Hollywood Kids is third in a series of books exploring the theme of life among the Hollywood elite and scum. Hollywood Wives (1983), Collins's ninth book, and Hollywood Husbands (1986; see separate entry), her eleventh, are the other two.

Characters from these two and other Collins books are mentioned (e.g., Lucky Santangelo), but all the major and important minor characters are new. Collins's great asset as a writer is her full delineation of characters so much so that there is no more story left to tell about them in any subsequent book. (A possible exception is her telling of the story of Lucky Santangelo in three volumes.) She mentions the names of some real celebrities and some of her fictional celebrities in passing, giving a kind of credibility and continuity to her story.

Although Hollywood Kids has the same plot structure of the other books of the...