Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison | Summary & Analysis

Down the Rabbit Holeis the memoir of former Hugh Hefner girlfriend and former star of The Girls Next Door, Holly Madison. By 2002, Holly was Hugh Hefner’s girlfriend at the Playboy Mansion, but she felt that she had sold her soul for a piece of fame. She was miserable, even borderline suicidal, as she played the role of girlfriend to a demanding tycoon old enough to be her grandfather. Life inside the mansion turned out to be toxic as Hefner’s seven live-in girlfriends clawed at each other. Holly knew Hefner would just replace her with another blonde if she did kill herself. She decided to stay alive so she could tell her story someday.

When nine-year-old Holly Madison got a set of Marilyn Monroe paper dolls for Christmas, she began fantasizing about Marilyn’s glamorous life. Growing up in Alaska and Oregon, she never fit in with the other small-town kids, who were obsessed with sports and videogames. Instead, Holly watched Marilyn’s movies and fantasized about Hollywood.

In 1999, when she was in her second year at Portland State Uni