InquierExclusive Interview with Alison DiLaurentis

An Indside Scoop on the new hit singleSecret

February 2012 Issue - Simrat Sidhu

$6.99

I promise not to tell, until the day I die

- Sara Shepard

“”

4 & 5 – One to One

6 & 7 – Musical Notes

8 – Where I’m From

9 & 11 – Feature Review of Flawless

Contents

are you’ve seen Alison DiLaurentis. Alison is a beautiful young success-ful girl. She plays on the Rosewood field hockey team and scores top grades among her grade. She surrounds herself with loving friends and family. Alison is often referred to as Ali, has luscious long blond hair, which she maintains in big bouncy curls. Her skin fair as a ba-by’s in a Johnson’s televi-sion commercial. Ali is the ‘it’ girl of Rosewood and she seems perfectly flaw-less but is there more to her than you see? I am very fortunate to interview such a successful and won-derful girl.

One to OneIf you’ve been to small

town Rosewood in the past 4 years, chances

Q: So there are these ru-mors circulating Rosewood that you had a fling with Toby Cavanagh? Is this true?A: No this is absolutely wrong! I do not think I can truly express the hatred I have for him. So why would anybody think that I had a fling with Toby Cavanagh? I really just do not under-stand why people think such horrid things?

Q: Allison, why are you so critical about Hanna’s weight?A: Who said I was critical? I was just making her try to understand how her losing weight would really en-hance your lifestyle. I never tried to directly hurt her. I would never purposely say something to harm her like that.

A: Who said I was critical? I was just making her try to understand how her los-ing weight would really en-hance your lifestyle. I never tried to directly hurt her. I would never purposely say something to harm her like that.

Q: How is it that Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer never seemed to know your se-crets but you always knew theirs?A: It’s the secrets that keep us close and together. They don’t necessarily need to know mine. Though the dirt they have can fill any grave.

Q: Allison what do you have against Toby that made him take the fault for the “Jen-na thing”?A: A secret too deep for me to even reveal here. If I did say it now all those times I could have told to my advantage would go to waste. In brief, it’s a secret

that only one person can know.

Q: Do you have any terrible secrets?A: Terrible secrets? Well if I do and I said do would they be secrets anymore? For two to keep a secret one of them must be dead. That is why I am not spilling.

SecretGot a secretCan you keep it?Swear this one you’ll saveBetter lock it, in your pocketTaking this one to the graveIf I show you then I know youWon’t tell what I saidCause two can keep a secretIf one of them is dead…

Why do you smile?Like you have told a secretNow you’re telling liesCause you’re the one to keep itBut no one keeps a secretNo one keeps a secretWhy when we do our darkest deedsDo we tell?They burn in our brainsBecome a living hell Cause everyone tellsEveryone tells…

Got a secretCan you keep it?Swear this one you’ll saveBetter lock it, in your pocketTaking this one to the graveIf I show you then I know youWon’t tell what I saidCause two can keep a secretIf one of them is dead…

Look into my eyesNow you’re getting sleepyAre you hypnotizedBy secrets that you’re keeping?I know what you’re keepingI know what you’re keeping

Got a secretCan you keep it?Swear this one you’ll saveBetter lock it, in your pocketTaking this one to the graveIf I show you then I know youWon’t tell what I saidCause two can keep a secretIf one of them is dead…

[spoken] Alison?Yes, Katherine.I have something I want to tell you, but you have to promise to never tell anyone.I promiseDo you swear on your life?I swear on my life

[end spoken]

You swore you’d never tell…You swore you’d never tell…

You swore you’d never tell…You swore you’d never tell…

Got a secretCan you keep it?Swear this one you’ll saveBetter lock it, in your pocketTaking this one to the graveIf I show you then I know youWon’t tell what I saidCause two can keep a secretIf one of them is dead…

Yes two can keep a secretIf one of us is…. Dead.

