In a debut perfect for fans of Daisy Jones & The Six, Mary Jane, and The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, Sarah Priscus shines a bright light on the grungy yet glittery world of 1970s rock ‘n’ roll and the women – the groupies – who unapologetically love too much in a world that doesn’t love them back.
It’s 1977, and Faun Novak is in love with rock ‘n’ roll.
After her mother’s death, Faun, a naïve college dropout, grabs her Polaroid and hops a Greyhound to Los Angeles. In the City of Angels, she reconnects with her charismatic childhood friend Josie, now an up-and-coming model and muse. To make their reunion even sweeter, Josie is now dating Cal Holiday, the frontman of the superstar rock band Holiday Sun, and Faun is positively mesmerized.
Except it’s not just the band she can’t get enough of. It’s also the proud groupies who support them in myriad ways. Among the groupies are: a doting high school girl at war with her mother; a drug-dealing wife and new mom who longs to be a star herself; and a cynical mover-and-shaker with a soft spot for Holiday Sun’s bassist.
Faun obsessively photographs every aspect of this dazzling new world, struggling to balance her artistic ambitions with the band’s expectations. As her confidence grows for the first time in her life, her priorities shift. She becomes reckless with friendship, romance, her ethics, and her bank account.
But just as everything is going great and her boring, old life is falling away, Faun realizes just how blind she has been to the darkest corners of this glamorous musical dreamland as the summer heats up and everything spirals out of control . . .
Equal parts an evocative coming-of-age and a cutting look at fame, desire, and the media, Groupies is a novel that will have you turning the pages until the music and drug-fueled end.
Publisher: William Morrow/HarperCollins
Publication Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 9780063218017
Available for order: B&N | INDIEBOUND | BOOKPEOPLE | INDIGO
Sarah Priscus is the author of GROUPIES (William Morrow, July 5, 2022.)
Her short stories and poetry have been published online in Barren Magazine, New South Journal, Ellipsis Zine, and elsewhere. She received a Best of the Net nomination for a story published in Atlas & Alice, and a Pushcart Prize nomination for a story published in Milk Candy Review.
She is a 2021 graduate of the University of Ottawa, where she studied English with a minor in Theatre. She lives in Ottawa, ON, Canada.
2022 Debuts 