Glitter with the girls! (Dreams That Glitter: Our Story - Girls Aloud)

Member Name: SweetTooth93

Product:	Dreams That Glitter: Our Story - Girls Aloud
Date:	04/07/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: really interesting, pictures etc

Disadvantages: repetitive in some places

This is my first ever book review, and some constructive critism on how to improve would be greatly appreciated.

This Christmas I was extremely lucky when it came to presents, receiving some absolutely splendid presents. Among the various books I received, there was a definite favourite of mine. One of the favourites I received was the new Girls Aloud Autobiography: Dreams That Glitter.
Girls Aloud (Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts, Kimberly Walsh), are definitely my favourite girl group, perhaps of all time, and I have followed them through their journey, or what you could say struggle to gain nationwide success. The group were formed back in 2002, on talent show Popstars: The Rivals, which was aired on ITV1. They had to battle it out with their rival boy group "One True Voice", for Christmas number one, and as they one, it was almost inevitable they would gain a lot more success than the other band.
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The front cover of the book is very attractive but also very minimal. The book is hardback, and a plain black front and back cover, however there is a cover on top of the plain book to spice things up a bit and draw the reader in. The main colour of the cover is black, with a huge picture of the five girls on. They are dressed in short black dresses, and do look very glamorous. The background of the picture is a slightly textured gold glitter, which really reiterates the title of the book, and also adds a little glamour to the front cover. Underneath the picture of the band, Girls Aloud is written in large white block capitals, and underneath this, Dreams That Glitter is written in swirly gold writing, and then " our story". The back cover gives no blurb or description of the book, however there is another large picture of Girls Aloud.
Before reading the book, I was pretty unsure of what it would be like. I was half expecting the book just to be the Girls Aloud story so far, with a little narration by the band members and perhaps some quotes from the girls, however I couldn't have been more wrong.

Before the book properly begins, there is a few words from the band. Here, they say their thank you's to the people who have helped them along their road to success, and the people that they "couldn't be here without today". On the page opposite the thankyous, there is a very nicely set out contents page. The sections of the book include "Girls keeping it real", "Girls with Attitude" and "Girls in Love". Between all sections of the book, there are what you could call fact files, and a few pages about each of the girls.
After the easy-to-read contents, the girls then begin with their introduction. They begin by telling us how magic it feels when they are on tour and performing. They then give a brief speech on how amazing it has been being in Girls Aloud and they actually thank the readers and fans for their support, which I found a very nice touch, and actually made me want to read on more with the book.
The book is written in a very clever way. The girls narrate the story themselves, in what sounds like a conversation. They each give their views on the same things, often having the same point of view. This is something I feel let the book down slightly. I often found myself reading the same thing over and over again. For example, in a section of the book when they are describing what it was like when their tour manager John McMahon tragically died, most of the girls told the story in the exact same way and I found it quite boring to read four or five times. However this is the only thing that actually let the book down and I found everything else about it really impressive. One thing that stands out and makes the book seem good quality, is the thick, shiny pages. The pages are similar to those in the posh, glossy magazines, very difficult to rip, which for me was a plus point as I can be quite "hash bash" with books. The book is very strong too, and has survived being dropped down the stairs in my house (it was an accident!).

The first section of the book is, " Girls on a Mission". This part of the book focuses on before the auditions for Popstars: The Rivals, and through the process into gaining a place in the band. It is here that you notice that each girl has a different colour for when they speak. Although all of the text is written in black ink, their names are all given a different colour so it is easier to remember who is speaking. Also, when a short quote is given outside the text, it is written in the colour of "the girl". For example when Nicola's quotes are used they are written in green.
The first section I found to be really interesting. It was easy to read and really flowed well as the girls each recalled different experiences from the audition process and wrote about some of the friendships they struck up during that period of time. I found this section was probably one of my favourites because It really made me think about how "normal" the girls used to be; most of them coming from poor families living in run down areas. In this section there is a picture of each girl during their first audition which I thought was really thought provoking and made me realise just how much they had changed.
The next section of the book was " Girls under Pressure". This part of the book focused on after the auditions and once they had made it into the final 10, performing on the live shows. They each tell their experiences of what the house was like, and how nerve wracking, but exciting it was too perform live on television. They recall some moments with the other girls, and tell us how their friendships blossomed during this time. This part of the book also flowed very well, and neither of the girls repeated each other all too much. This part of the book provides pictures of the girls, as well as some of the other girls who were in top ten girls in the house, such as Aimee Kearsely and Emma Beard.
This section also focuses on after the girls made the band, and how they had to battle it out with rival boy band One True Voice for Christmas number one.

