Groupies

A young woman grows up fast as a rock band groupie Priscus’s resonant debut. With $400 and her “truest friend,” a Polaroid Instamatic, Faun Novak arrives in Los Angeles in 1977 to reunite with her best friend, Josie, a year after they graduated high school. Young, impressionable, exuberant, but with less street smarts than Josie, Faun launches herself headlong into documenting the groupies and stars of a band called Holiday Sun. Josie, who is dating front man Cal Holiday, is her ticket backstage. But before Faun’s dreams of a glamorous life can crystallize, she endures Cal’s volatile moods and learns of his violent history, and then catastrophe strikes. As Faun tries cocaine, hooks up with a bassist, and considers how far she’ll go to support Josie, she begins yearning for a more grounded life, realizing that “roots are hard to plant in concrete.” Through a succession of vivid scenery and authentically groovy characters, Priscus plants her finger on the fluttering pulse of the 1970s rock scene. This spirited dive into the past will delight rock fans young and old. (July)