Exceptionally inventive author Margarita Montimore (Oona Out of Order, Acts of Violet) revitalizes the glamorous, draconian golden age of the Hollywood studio system in The Dollhouse Academy, while deliciously skewering the production--and destruction--of megahits and their megastars. Montimore sets the almighty Dahlen Entertainment empire--which produces TV, film, and pop music--in Owls Point in upstate New York. Dahlen was founded by Genevieve Spalding, "heir to the DahlenRex pharma fortune and a former child star," who initially insists that "Hollywood is a cesspit, and there are a lot of powerful men taking advantage of young and naive performers. It's disgusting, and I was determined to run my school and studio with more integrity."
But then again, perhaps Genevieve protests too much. By the end of the 1990s, truth bends to Genevieve's demands as she reigns omnipotently over the Dollhouse Academy since creating its top-slot, long-running television show In the Dollhouse. Its supreme star--after 18 years in the spotlight--is Ivy Gordon. At 34 ("but I feel like I'm a hundred"), she begins a secret diary: "I need you to know who I was, what happened to me, and who I became." She's already survived multiple attempts on her life, but she "can't afford to be afraid anymore." Despite being "so tired. Always so tired," she's finally gathered enough proof to expose Genevieve's nefarious machinations, possibly saving future generations.
Into the academy--rather like an exclusive boarding school, where hopefuls are groomed and exponentially more failures are quickly ejected--arrive Ramona Holloway and Grace Ludlow, both 22 and best friends since fifth grade. For the last six years, they've attended Dahlen's "annual statewide cattle calls" but never even "made it past the first round." Now they've got exactly six months to prove they deserve this chance of a lifetime. How fast will dreams become nightmares?
Montimore divides her narrative into Ivy's slow-burn diary entries and Ramona's wide-eyed experiences of wavering between small successes and significant stumbles, even as Grace manages comet-like ascension. She deftly distinguishes between the voices of the exhausted-beyond-her-years former and the desperately wannabe(lieve) latter. Across her pages, she entertainingly compiles a pop-culture portfolio of real-life megawatt hits and idols--ER, Friends, Britney Spears--all of which Dollhouse shows and performers manage to outshine. Hints of Valley of the Dolls, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and of course Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House linger as the twisted entrapment of enviable, must-have fame is chillingly revealed. --Terry Hong
Shelf Talker: Superstars and wannabes reveal the impossible price of fame in this wildly inventive, convincingly plausible takedown of the entertainment industry.