Confessions of a Backup Dancer
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
glamour. access. scandal.
Ever wonder what your favorite pop divas are like AFTER the cameras stop rolling? What do they do behind closed doors? What are their parties like? What do they think about? What do they fight about? What do they really want? And who do they REALLY hook up with?
Kelly Kimball spent a summer as a backup dancer for Darcy Barnes, the biggest pop star in the world. Kelly's got the real story on Darcy, her life, her family, and her entourage -- and she's spilling it here for the first time. If you think the life of a superstar can't possibly be all it's cracked up to be, you're wrong. It's all that and more. And it's all inside Kelly's tell-all diary: Confessions of a Backup Dancer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 17-year-old heroine of Shaw's (Flavor of the Week) rather flimsy novel primarily relays the story of her star-studded summer through "personal diary software," supplemented by e-mail and instant messages. Among her heroes is Darcy Barnes, whom she describes as "definitely the biggest pop star out there." Kelly is thrilled yet nervous when she lands a job as a backup dancer on Darcy's tour, during which she must contend with the mercurial pop diva, who declares Kelly her new best friend; the star's lecherous boyfriend, a high-profile VJ; and Darcy's controlling mother, who views Kelly as competition for her daughter and eventually fires the dancer. But readers sufficiently curious about the alleged behind-the-scenes life of a pop star to get caught up in the tale need not worry. After a stint dancing for Darcy's main teen idol competitor, Kelly rejoins Darcy's entourage. Though some kids will find the narrative grating, others will identify with Kelly's run-on teenspeak ("then she goes 'do you have a boyfriend?' and I go no. she looked at me for a minute and I got kinda nervous so I said, 'we just broke up last week,' which I totally made up just to fill the space"). The protagonist's affecting relationship with her younger brother, attending a correctional school after committing a felony, strikes a welcome realistic note to a novel that too often reads as an unsuccessful spoof. Ages 14-up.
