The Princess of Las Vegas

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of disordered eating, death by suicide, and sexual violence and harassment.

Crissy Dowling is the title character and one of the main protagonists of the novel. She is a Diana, Princess of Wales impersonator at Buckingham Palace Casino in Las Vegas. She is very famous in Las Vegas and prides herself on having an incredible amount of knowledge when it comes to the late Princess of Wales. Crissy has also gone to extreme lengths to make herself look like Diana, even having plastic surgery to alter her nose: “I wanted to make it clear that as vain as I am…I didn’t see one of Vegas’s premier plastic surgeons because I thought my nose was too big or too small. I just wanted to replicate Lady Di’s as much as possible” (122). Crissy also speaks in a British accent and uses often archaic British slang to make herself sound more like Diana. Additionally, she experiences disordered eating, which causes her to feel a kinship with Diana. Crissy is extremely funny and dramatic, but also very competitive, which causes her to fight at times with her sister. In general, Crissy lives in the past—in the golden era of Diana’s fame—and struggles to root herself in reality and the present.