Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel's Tween Empire by Ashley Spencer

4.0 AVERAGE

brittttc's review

3.5
informative slow-paced

aeslehcgale's review

5.0
challenging emotional informative inspiring relaxing fast-paced

bekaprog's review against another edition

fast-paced

booktokbrie's review against another edition

4.0
informative reflective medium-paced

raz_reads's review

2.5
informative reflective medium-paced
While interesting and nostalgic, this book felt a bit like Disney propaganda to help them with plausible deniability for all that these young stars went through. Instead of shining a critical eye on the actions Disney execs didn't take and how they didn't support their young stars, it gives a highly polished "well we tried by not acknowledging how awful the tabloids were and how damaging things could be because if we acknowledged it it would draw more attention" sort of approach. This book liked to talk about how successful each show was, while saying "yes we know they went through a lot but our crappy contracts meant they had no choice so they made it work and look at how amazing it ended up" 

The writing is nice, the book is a blast from the past. I didn't dislike reading it. The author did a great job making it interesting, I just wish she could have shown the darker side a bit more.

Finally, the ending was very abrupt. Once again, instead of digging deeper into Disney's failure, it said
"sure we knew Demi was struggling, but we had to respect her privacy"
and left it at that which was disappointing. 
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r_zatt_read's review

4.5
insider synopsis of disney television that defined teen culture in the 2000s and 2010s. As a consumer of disney content I found this book familiar and engaging, though at times it lacked a critical 'birds-eye' view on the disney phenomena

silver_illusion's review against another edition

4.0
informative fast-paced
ksmigs_25's profile picture

ksmigs_25's review against another edition

3.0
3.5 ⭐️ “The Untold Story” but it’s just a compilation of stories that have already been told. More of a one stop shop for all the other documentaries and stories out there.
jenna6284's profile picture

jenna6284's review

3.5
informative reflective medium-paced

sbana's review

4.5
emotional informative fast-paced
this book is incredibly well researched, has a wonderful balance of nostalgia and critique. i would've loved a little bit more critique to pair with the research, but really great read