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Jacqueline Susann's Shadow of the Dolls [Hardcover]

Rae Lawrence (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)


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Book Description

June 26, 2001
Valley of the Dolls was sexy, shocking, and unrelenting in its revelations of the dangers facing women who dare to chase their most glamorous dreams. It shot to the top of the bestseller lists in 1966 and made Jacqueline Susann a superstar. It remains the quintessential big, blockbuster, must-read, can't-put-down bestseller.

Before her death in 1974, Susann spent many months working on a draft for a sequel that continued the stories of Anne Welles, Neely O'Hara, and Lyon Burke. Now, after nearly thirty years, the perfect writer has been found to turn Susann's deliciously ambitious ideas into a novel that matches the original shock for shock and thrill for thrill.

In Jacqueline Susann's Shadow of the Dolls, Rae Lawrence — herself a bestselling author — picks up the story in the late '80s and brings it right into the new century. Long a devoted “Valley” girl herself, Rae has re-imagined the original characters in a contemporary reality (and adjusted their ages just a bit), exactly as Jackie would have wanted her to. And if you've never read Valley of the Dolls, no matter. Sometimes the present is even more surprising and fun when you don't remember the past.

And what a story! Neely's golden voice has brought her fame and success, but now she craves acceptance in social circles where her kind of celebrity means nothing at all. Anne, born and bred in those very circles, must choose between returning home or pursuing a fabulous television career — and the kind of passion she once knew with Lyon. And Lyon, who loses everything including Anne, looks for happiness in the most unexpected of places.

Taking us behind the closed doors of New York, East Hampton, and Los Angeles, whetting our appetites for more with a new generation of young women and men who grow up far too fast, and spicing the whole story with a generous sprinkling of sex, drugs, and cosmetic surgery, Jacqueline Susann's Shadow of the Dolls is the ultimate beach read for our time. But feel free to devour it any time of the year, wherever you are.

It's been a long time since readers had this much fun between the covers. It's time to jump back in.

Anne Welles . . . She finds the courage to leave the only man who ever made her feel like a woman . . . She fights her way to the top of a television career that is even more cutthroat than she's been warned . . . She finds security and contentment with the kind of man she was destined to marry . . . Now she must choose between destiny and her dreams.

Neely O'Hara . . . Her talents take her to the top, while her troubles drag her through rehab after rehab . . . She grasps at the things Anne has turned her back on (her class, her man) . . . She always knows exactly what she wants, and will do whatever it takes to make her dreams come true.

Lyon Burke . . . He takes lovers over love . . . He hustles other people's
talent while neglecting his own . . . He always knows how to look, which restaurants offer the perfect drink and the most cachet, who to pursue, and where to find the best percentage . . . He waits so long to realize his dreams that in the end it may be too late.

Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls was one of the sexiest, most shocking, and most sensational novels ever to fly off the shelves. Now, thanks to bestselling novelist Rae Lawrence — working from Susann's own draft for a sequel — the fun has just begun.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Jacqueline Susann died in 1974, she left behind notes for a sequel to her divinely campy 1966 bestseller, Valley of the Dolls. Now, Rae Lawrence, the pseudonymous author of the popular novel, Satisfaction, has channeled Susann's decadent spirit to create an update to the trash classic. Jacqueline Susann's Shadow of the Dolls catches up with the earlier book's substance-addled heroines in the late 1980's. Older, but not appreciably wiser, Neely O'Hara has temporarily beaten her multiple addictions and is desperately trying to achieve respectability as a singer and an actor. Former model Anne Welles copes with divorce and single-mother downward mobility before catching her own rising star as a TV journalist. As the brisk plot follows the ladies toward the twenty-first century, we realize that their hangouts and hang-ups may have changed since the '60's, but the most important difference between then and now--to them at least--is inside their medicine cabinets: Valium and Xanax have replaced those old-fashioned "dolls," the crude uppers and downers of a bygone era. Still, all the familiar elements are here: steamy sex, busted love affairs, nasty girl-fights. Lawrence can be hilarious, spicing her narrative with over-the-top dialogue and acerbic observations about tricoastal (Manhattan, Los Angeles, the Hamptons) life at the end of the millennium. This is a beach book with a definite edge. Jackie would have been thrilled.

