Abbot's first book, Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul, was raw, seedy, and dramatic, and was a incredibly readable work of non-fiction. In this book, Abbott turns her attention to another raw, seedy, and dramatic period in American history, once again framing it around the exploits of unique and flawed women: Gypsy Rose Lee, June Havoc, and their mother Rose Hovick. This time, we're taken from Seattle to New York, and behind the strained velvet curtains of vaudeville and burlesque theaters, as Rose Louise Hovick becomes Gypsy Rose Lee, one of the most celebrated burlesque/striptease acts in history. Abbott parallels the making of Gypsy with the birth of the American burlesque scene via the Minsky brothers, making attempts to show what drove these underdogs to reinvent themselves time and time again. What the book fails to deliver, however, is a purpose. Abbott's purpose was to both chronicle Gypsy Rose Lee's creation of herself as a tabloid darling in the vein of Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton, and the rough-and-tumble world which forged her personality, but the focus, however blurry, turned more towards the relationship between Gypsy, her sister June, and their mother Rose (and to a lesser extent, the relationship between the Minsky brothers) than on the life and times of Gypsy Rose Lee.

The flashes between Rose Louise Hovick of the 1920s and 1930s and Gypsy Rose Lee of the 1940s and 1950s made the narration clunky and choppy, and at times, the insertion of the Minkys seemed misplaced and somewhat awkward. The books strength lies in making attempts to dissect the twisted relationship between the Hovick women, but there are so many holes in the story and halfhearted opinions, any insight becomes pat and stale. Nonetheless, the book does give a peek into a forgotten slice of American life, and is an interesting companion to Gypsy's own autobiography and the movie musical on which it is based.