500 Words On: “The Vegas Diaries” by Holly Madison (book review)

I read The Vegas Diaries in about a week. It’s easy to read and hard to put down. The author, Holly Madison, goes over her fast-paced life in Las Vegas after leaving the Playboy Mansion. She is headlining a burlesque show, starring in her own reality television series, buys her first house…the list goes on. But more than that, The Vegas Diaries is about introspection and figuring out not only what you want in life, but why you want it. The book is honest but never dips into self-pity or shock value.

Madison became popular as Hugh Hefner’s main girlfriend on the series “The Girls Next Door”, a reality show that I could still watch for hours. I’ve always been fascinated by the Playboy mansion and lifestyle, and I connected with Madison’s feelings that it had an oddly vintage appeal to it. I’m interested to read Down the Rabbit Hole because that’s her “Tell-all” about that part of her life. By the time The Vegas Diaries begins, Holly has firmly put that life behind her and decides to redefine her brand, no matter what.

Those keeping score at home may realize that headlining a burlesque show is only a few steps outside of Playboy, as far as her public image is concerned. The concept is sexy and vintage, made to look easy and plastic while behind the scenes there are plenty of wheels churning. Having worked in theatre, I loved the insights into a “commercial” version of an already commercial industry. Sort of a modern “Chorus Line”.

I also loved reading how much of reality television is planned in advance and staged. Rather than feeling like I’d been tricked into believing the shows were real I liked that Madison wasn’t trying to deny or defend the thinly veiled farce.

Whether it was intentional or not, Holly also wrote about the challenges facing every woman on the planet. Even when we feed into the idea that we are objects meant for ogling, we’re still controlled and called names and judged before people meet us. I feel these parts of the book could be written by any woman in the public eye, from Michelle Obama to Mae West. Women are either bitchy or ditzy, immature or too big for our britches, slutty or prude… We can curate our public image, whether we’re trying to be “real” or show off a perfect life, someone will take issue. Men are never judged on their behavior based on how they represent their gender, but women, invariably, are.

I really enjoyed Holly’s voice, it didn’t seem like she was trying to fit into any mold, she was just telling her story. At some points, it was like the John Mulaney bit where he says “and I said ‘no’, like a liar.” she admits the mistakes she made without apologizing for them. If we’re afraid to make mistakes we’ll never really try new things or live a life at all…and Holly hasn’t been afraid to make mistakes.