The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes

i get the comps to daisy jones & the six, but honestly this was a beast of its own

delving into the world of late 90's/early 2000's teen popstar-dom had me skeptical at first, but i'm glad that we got to see extremely realistic of the behind the scenes actions of a girl group from start to finish. the fact that the girls didn't like each other, all of them had no idea what fame would entail, and the ugly business behind the curtain with directors and managers and execs all felt incredibly real and equally heartbreaking. it was great to see how each of these girls handled the limelight during and after gloss' peak, and i could have honestly imagined each of them being real people.

i think my only gripe (and it's a big one) was that their time in the limelight felt so short-lived, and there wasn't really a description of how ubiquitous and popular gloss became. popstars and celebrities can cause entire revolutions, from hair and fashion trends to political campaigns. like, ok, we heard how popular gloss got and that it lead to some unruly fans, but what was the scene of america like in the wake of gloss? were people dressing like cherry? did americans explore japanese culture because of yumi? these are the things missing from this book that i think would've really made it all feel real. but with that missing, it felt like they were one-hit wonders, a blip of fame before fading into the limelight with no reason to be in the history books.