Review: The Girl Who Became a Beatle by Greg Taylor
The Girl Who Became a Beatle by Greg Taylor
This was a very silly book.
I was excited to request The Girl Who Became a Beatle when it came up on swap because it’s the first YA novel I’ve encountered that’s dealt with the Fab Four. As a preteen, I was absolutely obsessed with the Beatles—we’re talking, plastered-my-room-with-drawings-of-them, purchased-shelves-full-of-books-about-them, had-a-shoebox-full-of-newspaper-clippings, wore-out-my-tape-of-Backbeat obsessed. To this day, I still know a remarkable amount of Beatles trivia, love Beatles biopics, and have plans to someday finally make it to Liverpool to visit Mendips.
The protagonist of this novel, Regina Bloomsbury, would have gotten along well with little-me. She calls her basement hang out the Cavern, paints a Magical Mystery Tour rainbow on her ceiling, and starts a Beatles cover band called the Caverns because she loves the Fab Four so. When her band falls apart—because, you know, no one else really cares about playing Beatles covers—she wistfully wishes that she could be as famous as the Beatles.
And the next morning she wakes up to find out that it’s true!
This was pretty much a Beatles-themed version of Freaky Friday. The lightest, silliest of fantasy, Regina has a magical fairy godmother who grants her wish. Only problem is that they’ve become famous by replacing the Beatles in history—in short, they’ve cheated. “She Loves You” is now “He Loves You,” for example, and was “written” by Regina herself, using her extensive knowledge of Beatles jams. Now her band is slated to win a few Grammys, but they’re also falling apart, imploding—as rocket ships to success often do (I know this because I saw That Thing You Do, in the theater and several times, of course).
It was a little weird for me to read all of this because I wrote an exceedingly similar “book” (in a marble composition book) at twelve, in which a girl just like me becomes wildly famous with her Beatles cover band. The truth is, I’m sure that many girls and boys have written similar books. Who hasn’t imagined grappling with insane levels of insane success, just like your heroes? In this way, The Girl Who Became a Beatle isn’t very far off from fanfic, or just simple wish fulfillment.
But therein lies its strength, because it’s pretty fun. The prose isn’t spectacular (it is, in fact, simplistic and a bit wooden; more appropriate for a middle grade reader than a young adult reader), the fantasy cheesy and not really thought-through. But it’s also fluffy, satisfying, and fairly convincing. The Beatles references are light and a bit goofy (someday, maybe, I’ll write that dark young adult novel about the first several months of friendship between John and Paul—oh, the angst!), but this is really about Beatlesesque fame, not the Beatles in particular. I suspect that any thirteen year old with a dream of musical success would love this.
In that way, on its own terms The Girl Who Became a Beatle is a success in its own right. I have to say, though, that I found the last few paragraphs a tremendous cheat. Author Greg Taylor pretty much misappropriates the ending of a famous comic strip as his own (not unlike the Caverns stealing the Beatles’ songs). Cheap! But otherwise, this is fun, fluffy wish fulfillment that should satisfy its target audience immensely. It’s bubblegum, in the best possible way. Or jelly babies, as it were.
Phoebe
Phoebe is a 20-something writer who lives in New York State with her husband and cat. She is a dork, not a geek or a nerd.
Her debut novel, Starglass, will be released from Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers in Summer 2013.
One comment
DUDE. I am sitting in a bar. I am reading this review via Tweetdeck and drinking a Blue Moon. And the soundtrack to That Thing You Do just started playing on the jukebox.
I had more to add about my own childhood Beatles obsession and the greatness of this review but I can’t because this is TRIPPING ME OUT