Geri in her own words. (If Only - Geri Halliwell)

Member Name: Groovee

Product:	If Only - Geri Halliwell
Date:	28/09/04 (624 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very compelling

Disadvantages: Not for younger readers

I love reading Biographies so when I saw Geri Halliwell's "If Only" on Ebay I decided to buy it. It cost me 80p.

We were introduced to Geri and her family background. I for one had never known her background apart from that she suffered eating disorders and she was friends with George Michael. It was interesting to read about the child and what her family life was like before stardom. She also takes us through her starting with the Spice Girls to her leaving and then deciding to do something to do with Cancer Care The book is dedicated to her dad and she talks in depth throughout the book of her family. It's not until she is a lot older she realises how much her family mean to her. She talks often about school and how in Primary School she was bunged in with the odd balls, the ones who stood out because of their school uniforms or the fact they were from poor families. She also managed to get into the Grammar School. She regularly mentions that her brother went to a really rough school and turned out to be a scientist while she went to the better school and started off at the bottom.

Geri takes us through her life in a really in-depth way which you can see the pictures in your head of what she describes and what life was like for Geri. Some places in the book are really quite comical and had me laughing my head off. Like when she moved next door to a Nunnery and being amazed that they wore normal clothes. Then the nuns telling her that the papers had got it into their heads that Geri had bought the nunnery and chucked all the nuns out. There are also some really sad bits like when her dad died and she explains her emotions so thoroughly that I could really feel how she felt at the time.

Geri also talks about her relationships with people and also how she realised at one point that she had no real friends. It really makes you realise that she was quite lonely and is also such a normal person to have gone through what she has. Reading the parts in the book where Geri talks about the press invading her life with stories which weren't quite true and people would sell their stories when they hardly knew her, you could feel the anguish she went through and how guilty she felt for putting her family through all what they went through. She also talks about how bad she is at maintaining men and how she usually only has a relationship with a man when she is bored and has nothing else to do, which to me is such a shame. Being in a very loving relationship myself, I can't comprehend Geri's way of men.

You can see that although when Geri started with The Spice Girls that although on the outside she was a confident cocky sort of girl, underneath she needed someone to care and love her which was something she never really has experienced as lots of men have used her to their own advantages which is very sad. The true Geri started to come out once she had left the spice girls and had to have a focus in her life and allow herself to find herself. One thing that I did like was that quite often you would read an extract from her diary as she was very good at keeping one. Especially the parts when she was attempting to start out in Glamour Modelling.

The way that Geri writes the book makes you really feel as though she is having a conversation with you. As you are reading, within your head I found I was asking questions and as if like magic Geri would answer them in the next paragraph. I found the book very easy to read and I couldn't put it down as I wanted to know what happened next and how she felt. I also found it a disappointment to discover that it finished in 1999. It would be great to see how she feels 5 years on. I'm a nosy person and love to look at the pictures which always seem to come in this sort of book. It was amazing looking at pictures off a few years ago and what Geri looked like at school. She has really changed and is a really elegant person who has grown and changed into the real Geri. Geri's book showed me the sensitive side of Geri and how she really felt through all her rough times and how true friends and family will always be there for her.

This was a book which I found easy to read but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone too young. I got my copy from ebay for 80p, if you look on Amazon it is available for around £5.59. If you shop in bargain bookshops you may find it for cheaper. It was definitely worth the read but I wouldn't have gone out of my way to read it. Though I would read an update if she did one.

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