Written and sung by sisters, Catherine Pierce and Allison Pierce, secrets is now a hit sensation. They released this track on October 24th, 2000 from Sony Music Entertain-ment. I find this song to be the ideal song for my book because it is entirely about telling and maintaining se-crets. Each main character in my novel has a dark secret but what keeps them all to-gether is a much bigger se-cret. I think that also applies to my song. During the spo-ken part of it Katherine tells Alison a secret only to know it makes their relationship stron-ger and more bullet proof.

My impression of the song is about people keeping lethal secrets. It has a very concealed and mysterious sense and leaves you slightly traumatized. The song re-peats death/murder, for in-stance “Taking this one to the grave”, I find that the lyrics are illustrating someone dying and taking with them a se-cret. What the song does not directly say but is insinuated is murder. I think that because of this line “cause two can keep a secret if one of them is dead…”. My opinion is that that line sums up the theme of the story.

Musical Notes

Where I’m From

I am from whispers and secrets of an enclosed exclusive town

Tiffany’s and Louie Vuitton lined up like soldiers on the street

From the white picket fence bordering my home

The giggles behind my bedroom door

Who would ever guess that those secrets would escape?

I am from spoonful’s of pity food

It seemed comforting at the moment

Though it backstabbed me with excess weight

The jokes and laughs behind my back, “Hefty Hanna”

The small ounce of self-esteem I had was drained out of me

I am from danger and determination

Holding my hair back that is spun like gold

Wiping my cherry colored lips

by Simrat Sidhu

I am from awkward conversation with my single mother

Scarce conversation from my distant father

Loneliness will surround me until the day I will meet my fate

Alone, I shudder

I am from a bond I shared with friends

Brought together by secrets

Demolished by secrets

Only to make us robust

I am from oversized sweaters to form fitting gowns

Tiaras angelically placed on my head

Sashes draped along my body

The roar of my classmates and supporters

Genuine, innovative, and unique are few words that de-scribe Sara Shepard’s book Flawless. A phenomenal ex-emplar of teen issues and re-lationships, this novel explores the wickedness and darker themes of teenage life. How-ever, it doesn’t achieve this in a startling manner. I find that this publication made it extremely easy and effortless when it came to connecting to the teenage matters that are ex-hibited throughout the novel. Personally, I find that this book should be part of the grade eight curriculum for a variety of reasons. Specifically, the char-acters are easy to connect to, the plot hits close to home be-cause of the many situations that were explored, and the novel includes sections where it is very suspenseful and dra-matic.

This novel acquires the necessi-ties that the grade eight curric-

ulum looks for. The characters are facing modern day dilem-mas; they go through similar situations that grade 8 students experience. For instance, “Ali groaned and smacked Hanna with a pillow. Ever since they’d become friends in September, all Hanna could talk about was how much she looooved Sean Ackard, a boy in their class at the Rosewood Day School, where they’d all been going since kindergarten.” This is an ideal example of how this novel can relate to the modern generation.

Flawless is an ideal example of how teenagers in novels are not much different from the ones who read the book. In the pages of Flawless the charac-ters were able to connect with the audience like the following example: It was a Friday night in April, and Ali, Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Hanna were hav-ing one of their typical

Feature Review of Flawless

sixth-grade sleepovers: putting way too much makeup on one another, chowing on salt-and-vin-egar kettle chips, and half watch-ing MTV Cribs on Ali’s flat-screen TV.

Suspense is a certain element of this dramatic story an example would be this, they fell into an edgy silence. They’d been in on their fair share of Ali’s pranks, but those had been innocent sneak-ing into the saltwater hot tub at Fermata spa or putting droplets of black dye into Spencer’s sis-ter’s shampoo. But something about this made them all just a little . . . uneasy. Boom!

“Oh my God!” she screamed, running behind the blackberry-colored velvet couch. The girls wheeled around. At the window was Toby Cavana-ugh, Her was just . . . standing there. Staring at them.

From what has been said, I have confidence in that Flawless is a

brilliant novel to be placed in the grade 8 curriculums. In brief, the book incorporates the elements of an exceptional factor.