Hayley Aldridge Is Still Here

Those who followed the struggles of Britney Spears as a young star and mother and watched as she endured a decades-long conservatorship will no doubt find similarities in Sloan’s second novel (after The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes). Hayley Aldridge falls into acting at a young age, nabbing a starring role in a ’90s family sitcom and quickly becoming a household name. Soon she gets swept up in the trappings of young stardom: being the family breadwinner at the age of 10; drugs and addictions around every corner; troubled family dynamics and toxic friendships; being forced to grow up too fast. Like the aforementioned blond starlet, Hayley’s out-of-control life lands her in a conservatorship and under her parents’ rule with little way out. As in in real life, some of the stories Hayley tells are hard to imagine and difficult to read but will genuinely make readers care about her. Even when she is making mistakes, they will root for Hayley until the very end.