From Library Journal

In 1966, Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls was a scandalous must-read that introduced us to ambitious, young, single women in New York City, a glamorous world of fame and drugs. Nearly 40 years later, Lawrence (Satisfaction) has adapted a first draft that Susann wrote before her death in 1974 to provide a sequel to the original story. Beginning in 1987, the novel opens with the words "Whatever happened to Anne Wells?" Fans of Valley of the Dolls will enjoy reading about Anne and Neely O'Hara and Lyon Burke and their teenage children although, surprisingly, the main characters are only ten years older than in the original book. The drugs have been updated to Percoset and Xanax, and plastic surgery is every woman's friend. Anne has to start over after leaving Lyon, who lost all of their money in a stock scheme. Neely's out of rehab and ready for a comeback and a new husband. Lawrence manages to stay true to the tone of Susann's novel and has once again captured the emptiness and loneliness of the characters' lives. A major publicity tour will help generate interest in this sequel, but will readers still be interested in these characters? For large public libraries.
- Kathy Ingels Helmond, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (June 26, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0609605852
  • ISBN-13: 978-0609605851
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #754,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

54 Reviews
5 star:
 (11)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:
 (15)
2 star:
 (8)
1 star:
 (12)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (54 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Valley of the Placebos, July 2, 2001
This review is from: Jacqueline Susann's Shadow of the Dolls (Hardcover)
I tore through this book, first reading it, hoping for a satisfactory followup to my favorite book of all time...then I tore through it again with my bare hands, ripping to shreds this slap in the face to Jacqueline Susann. The promotions for the book brag that this is based on an outline by Miss Susann. An outline is all you get in this book, as characters that were filled out with depth in the original, become charicatures. This is not a sequel: times have been changed, characters backgrounds have been changed and the overall tone of the story is completely different. Remember Helen Lawson? Apparently the "author" skimmed over her parts in the original, and Jennifer North is nothing but a castoff one line reference. According to biographies and interviews, Jaqueline was very protective of her characters, and SHADOW OF THE DOLLS attempts to please the hardcore fan and the first time reader, but fails miserably in pleasing either one. Avoid this book and reread the original Valley of the Dolls, or the Love Machine. The best thing I can say about this book, is that I hope it will spark interest in a deluxe DVD edition of the film, Valley of the Dolls.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars SHADOW OF SUSANN, August 28, 2001
This review is from: Jacqueline Susann's Shadow of the Dolls (Hardcover)
"Valley Of The Dolls" was an international sensation, penned by the Queen of Sensational Trash who wrote the book after tearing apart another novel by a different author, pasting the the entire story of index cards and teaching herself how to write something that would sell. I remember sneaking the paperback from my grandmother's nightstand and running down to the beach to read and revel while she was out shopping. Valley works just as well today as it did the day it was published. Shadow, sadly, doesn't. We follow our same characters out of the valley, but they never seem to evolve with time. A leopard, it is said, cannot change its spots, but it sure can learn a new way to go after its prey. This just was not written that way. Based on notes Jackie left behind upon her death, Lawrence sets out to complete the story of what happened to our girls. Neely O'Hara, entertainer and spoiled brat, is back looking for the respect she feels her due. Poor Anne Welles, once the high fashion model, is now a single mother and really poor, with no visible means of support until she launches a whole new career for herself. The men are there, acting just as horribly as they did almost three decades ago. And those beautiful "dolls" may have new prescription names, but the song remains the same. There is simply nothing new, just more of the old. I was and am a fan of Jackie's very special genre she slashed out of conventional literature for herself. I greatly anticipated this sequel to take me back to that special time when one could still be shocked and to see what happened to all of the characters who made up the number one best selling phenomena. I was disappointed, I did enjoy the snappy dialogue which was so close to Susann's writing as well as visiting "old friends" but it is only a must read if you read the first one and want to know how it all turned out. I can't help but wonder what changes may have occurred for the characters had the Queen not have gone on to a bigger assignment.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars A Waste of Time and Money, July 20, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Jacqueline Susann's Shadow of the Dolls (Hardcover)
I spent $... for this book at a wholesale club -- $... too much! The plot is fragmented, but what can one expect when the lives of the characters are as disfunctional as they are. What a waste of time to read about people who consistently mess up when there is a world of great literature to choose from. I just selected this title as a relaxing break between some quality titles. What a colossal bore! I did not find it the page turner some readers claim it to be. Just finished the last page, so this afternoon this book goes to the local used book store as a donation. Can't wait to get rid of it. And, by the way, I read "Valley of the Dolls" when it was published in 1966. This book is certainly a poor excuse for a sequel. Like I say -- save your time; save your money.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Neely and her exercise instructor were in the sunroom, torturing each other. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Neely O'Hara, Los Angeles, East Hampton, Keith Enright, Helen Lawson, Nancy Bergen, Perry Hayes, George Dunbar, Charles Brady, Anne Welles, Casey Alexander, Miranda Claiborne, Las Vegas, Susann's Shadow of the Dolls, Fifth Avenue, Jennifer North, Lyon Burke, New Year's Eve, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Gillian Girl, Jamie Walters, Patrick Weston, Terry Abernathy
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