"Being Girls Aloud" is the next section. This section tells all about how close they were with tour manager John McMahon and how upset and distraught they were when he sadly passed away in December 2002. This is probably the only part of the book that I found seemed to drag slightly, as each of the girls recalled the same thing, and told in basically the same way which I found quite boring.
After this it then goes onto talk about how the girls friendships grow, their relationships at the time and how their first couple of years in the band was very hard going and on occasions quite miserable. This section of the book contains pictures of the girls at events such as singing lessons, and concerts they did. It also very noticeable here how much the girls have changed in the past few years, not only personality wise, but looks wise too!
"Girls up against it" is the next section of the book. It is probably the shortest section of the book and focuses on their singles following their first successful single "Sound of the underground" which made Christmas number one in 2002. They tell us of their struggle and how they didn't have too much success with their following few, but how it picked up when they released their first up tempo, pop song, they shot up in popularity and their success soared from there. Although short this section was really interesting and provided a lot of information which was probably not known before. The pictures in this part are mainly of the girls in concert, and at red carpet events.

The next part of the book is "Girls: keeping it real". This part goes back to telling us a bit more personally about each of the girls and some of the experiences they remember from childhood and how things changed when they became famous and well known. They also reveal how they feel about fame and how they feel about the lifestyle they now have. This section was really enjoyable and easy to read and gave a really interesting insight into how the girls think. Again there are some beautiful pictures of the girls, and in my opinion this is the part of the book they subtly begin to look more glamorous.
"Girls on top" is the next part of the book, and is very short. This part focuses on when the girls profiles shot up, when they released some well loved singles, and when they began to feel a lot more confident about themselves. This, I feel was the turning point of the book, and gave it a lot more of a "positive" and "optimistic" feel of the book. Again stunning pictures of the girls are provided.

Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of the book for me, was "Girls in love". As the chapter title suggests, this part focuses on the girls love lives, and how their relationships blossomed, and fell apart through their journeys to success. Each of the girls gives quite a long section on their experiences, around 3 or 4 pages. They reveal quite deep insights to their relationships and how Girls Aloud has meant some of them haven't worked out. Again there are some stunning pictures of the girls, this time with their boyfriends and partners. One of the most beautiful pictures of the whole book, is of Cheryl Cole on her wedding day with husband Ashley Cole. I really enjoyed this part of the book and found it easy to read.
"Gossip Girls" follows, and this section is all about fame, tabloids, paparazzi and how the girls coped with it. They reveal some of their embarrassing moments with the press, and how they felt about it as well as admitting that they do like the paparazzi when they are looking there best, and they realise that it really does come with the "job". there are, as usual, pictures in this part of the book, this time including during rehearsals.

"Go Girls" is the next part of the book. This part focuses on touring. They give their feelings and thoughts about performing and also about rehearsals and how tiring they can be. They recall some happy, sad, and even scary moments during their tours. This part of the book is actually really interesting and I found that I couldn't put the book down at this part as I wanted to know what each of the girls thought. I found however that there is quite a bit of repetition at this part of the book, which could have been cut out I feel.
"Cover Girls" is the part of the book where the girls tell us all about their beauty regimes, healthy eating, fashion, how they deal with stress etc. I found this part also very interesting, however quite a lot of what the girls talk about is common sense. It is quite interesting however finding out what each of the girls body hang ups are, and how they deal with them. I found myself chuckling at this part of the book, as I looked at the pictures of the girls in the dressing rooms, getting ready and hanging about- there is quite a funny one of Sarah!

"Girls with Attitude" is the last "proper section" of the book. This part focuses on what the girls are doing today and what they aspire for in the future. For example, Cheryl tells about how daunting but exciting it is appearing as a judge on the X factor and the girls all tell us that (at time of print) they are focusing on making their "new" album fantastic and edgy. This part of the book is a nice little round up and ends the girls narration well.
As I mentioned at the start, the book dedicates a couple of pages to each member in the band. Each girls section follows the same pattern. First there is a single page dedicated to a whole body shot of the girl, and this page has information such as their full name, home town and their likes and dislikes. The next few pages are dedicated to a speech by each girl about their childhood, growing up, and life in the band. Then there is another page with another picture, and then there is a sort of interview type set up with the girls being asked questions such as "How do you relax" "What is your fave food" and "What do you watch on the television". These parts of the book are really interesting and easy to read. Each girls profile is slotted in between two of the sections which I found to give a bit of a light relief from the proper reading parts.
There is also a double page spread of the girls style tips, giving information such as their favourite make up and their top make up tips. This part is also really enjoyable.
There is also an index at the back of the book which makes it easy to find specific parts!

Overall I really did enjoy this book. I found it really easy to read and found that it flowed exceptionally well. I would recommend this book to all Girls Aloud lovers, and probably any teenage girl, or young woman, not that men wouldn't enjoy it too! I received my book for Christmas so I didn't personally buy it however I do know that it is available in most book shops such as Waterstones as well as shops such as Tesco and WHSmith! The book is retailed at £14.99, however I have seen it being sold as cheap as £9.

Summary: /