Julia Fine Pulls Back the Curtain on Reality TV’s Golden Age in The Honeymoon Stage

In her latest novel, The Honeymoon Stage, Chicago-based author Julia Fine takes readers on a time warp to the early 2000s — an era defined by chunky highlights, sidekicks, and the dawn of reality television. It’s a world where every emotion was manufactured for the camera, and celebrity culture was just starting to eat itself alive.

Fine, writing under her new pseudonym Margaux Eliot, digs deep into that moment when fame became a game show and authenticity turned into performance art. In our conversation, she reflects on the strange nostalgia of the aughts — a decade that feels both distant and dangerously familiar — and how reality TV shaped our understanding of gender, identity, and the idea of “being seen.”

“It was such a weird time,” Fine says. “We were all consuming this drama but pretending we weren’t part of it. The Bachelor, Newlyweds, The Osbournes — those shows changed how we viewed relationships, and even ourselves.”

For Fine, best known for her darkly imaginative novels The Upstairs House, What Should Be Wild, and Maddalena and the Dark, The Honeymoon Stage marks a shift in tone. It’s still sharp and psychological, but with a lighter, more satirical edge — like Fleabag meets The Hills.

At the center of the story is Cassidy Baum, a production assistant turned reluctant bride whose wedding is being filmed for a reality show — a spin-off of the one she once worked on. Five years after the original series imploded under mysterious circumstances, Cassidy finds herself back in front of the camera, forced to relive the chaos, the rumors, and the emotional fallout she thought she’d escaped.

As the cameras roll and old ghosts resurface, Fine’s novel becomes more than a story about love or fame — it’s a razor-edged look at the price of performance, the illusion of control, and what happens when the line between reality and entertainment disappears completely.

With The Honeymoon Stage, Julia Fine isn’t just revisiting the early aughts — she’s reclaiming them, one confessional at a time.

Find out about her latest book events here.

For more Stories From The 78, follow @tombarnas78 on Instagram and @storiesfromthe78 on TikTok.