Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes

i really wanted to love this. it has a lot of things going for it, but the execution fell flat.

first of all, it's very much a taylor jenkins reid copycat. think evelyn hugo + daisy jones, but about a pop group in the early 2000s. TJR herself gave this book a good review but idk... it seems to weird to not even put her in the acknowledgements when this book is clearly heavily inspired by her work. ESPECIALLY evelyn hugo.

besides that, there were a lot of aspects that just didn't work well. the pacing was super weird, and i felt like none of the other girls in the group felt real. i think that the girls' career as gloss should have lasted at least a couple more years, and that would have helped with pacing immensely.

the writing was good, and the issues that the book dealt with felt relevant to the subject matter, but i wouldn't go around recommending this to anyone. i'd just tell them to read TJR instead.

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maggies's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I had high hopes for this book, but I found it fell short of other similar novels about fame and its consequences, like Daisy Jones & The Six or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo—maybe Taylor Jenkins Reid is just really good at that theme?
There was a lot to recommend it at the start, great writing and an interesting premise, but ultimately it lost its way pretty quickly. Perhaps because there was so much going on that none of it could actually be afforded the proper attention and care? Sure, that can be taken as a reflection of real life, but doesn't make for a particularly enjoyable book, in my opinion.

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cassie7e's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

One star for competent writing, one star for prominent queer rep. If this had been marketed as YA instead of adult, I might have had different expectations.

Maybe I'm just too old for immature teen drama, but I found all the characters offputting and unlikeable. They are terrible to each other and all think they are in the right, or are responsible for all the wrong in the world. I don't think it's unrealistic, especially in how teen girl performers are exploited, but made it very hard for me to root for any of them or really care how their storylines played out.

I also found the "mystery" of Cassidy's depression confusing. It was neither surprising to me that a character in her position would struggle with mental health for years, nor was there ever a conclusive explanation found for her struggles to justify everyone's bizarre interest/confusion about it.

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jackieyvette's review

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I read it because I wanted a book that was similar to Daisy Jones & the Six and this one was listed everywhere as something in the same realm. I loved the premise idea, early 2000s pop girl groups are my favorite, but I think this book was just too slow. I felt like it took getting through more than half the book to really get anything of interest. I like Cassidy and Merry’s storylines, but I feel like Rose and Yumi’s fell flat which sucked because I actually really like the idea of Yumi, but Rose was just unlikeable from beginning to end.
I wouldn’t say it’s really anything like DJ&TS other than it being the music industry, but maybe I would have liked it more if I would have found it as a stand alone book and not a similarity between the two.

Crying Score: None, but Cassidy and Merry had me for a minute.

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