Rating: 
Summary: SHADOW OF SUSANN
Review: "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.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved It!
Review: ... I loved this book! I couldn't put it down! i was so interested in this book! It made me feel like i knew these people...
Rating:
Summary: Reconnect With Your Old Dolls Pals in Shadow of the Dolls
Review: ...1966 was a banner year for me, and for avid readers everywhere. I was 10 years old back then, and discovered my first grown-up trashy novel. It was Jacqueline Susann's best seller, Valley of the Dolls. I purchased the book with my allowance money, telling the clerk at the bookstore that it was a gift for my mother. That novel was my prized possession; I kept it hidden in the piano in the living room where I was certain my parents wouldn't find it, and luckily for me, they didn't. My mother had already grounded me for reading Pearl S. Buck; can you imagine what punishment I would have received for reading Jacqueline Susann?
Valley of the Dolls changed my life. By the time I had finished off the last few tawdry pages, I realized that I was sick of being a goody-goody, much to the chagrin of my conservative family. In 1966, I decided that my goal in life was to become reckless and wild, like character Neely O'Hara, and I guess I was pretty unruly for a few years.
Now I'm a middle-aged woman, and I suppose my reckless days are over. But I was tickled to death to discover the sequel to my favorite 1966 coming-of-age novel, Jacqueline Susann's Shadow of the Dolls, on the shelves of the Marco Island Library. Susann died in 1974 and left behind an outline for a screenplay based on the pill-popping characters of her original Valley of the Dolls. Best-selling author, Rae Lawrence, took Susann's notes and recreated an updated version of the racy classic, starring the same legendary substance-abusing women, except for Jennifer North, of course, who expired tragically in the original book.
The concept is great and cult-followers of Dolls will leap upon this new novel just like I did, but there is a huge problem with the timing of this book. In the year 2002, nothing is racy or smutty anymore. (What a disappointment!) I mean, Jerry Springer is mainstream, half the population has been to rehab, and cheating on your spouse is as commonplace as cracking open a bottle of the latest soft drink. So a new chapter to the lives of groundbreaking psychotics Anne Welles, Neely O'Hara and Lyon Burke is about as interesting as watching 30-year-old reruns of General Hospital.
Not to say that the book was a complete letdown; in fact, it was nice to get back together with my old Dolls pals, sort of like going to a high school reunion and discovering that everyone is pretty much the same, except older and fatter. Especially character Neely O'Hara, who, in her newfound sobriety, took up the hobby of eating large portions of food. Anne Welles is still the sweet, down-to-earth-type; she has become a famous television journalist but spends much of her downtime mooning over her ex-husband Lyon Burke. Burke, who has apparently run out of women to sleep with and has gone into some sort of crazed depression, decides that he needs to "find himself" by pursuing some other avenues of self-satisfaction. Burke and Welles have a teenage daughter together and her name is Jennifer, named after the deceased Jennifer North. This new Jennifer is about as emotionally secure as the rest of the characters, so the story line moves along quite fluidly.
I'm not sure what Lawrence had in mind when she decided to refashion the tale 10 years after the original Dolls, because this new story takes place in the late 1980s. No matter what buttons I press on my calculator, the numbers and ages don't add up. But I suspect that Lawrence was eager to introduce new drugs into the mix and if she had kept to the original format, she would have had to use the same old drugs from the Dolls days. Consequently, in Shadow of the Dolls, the characters' medicine bottles are copiously filled with Xanax and Valiums instead of Black Beauties and Seconals. (It's important to change with the times; that's what I always say.)
Sequels are never as good as the original books, and Shadow of the Dolls is no exception. But Lawrence's new novel is lively and raunchy, and definitely the perfect book to read on the beach. And coming soon, in July of this year, is the paperback version. So when any of you Marco Islanders decide to reclaim your beaches this summer after our busy winter season, be sure to bring along a trashy paperback to read. Shadow of the Dolls is sleazy fun and would make any afternoon more enjoyable...
Rating: 
Summary: Rae Lawrence crashes Valley of the Dolls into the ground
Review: A die-hard Jacqueline Susann fan, I read every book she wrote and celebrated the joy, the glamour, the reality, the dark side, and the pain found in those books. I had to bite when I learned someone had taken an unfinished manuscript for the sequel to Valley of the Dolls and had finished and published the book. I was so disappointed, the line between where Susann writes her last words and the new author picks up with her own is so sharply contrasted it is pathetic. If the sun set when Jackie died it set again in the middle of this book, when our lovely heroine Anne Wells goes right down hill and into oblivion and mediocrity - surrounded by characters who are neither compelling nor charasmatic. By the time you have muddled to the end, if you are still awake, you could truly care less what happens and it is just as well because nothing much happens at all. Jackie is a hard act to follow. Few if any could have taken controls from her and soared on to the brilliant heights with which only she could take the story and its readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Question: Is Jackie spinning in her grave?
