isabelmazyck's review
5.0
As a huge Bravo fan, I really enjoyed this. Because it’s chunked into cities and their histories, I would only recommend this to someone who watches all franchises (or all but one). I didn’t watch Miami and just kind of blew through that section. Most of the information I knew, but reading the interviews was such fascinating and full of humor.
lizziobuzzio's review
4.0
Pretty good overall, but there were some slow parts. I wish it included the Salt Lake ladies.
hooliaquoolia's review
3.0
I've accepted that I'm beyond treatment when it comes to my addiction to Housewives, so I was extremely eager to start this book, and enjoyed the most of it. I'm amazed at how many people were wiling to talk to him, and this does have a few wild bits of info that made me flood the gorgeous girls group chat, but there are flaws, and for the most part, they're pretty obvious.
#1 is that this book was controlled by Bravo. This has the pro of allowing Quinn to talk to pretty much everyone at the network, and get industry experts to speak in detail on their magnum opus. This gives a pretty good industry background, and from a technical aspect, I was very interested in the logistics that goes into not only the creation of each franchise, but also the genesis of this leviathan as a whole. This has the con of ultimately casting Bravo and each of the franchise's production companies in a good light, when as we all know, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. For example, multiple times, the people interviewed go into depth about why they saw fit to excuse racism from multiple cast members in their franchises, most notably on Dallas and Atlanta (the blatant racism displayed by Brandi Glanville on Beverley Hills is missing from this historical record). Let's be real, those excuses are fucking limp at best. They serve only as confirmation that rich white people do not take racism seriously, or at least not as seriously as they take advertising revenue. And also as confirmation that, as suspected, Brandi Glanville needs inpatient treatment.
#2 is that there are many important voices missing here. Most prominently, Bethenny Frankel from New York, KZB and NeNe from Atlanta, and Kim Richards and Denise Richards from Beverley Hills. In addition, missing is any substantial criticism of the network, the franchises, the production companies, or any overall cultural criticism. There is not a single point that any woman makes that is not immediately swatted down by multiple network executives, who offer replies that ultimately amount to "I'm sorry she felt that way." That works in some circumstances like "I didn't know I was mic'd," but in other circumstances, like "my husband broke my jaw and had a plan to kill me, production knew about it and did nothing," it's absolutely fucking nuts. When you're trying to frame "continue producing trash reality TV at max economic efficiency" as an equal concern against "this woman was sent to the ER by her husband, next stop is her grave," you know you've reached peak capitalism.
I get that we can't just have a thousand-page book about Housewives (well, maybe you can't, but I'd fucking read it), but reading this feels like reading the contents of a single Facebook page of a single insular bubble community. There's no real cultural criticism here, no analysis of the underlying power dynamics that played out across multiple franchises--not just racism and internalized misogyny, but also classism, homophobia, and colorism. Of course, this isn't meant to be a heavy tome of cultural criticism, it's meant to be light reading, so this criticism is more of a reflection of myself as a reader rather than the contents of this book.
#1 is that this book was controlled by Bravo. This has the pro of allowing Quinn to talk to pretty much everyone at the network, and get industry experts to speak in detail on their magnum opus. This gives a pretty good industry background, and from a technical aspect, I was very interested in the logistics that goes into not only the creation of each franchise, but also the genesis of this leviathan as a whole. This has the con of ultimately casting Bravo and each of the franchise's production companies in a good light, when as we all know, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. For example, multiple times, the people interviewed go into depth about why they saw fit to excuse racism from multiple cast members in their franchises, most notably on Dallas and Atlanta (the blatant racism displayed by Brandi Glanville on Beverley Hills is missing from this historical record). Let's be real, those excuses are fucking limp at best. They serve only as confirmation that rich white people do not take racism seriously, or at least not as seriously as they take advertising revenue. And also as confirmation that, as suspected, Brandi Glanville needs inpatient treatment.
#2 is that there are many important voices missing here. Most prominently, Bethenny Frankel from New York, KZB and NeNe from Atlanta, and Kim Richards and Denise Richards from Beverley Hills. In addition, missing is any substantial criticism of the network, the franchises, the production companies, or any overall cultural criticism. There is not a single point that any woman makes that is not immediately swatted down by multiple network executives, who offer replies that ultimately amount to "I'm sorry she felt that way." That works in some circumstances like "I didn't know I was mic'd," but in other circumstances, like "my husband broke my jaw and had a plan to kill me, production knew about it and did nothing," it's absolutely fucking nuts. When you're trying to frame "continue producing trash reality TV at max economic efficiency" as an equal concern against "this woman was sent to the ER by her husband, next stop is her grave," you know you've reached peak capitalism.
I get that we can't just have a thousand-page book about Housewives (well, maybe you can't, but I'd fucking read it), but reading this feels like reading the contents of a single Facebook page of a single insular bubble community. There's no real cultural criticism here, no analysis of the underlying power dynamics that played out across multiple franchises--not just racism and internalized misogyny, but also classism, homophobia, and colorism. Of course, this isn't meant to be a heavy tome of cultural criticism, it's meant to be light reading, so this criticism is more of a reflection of myself as a reader rather than the contents of this book.