lifestyle. I loved his long soliloquies on things like love, and wild nights of partying.

"More than anything I dream of love, crazy crazy mad love. The love that breaks hearts, starts wars, ruins lives, the love that sears itself into your soul, that you can feel every time your heart beats, that scorches your memory and comes back to you whenever you're alone and it's quiet and the world falls away, the love that still hurts, that makes you sit and stare at the floor and wonder what the fuck happened and why."

(This quote goes on for another whole page BTW) I LOVED IT! I would have copied the whole thing here, but it was just too long to be copied. I will say, it gives me the chills every time I read it.

James Frey's Katerina is like a long, wild party that you want to attend, but know you could never keep up with. Jay, our main character has fled the country in search of a life free from the expected, established, guidelines society has placed on him. He doesn't want to be another robot in the world living his life in the typical linear fashion. Although he goes to college after high school, he quickly rebels. He throws the life he is expected to lead in the trash, and leaves everyone behind hopping on a plane to Paris. He wants to "Burn it all down" and write a book that will set the world on fire. Along this journey, he tortures his mind, body and soul with copious amounts of drugs, booze and sex. This is probably where I should warn you that this book is FULL of graphic sex and party scenes. If I had a dollar for every time Jay hooks up with a woman and/or vomits from over indulging in every substance he could get his hands on, I would be quite well off. So, if you are a bit faint at heart, skip this one. For those of you who have read James Frey's other novels, A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard, you already know what you are getting yourself into. I loved James' previous novels, and that is why I chose to read this.

What I found to be extremely interesting is how James weaved his true life controversies into this new novel. His main character Jay suffers the same literary public shaming at the hands of a major talk show host just as James did. James even named his lead character Jay which is obviously closely related to his own name. I looked online to see if there were any other truths in the novel, like his early romance with a beautiful but damaged model the novel is named after, Katerina. I also looked to see if James lived in Paris at any point, but found nothing. I thought it was very tongue-in-cheek to be reading his take on the whole real-life ordeal through a book characters eyes. I imagine it was very therapeutic for James writing everything out and working through the issues in print.

This book was a (pardon the expression) balls to wall, spin you out of control, then smack you back into reality joy ride. I am planning to purchase a copy for my book shelf and will for sure read this again which is very rare for me. Check it out, if you are up for an adventure.

I’m reluctantly writing this review because I normally don’t for books that I think stink. “Katerina,” by James Frey, has a stench to it that I can’t overcome, but there’s more to it than that, so I’ll violate my own policy.

You remember James Frey, the author who falsified much information in his “memoirs” back in 2006? Much was made of it, his publisher apologized, Oprah and Larry King rattled his butt on television for being a liar, and Frey has rambled around with a black eye, an untouchable scourge that refuses to own up to his malfeasance.

This particular story is narrated by a loathsome alcoholic who spends his life totally wasted, blowing his disgusting stomach contents all over, bedding anything that can stand his company, and spends most of his narrative whining and excoriating himself for his weakness. That’s it. That’s the book. A total waste of time.

Why am I commenting? Because, apparently Frey still thinks he has a lot of words of wisdom to offer to the world. I respectfully disagree and want to publicly say so.
What’s his point?

I felt I had an idea how the style of this book would be written, given the wrtiting style of this author. I’m grateful that I was given the chance to read this because it truly gripped my heart.

This book felt over worked. How many showy, graphic, controversial things can we squeeze in one book? Ok just a few more beyond that. It was too much. I didn't care.

Thanks to #netgalley and #simon&schuster for the ARC

This book is a reminder of the genius of James Frey. You will both love it and hate it. His writing style is unique, unformatted, and completely captivating. The words flow, without filter. I am guilty of forgetting just how easily Frey can seduce your mind from that moment of intrigue to that of utter infatuation. His books have done this all along. They demand your attention. Thank you for coming back to us.

A young man abandons love, school, his family, his home for a notion and a dream. He wants to write. He wants to “burn the world down” with his words. He heads to Paris, determined not to be a cliché. He drinks in excess, screws in excess, gets high in excess, does everything in excess. He meets a woman just as reckless as him. The story follows their relationship. Full of addiction, sex, betrayal, art, and love. The story line moves between 1992 and present day. Our young man is now sober, more mature, and successful. He has done what he had set out to do, however, he can't help but feel unsatisfied as he fell into that cliché he swore that he never would, making him uncertain if that feeling of contentment that we are all looking for in life is really ever attainable. And if it is, to what lengths must people go to get it. He is determined to be done selling out to the masses. He is stagnant, melancholy, that is, until an anonymous message gives him the spark he just may need to reach into his past and set a clear line for his future.

Frey’s writing style is not for everyone. His choice of words, grammatical style or lack thereof, his thought flow is all unique to him. It is his art, his interpretation of words on paper. After reading this book, you will have a greater appreciation of that.