Royce Rolls by Margaret Stohl

Abstract

Reviewed by: Royce Rolls by Margaret Stohl Karen Coats Stohl, Margaret Royce Rolls. Freeform, 2017 [400p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-4847-3233-5 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4847-3570-1 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12 After five seasons of a reality show featuring her outspoken mother, Mercedes, fashionista sister, Porsche, and CGB (cute gay brother), Maybach, Bentley Royce [End Page 427] feels more like a character than a real person. She longs to end the charade and, with ratings tanking, she realizes that she might just get her wish. That could be financial disaster for the family, though, so she's on board when Porsche pitches the idea of a wedding to save the show—or so it seems in a plot of layered deceptions. When it becomes clear that Porsche is falling in real love with her fake fiancé, Bentley realizes it's time to blow up the whole deal to save her family. Mixed with fictional news items from celebrity internet rags, the details of the show's final season and Bentley's off-screen life are cannily peppered with footnotes from the top network executive and his assistant regarding proposed edits for product placement and self-protective, self-promoting word changes in what they obviously worry will be a very public document in the end. The technique hilariously confirms all of the negative stereotypes of LA while allowing Bentley's character to emerge with an engaging sympathy. The cynical flares aimed at reality programming and its stars might cause mild discomfort to their religious devotees, but teens with a sense of irony will hoot at the caustic sendups of the branding, spin, and OTT antics that keep celebrities in the public eye. Fans of Bray's Beauty Queens (BCCB 6/11) will find this laugh-out-loud outrageous as well as oddly charming. Copyright © 2017 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois