Pages:
417
Publisher:
Virago Modern
Classics
Release
Date: 30th
June 2016
Edition:
UK 50th
anniversary paperback, review copy
Other
Titles by this Author: Every Night, Josephine!, The Love
Machine, once is Not Enough, Dolores, Yargo
Dolls:
red or black; uppers or downers; washed down with vodka or swallowed straight –
for Anne, Neely and Jennifer, it doesn’t matter, as long as the pill bottle is
within easy reach. These three young starlets climb to the top of the
entertainment industry – only to find that there is no place left to go but
down, into the Valley
of the Dolls.
Valley
of the Dolls is
one of those books that I feel like I've always been aware of, or its reputation
anyway, and so I jumped at the chance to be part of the blog tour celebrating
its 50th anniversary.
We join Anne in 1945 after she’s
fled her small mid-western town to New York City where she secures a job in a
talent agency. Anne is beautiful, charming and mostly unaware of her charms and
soon catches the eye of a millionaire. She quickly becomes entrenched in the
world of Broadway and its stars, but she remains down to earth and relatively
sane in a cruel industry.
It’s no secret that stardom,
whether it be film, TV or stage, can be a poisonous one, especially in regards
to women. The fear of aging, being only respected and regarded for beauty, the
fight for money and success and to maintain the body of a teenager are damaging
and relentless. And so came the dolls. Their reliance on sleeping pills washed
down with liquor was scary and it made Neely a horrible person.
Neely was truly vile. Nothing that
anyone did for her was enough, she was obsessed with her status as a star and I
hated her. So very much. Jennifer I felt sorry for. Her story pretty much broke
my heart by the end – I didn’t expect such a punch in the stomach from this
book but I got really involved with Anne and Jennifer. Anne’s romance with Lyon
was also more heartbreaking than I had imagined! I just really, really wanted
her to let him go and move on.
The journeys of these three very
different women is so, so compelling. It’s juicy, glamourous, gritty and dark
and I loved it. It would have scored five stars from me if it wasn’t for the
outdated (and often offensive) language used when talking about LGBT people and
the attitudes towards women and marriage. That really dated the novel and made
me feel quite uncomfortable sometimes, but I do understand that language is
because of it being 50 years old.
Thanks to Virago for the review
copy. Make sure to check out the rest of the stops on the tour!
Sophie
I'm really looking forward to this, hoping to start it this weekend. But thanks for the warning about the dated language, it's probably still going to make me angry though!
ReplyDeleteIt's a depressing book, put it that way, but it's good. I'll spare you the summary because it's summarized quite well. I will tell you that I couldn't put it down. It's a page turner and it's a beach book, one that you will bring to the beach all summer long. It's long so you won't finish it in a day. It's good old fashioned chick lit, from before chick lit was a thing. And it's better than say the Devil Wears Prada.
ReplyDeleteMariz
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