Monday, August 17, 2020

Book Review: "The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes" by Elissa R. Sloan

The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes, Elissa R. Sloan's debut novel, chronicles the highs and lows of an early-aughts pop group.

In the early 2000s, Gloss was the most popular music group around. The four female members—known as Sassy, Rosy, Tasty, and Cherry (or Cassy, Rose, Yumi, and Merry)—were always in the public eye.

But by 2002 it was all over. The group went their own ways, and despite how close they all were, Cassidy in particular lost touch with all of them. Years later, as Rose, Yumi, and Merry ride a slight wave of nostalgia around Gloss, they get shocking news—Cassidy has died. Suicide.

How could this have happened? Should they have kept better track of her, tried to maintain a relationship with her despite the circumstances? Each woman wracks their brain to see where they could have let her down.

Shifting in perspective from the late 1990s to the present, narrated by all four girls, the book chronicles the joy, sadness, and secrets of the group, and looks at how easily things can go awry. It’s also a hard look at triggers like eating disorders, addiction, depression, and abuse.

I really wanted to love this one, as it certainly had some similarities to one of my favorite books of 2019, Daisy Jones and the Six. I enjoyed the overall thrust of the story.

But while I found it all interesting, the story took a long time to unfold, and I never felt as if we had the complete picture of any of the characters, not even Cassidy. And while there’s always a villain in books, I found one character just so ridiculously odious for someone who was so young.

Still, if you love the whole “Behind the Music” kind of thing, you may enjoy this one.

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