Royce Rolls

Gr 9 Up—For most of her life, Bentley Royce has been a character on the set of her family's reality TV show. Her every move is calculated, down to daily outfits and breakfast choices. Though her mother, older sister, and younger brother take their scripted lives in stride, Bentley yearns for something more real, including a college education. When ratings begin to slip and renewal of their show becomes uncertain, Bentley starts working on a plan to transform her life. Things quickly get out of control, ending with Bentley and her sister's fiancé reportedly missing after the car they were in is found at the bottom of a ravine the night of the rehearsal dinner. The search for them takes Bentley's family away from their structured schedules and forces them to reevaluate their lives. The author uses the depths to which the actors and network executives will go to maintain fame to make a stark statement about Hollywood culture. While Stohl provides humor and some enjoyable scenes throughout, the narrative becomes weighed down with repetitive reality TV lingo. Production notes and Internet blog posts sprinkled throughout are intriguing but also distract from the plot.