Reality Ali

Ali Caldwell #1

by Christine Marciniak

The only thing real about reality TV is the camera.

Fourteen-year-old Ali Caldwell’s father keeps her privacy so secure none of the kids at boarding school believe she has a movie star for a mom. Sick of hiding in the wings, Ali decides to orchestrate her own fame by posting videos of her and her friends on YouTube. Suddenly, she’s the new Hollywood buzz, and her mom wants Ali on her reality show.

Now Ali’s in the middle of a media firestorm. The paparazzi have tracked her down, interview requests are coming from all over, and the hottest star in Hollywood asks her to the school dance. To top it all off, some stranger is following her around and sending flowers. It’s really starting to creep her out. But is he really a dangerous stalker, or just another cog in her mother’s publicity machine?

Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2012

Reviews

[J.J. Lair · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book on Kindle after meeting the author at a book panel last fall. I’m in the process of writing a YA story so I wanted to read a YA author.
This story has teenage crushes, suspense, fame and conflicted adults. It is a statement on our culture, fame and reality shows.
Ali’s mother is the star of a reality show that Ali isn’t allowed to be part of at the request of her father. While at her school, she has this Lucy Ricardo-esque idea that posting videos on Youtube isn’t being on TV, but will get her noticed. Her friend Liam does the camera work for her. This skirts her father’s rules about being on TV. The videos go viral and she’s as popular as her reality star mother. This prompts her mother to bring her into the show along with her brother.
The bigger statement of the book is that fame can be a curse. Ali wanted to be on her mother’s show so bad, to see her mother, but also the fame. She meets teens that were stalked like Lily. her roommate, Sanjita doesn’t care about the media. The author presents many different angles of the perks and problems with fame. She also shows how one person is different when the reality cameras are on versus when the cameras are off.
The stalker angle of the book really takes things off. Ali’s life suddenly centers on watching out for the guy, wondering what the guy sees, when will he show up? Is it an insider? It curses her that some of her friends don’t take the stalker seriously. Maybe her father takes him too seriously. All of this is too sudden and much for a girl that wanted some simple fame.
I bought what I thought would be a light YA book. I think part of that is because of the cover art of the book. I expected a Lucy Ricardo-esque story about achieving fame in a comical way. This story is much more about the pitfalls of fame. For that I would recommend this to an adult just as soon as I would a YA reader.

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

First in a 4-part series about high-school student Ali Caldwell, REALITY ALI features the daughter of divorced parents: a reality-show-star mom and an overprotective dad who wants his kids out of the spotlight. Starving for her mom's affection, Ali convinces her friends to put videos about her on YouTube. This soon spirals out of her control, with reality-show cameras and real-life stalkers making her life miserable and even endangering her. REALITY ALI has characters that are true-to-life, who talk and act like the teenagers I see every day. The story has plenty of suspense and will appeal to students in middle school and early high school.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started reading I thought, "Oh well, another young adult novel." It's not generally what I read. But, as I continued to read, I became more engrossed and at the end of each chapter wanted to go on and find out what would happen next. I thought that it was very well written and look forward to more by the same author.

[Kim Baccellia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun new series for those who want a lighter YA!

My YA Books Central review: http://www.yabookscentral.com/compone...