Review: Answer: If she isn't, ...she ought to be!
I looked forward to reading this book for a long time. Even saved it for a Caribbean cruise because I expected it to be the ultimate fun trashy read.
Where the original was indeed fun and trashy, this "sequel" was barely readable. Where the characters in the original were ... well ... original!, the few new characters in this book were lackluster, even boring.
As for whether this book will answer the questions you've been dying to ask -- What ever happened to Neely, Lyon, Anne and the others, I have good news and bad. The good news: it answers those questions. The bad news: they became BORING!!!
I have to pity poor Ms. Susann's spirit. First she is biographed in a perfectly awful film ("Isn't She Great" Answer: NO!) and then her wonderful novel is followed by an apparently authorized sequel that is mediocre at best.
For those looking for a really GOOD sequel to a best selling Hollywood book/movie, I wholeheartedly recommend "Son of Rosemary" from a couple of years back. It is excellent. (Of course, it benefitted from having the original author, Ira Levin, write the sequel.)
Rating:
Summary: "A LADY SAYS YES" *
Review: As Jackie Susann's biographer, I was almost afraid to read SHADOW OF THE DOLLS. I wanted to like it-- because I wanted it to be a book that Jackie would like- but I couldn't imagine that ANY sequel would equal VD (the nickname attached to her original manuscript by her editor, Don Preston.) My affection for Jackie is such that for the15 years since publication of LOVELY ME, I have been "taking heat" for comparing Jackie to novelist, Theodore Dreiser . I wrote: - ":Like Jackie he believed he was exposing the corruption of his times. And like Jackie he had that certain something, that one in a million narrative drive....VD...stands as an early storm signal of both the drug culture and the women's movement. Jackie had something to say and she said it, and if she did not say it artfully, she said it compellingly...." These days,- happily,- fewer people laugh at my Dreiser comparison, and many historians and critics acknowledge that (in her own way) Jackie, while larger than life, was a true original, a gutbucket pioneer of women's liberation, a publishing pathfinder, as well as a deeply touching, even heroic human being. Hooray! We needn't read Jackie by flashlight under the covers anymore! College students are required to study VD for their courses on the 1960s. For credit! So, how can you compete with VD, - the most-unlikely best -sellling novel of the 20th century, and, on many levels, a landmark book? The answer is you can't-- but you can be faithful to the style, the intent, the characters the worldview and the delicious page-turning readability .. . Rae Lawrence (aka Ruth Liebmann) has given us a highly intelligent and consistent re-rendering of Jackie's universe. - the emptiness and unreliability of wealth and celebrity, the ubiquity of drugs, the perfidy of the alpha male, the dialogue that captures character, the blackly humorous unexpected twists in the story line. Rae also shares Jackie's gift for establishing the atmosphere of the haunts and hangouts of celebrity high-players, their jealousies , disappointments, nightmares, obsessions... In my opinion Jackie would be tickled with this book, she would be honored that Rae is faithful to her original vision ( with the exception that Jackie had more respect and affection for Anne, while Rae prefers Neely) The Jackie I know would absolutely adore the ironic consumations , contortions, and conclusions of SHADOW . Indeed, she might half- wish she had thought of them herself, and she'd be most appreciative that Rae did. I cannot reveal what these books-end surprises may be ,because I don't want to spoil your fun. But I anticipate that many readers may agree: "Ah yes, of course. This is exactly how it had to turn out.. This is what had to be. This is what would become of Neely and Anne." *Title of the 1944 Broadway play in which Jackie was featured with Carole Landis, on whom Jennifer North was partially based.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the original
Review: but "Shadow of the Dolls" is quite entertaining. When I saw that a sequel had been written, I new I had to read it to see what had happened to the crazy Neely and the way to nice Anne. "Valley of the Dolls" is one of my favorite books of all time, and this sequel certainly isn't a personal fave but it isn't entirely terrible. They do tell us right in the front of the book that the dates and times have been changed..why? I have no idea. That part takes away one star for me. Why did they have to do that? I guess that was the writer's decision. By the way, Rae Lawrence is a decent writer. While she doesn't write in the exact same way Susann did(who ever could?), she does have a knack for dialogue. She did a great job writing Neely's choice words. Nothing beats the original.."I AM NEEEEEELY OHARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
Technically, Anne and Neely should have been at least 15 years older than they say in the book. Anyway, that all aside. As long as you remember that this wasn't really written by Susann, even though you see her name on the cover of the book, and you just enjoy "seeing" those "old Friends"..as a lot of reviewers have put, this book is a decent take. I wasn't thrilled with the ending of the book.
