Margarita Montimore was reading celebrity books and dark academia novels when an idea came to her.
“I was reading a lot of memoirs of former child stars, from really tame ones of ‘This was my life, and then I went on to do something else and had a normal life’ to, of course, the very overwrought and very upsetting and crazy dark memoirs,” she explains. “And in the meantime, I was also reading stories set in boarding schools and really enjoying dark academia as it became this greater trend.”
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The author, known for her novels “Oona Out of Order” and “Acts of Violet,” had a thought: “What about a boarding school as a show business academy, and it’s this compound that is secretive and produces these stars, but at the same time, there’s something darker and sinister happening behind the scenes?”
The result is “The Dollhouse Academy,” out now from Flatiron. The novel, set in the late 1990s, follows Ramona and Grace, two aspiring actresses who get accepted into the titular academy, a school run by the company Dahlen Entertainment and its steely founder, Genevieve Spalding. Grace quickly becomes a star student, unlike her best friend, who can’t quite seem to please Genevieve. Meanwhile, Ramona starts getting ominous notes urging her to leave the school.
The chapters following Ramona and Grace are intercut with diary entries from Ivy Gordon, an academy alumna who has become a huge star in television and music — and who has some shocking secrets about her experiences at the school and company.
Montimore spoke about “The Dollhouse Academy” via telephone from New Jersey, where she lives. This conversation has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
Q: What made you decide to set the novel in the late 1990s?
I have to give my editor, Caroline Bleeke, credit for that, which is funny because I’ve written about the ‘90s before, and it’s the era I came of age in. But originally, the story was set in the present day, and she pointed out that nowadays, with influencer culture, TV celebrity doesn’t have the same gravity. Whereas in the ‘90s, there was still so much secrecy and control over it, and people were commodified in a way where the image was much more projected to you. You did not see their personality behind the scenes. You didn’t hear things as much from their own voice in their natural day-to-day life. Once she suggested that, I thought, “Of course. That makes perfect sense.”
Q: The book opens with epigraphs from Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli, and the buildings at the academy are named after Judy Garland characters. Was Dahlen Entertainment inspired by the MGM of the 1930s?
Absolutely. I love the old Hollywood films, and I love Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli, and my heart breaks for how much they sacrificed and what both of them were put through. They’ve left behind this glorious work, so I wanted to honor them. In fact, I would say that Genevieve, the headmistress and the head of Dahlen Entertainment, in a way is what I imagine if Judy Garland had taken a different path that still ended up being somewhat dark.
So it was partly inspired by MGM and then also partly [by] Disney and Nickelodeon and the way that they created these actors, how many huge stars came out of “The Mickey Mouse Club” and “Kids Incorporated” and all of the Nickelodeon shows, and then presently, we have the K-pop star factories. When I was writing this, I also wanted to honor the young performers. I didn’t want it to come across for one second that I was exploiting the pain that they went through. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t triggering to anybody, that it wasn’t seedy.
Q: In the book, you make the point that celebrities are frequently seen as disposable and not as people at all. It feels like that culture is still with us, if not even worse today.
Oh, incredibly. And on top of that, you have this dilution because you have so many people that can just go on TikTok and find their own success or become big YouTubers, but then they also end up on their own hamster wheel of fame and money. It’s like they create their own gilded cage in a way. There’s more competition than ever. There are more voices than ever. It’s just more and more and more and more, and we get lost in the din of it all.
Q: A critic for Kirkus Reviews wrote about your book, “As if the wives of Stepford went to the Valley of the Dolls.” Were you influenced at all by that era of books or cinema?
Absolutely. “Valley of the Dolls” is one of my favorite books. Before I started writing “The Dollhouse Academy”, I reread “Valley of the Dolls” to make sure that I wasn’t subconsciously borrowing too much. There are definitely references to it, just the fact that Judy Garland was originally intended to be in the film, which I didn’t actually know until I was writing the book. I thought, “This is just such a nice moment of synchronicity.” It’s one of the greatest novels that shows that seedy side of show business, and it is so sensational. And then of course, you have Ira Levin’s novels that are so surreal and paint these seemingly idyllic worlds that then have these very upsetting underbellies. I tried to make sure that it was just a sprinkle, it was like the seasoning to the story, but the homage was there. I was still pushing myself to approach it with my own perspective.
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