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.