I just hoped for something better. But this isn't better. VALLEY OF THE DOLLS is the better of the two. For those die hard fans, of the first, you may be disappointed. Yet, this book is good. It kept me interested.
I really hope a movie is never made. The movie of the first book is such outrageously trashy fun -- That could never be duplicated, so it should be best left alone!
As far as this book is concerned, I didn't love it, but it was good enough to keep me reading.
I won't give away too much, but if you want revisit Neely O'Hara, Anne Welles, and Lyon Burke, you just may enjoy this homage to Susann.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the original
Review: but "Shadow of the Dolls" is quite entertaining. When I saw that a sequel had been written, I new I had to read it to see what had happened to the crazy Neely and the way to nice Anne. "Valley of the Dolls" is one of my favorite books of all time, and this sequel certainly isn't a personal fave but it isn't entirely terrible. They do tell us right in the front of the book that the dates and times have been changed..why? I have no idea. That part takes away one star for me. Why did they have to do that? I guess that was the writer's decision. By the way, Rae Lawrence is a decent writer. While she doesn't write in the exact same way Susann did(who ever could?), she does have a knack for dialogue. She did a great job writing Neely's choice words. Nothing beats the original.."I AM NEEEEEELY OHARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
Technically, Anne and Neely should have been at least 15 years older than they say in the book. Anyway, that all aside. As long as you remember that this wasn't really written by Susann, even though you see her name on the cover of the book, and you just enjoy "seeing" those "old Friends"..as a lot of reviewers have put, this book is a decent take. I wasn't thrilled with the ending of the book.
I just hoped for something better. But this isn't better. VALLEY OF THE DOLLS is the better of the two. For those die hard fans, of the first, you may be disappointed. Yet, this book is good. It kept me interested.
I really hope a movie is never made. The movie of the first book is such outrageously trashy fun -- That could never be duplicated, so it should be best left alone!
As far as this book is concerned, I didn't love it, but it was good enough to keep me reading.
I won't give away too much, but if you want revisit Neely O'Hara, Anne Welles, and Lyon Burke, you just may enjoy this homage to Susann.
Rating: 
Summary: I really liked it!
Review: Considering the slamming other reviewers have been giving this book I am almost ashamed to admit that I think I like Shadow of the Dolls better than Valley of the Dolls. Yes the timeline is off, but that is explained away before Chapter 1 even starts. This a modern "what if" and the characters are put in current times and situations. I thought Neely and Anne's characters in this book were a perfect extension of themselves in the orginal. I could definately see Anne relaxing in the Hamptons and reinventing herself and her career in a Martha Stewart-ish way. Neely was the same money grubbing social climber as she was in the original; Lyon the same womanizer. To me all the parts fit. My only complaint is that it wasn't longer and that the characters of Anne and Neely's children weren't fleshed out more, but who knows that could lend itself to a third book, couldn't it?
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: Having read the original VOTD for the first time almost 30 years ago, I was thrilled to learn that a sequal was being released. I have to confesss that I am a VOTD fanatic, and have an autographed first edition of Ms. Susann's classic, as well as all other books she has written. Thus, my expectations were high.When Shadow arrived (pre-ordered and sent to me in Holland by express mail), I immediately stopped all non essential activites and began to devour it, first in large gulps, then slower and slower, with increasing disappointment and bitterness. The author has played fast and loose with the characters, updating the time frame by more than 20 years, but making the characters only a few years older than the original. The situations are predictable, the characters one dimensional, and the writing can most charitably described as plodding. I fail to understand why this travesty of a novel has been so well received by so many readers. Perhaps they were not around to experience the thrill of the original novel--scandalous, controversial, and above all, unputdownable in its acute and acerbic observation of life in the fast lane. Miss Susann must be rolling in her grave. I consider Shadow to be a desecration and insult to one of the cultural pop art triumphs of the mid 20th century. Do not buy this book. Do not read this book. If it is offered to you, follow Nancy Reagan's advice, and JUST SAY NO!
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