"An utterly original L. A. novel . . . the fiction debut of the year. -Newsday, from Our Favorite Books of the Year
"A cross between The Player, The Day of the Locust, and Sunset Boulevard . . . Stars Screaming is a gritty, bizarre, yet all-too-believable Tinseltown epic that confirms our worst suspicions about the myths, legends, and ugly truths that have made the Dream Factory a waking nightmare for those more sensitive souls pining to be in pictures. -Detour
"Stars Screaming is an astonishing debut. I couldn't put it down. -Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird
"Kaye describes the city in richly evocative detail, suffusing it with real feeling. . . . His Los Angeles is replete with awful happenings, but it's also beguiling-a magic space where human dreams have the chance to incarnate (though usually to fall). -Gary Indiana, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"John Kaye knows this ultra-noir territory well, expertly drawing us into a sad and frightening world. -Ruth Coughlin, The New York Times Book Review
"Kaye has a pitch-perfect ear for his hometown and such a generous heart for his characters that you can't help but adore his Burk. A kind of Bruce Wagner with soul, Kaye follows in the tradition of Nathaniel West, whose Day of the Locust was, until now, the book about the seamy flipside of a glittery world. -Sara Nelson, America Online: The Book Report
"Kaye's touch is so light, the naturalism of his scenes is like an ambush. -Greil Marcus, Interview
"This is an extraordinary, imaginative work . . . a real zinger, like Six Degrees of Separation spanning three decades of Hollywood history. -Library Journal
"Set firmly in the tradition of Nathanael West. Here's the sordid underside of big-time film, incorporating that most elusive of qualities in movieland-a sense of history. . . . Memorably captures the sprawling madness and demonic myths of America's dream factory. -Kirkus Reviews
"Kaye has a feeling for quick-and-dirty drama and 1940s70s Southern California scenery that marks him as a veteran of the lots. -Publishers Weekly
"In his richly atmospheric first novel, screenwriter Kaye conjures a Hollywood peopled by emotionally damaged women and inebriated, over-the-hill actors. . . . Using cinematic vignettes, Kaye offers a dark, bittersweet portrait of Hollywood's bit players. -Booklist