The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan

September 3, 2020

The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan

"When I grow up, I wanna be famous,

I wanna be a star, I wanna be in movies.

When I grow up, I wanna see the world,

Drive nice cars,I wanna have groupies.

When I grow up, be on TV

People know me, be in magazines,

When I grow up, fresh and clean,

Number one chick when I step out on the scene.

Be careful what you wish for, cuz you just might get it."

- When I Grow Up, The Pussycat Dolls

When Cassidy Holmes competes in a national TV singing competition (a la American Idol), she doesn’t win, but she does catch the attention of a large music producer.  A year later, she is tapped to round out the girl group Gloss (think Pussycat Dolls or Spice Girls), and the recording company thinks they can be BIG.  They hire publicists and stylists who set about remaking the girls' images, and marketing the girl group.  The four members of Gloss are shocked and delighted with their instant success, but they quickly realize there is a dark side to fame.  Cassidy decides abruptly to leave the group when they are at the height of their success, and the group quickly falls apart.  The other three girls shun and ignore Cassidy, and largely go their own ways, until they hear of her suicide 15 years later.

I loved Daisy Jones & the Six, and Sloan’s debut novel has been compared to it, but it is nowhere near as good.  The plot crawls along, with each of the four girls narrating in turn.  Every costume, every tour stop, every spat, is described in minute, incredibly painstaking detail, yet there is little about the four girls' lives since the group disbanded.  Rose, Merry, and Yumi, the other three Gloss girls, had been chasing fame and fortune since they were in middle school, but once they achieve it, they whine about wanting to be loved for themselves, not for their stage personas, and they’re upset when their fans give them nicknames (Rosy, Cherry, Tasty, and Sassy).  None of the three seemed like really fleshed-out characters – there were hints of their lives since their break-up but the only one whose life gets any detail is Merry.  Yumi in particular is like a cut-out.

There was a little more substance to Cassidy, but she suffers from depression and insecurity, and I wish the author had written more about that, rather than throwing in side bits about current event topics like directors who sexually abused starlets, and Hollywood men who were physically abusive.  We find out that a rival singer breaks Cassidy’s arm when she is 20, but then there is very little about her life over the next 15 years, except when her sister gives her eulogy, which is easily the most moving and best-written part of the book.  Not recommended - read Daisy Jones & the Six instead.

Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for providing an eARC in return for a review.