Thursday, July 26, 2012

review: rosewood confidential by liv spencer

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Liv Spencer’s Rosewood Confidential goes in-depth into the first two seasons of the hit ABC Family series Pretty Little Liars.  In keeping with the format of other show guides from ECW Press, Rosewood Confidential goes episode by episode with a summary of what happened followed by other tidbits like “extra credit” (explanations of references made in the episode), “slip ups” (mistakes made), and “back to the books” (how Sara Shepard’s books relate to the show) among others.  At the beginning of the book are the biographies of the main actors; those who play secondary characters are profiled throughout the episode guides.  There are also extras like features on the music and wardrobe to break up the standard format a bit.

Spencer definitely did her research on the show, but I didn’t always agree with what she deemed “slip ups.”  For example, she calls it a goof when Hanna claims not to be able to afford a fancy hotel despite her expensive wardrobe in episode 1.03 and again when Hanna says the dance in episode 1.14 is for a good cause even though it’s to benefit their class trip.  I can explain these (and some of the other so-called slip ups) easily as being very much in character.  Hanna’s already been established as a shoplifter, so the expensive clothes probably weren’t paid for.  As for the dance, Hanna’s exactly the sort that would think “a good cause” is her own class trip.  However, I did appreciate the inclusion (even if it wasn’t really a slip up) of an interesting nugget of information regarding episode 1.21.  In that episode it seemed weird that the girls kept saying website when they were clearing referring to Facebook.  Spencer clears up the mystery by revealing that “website” had to be dubbed in later when the ABC Family lawyers told them they couldn’t use Facebook.  Little facts like that make Rosewood Confidential a great read.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, ECW Press.

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