Review: For the Record by Charlotte Huang

For the Record
By: Charlotte Huang
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Release Date: Nov. 10, 2015
Genre: YA
Rating:

Chelsea thought she knew what being a rock star was like… until she became one. After losing a TV talent show, she slid back into small-town anonymity. But one phone call changed everything

Now she’s the lead singer of the band Melbourne, performing in sold-out clubs every night and living on a bus with three gorgeous and talented guys. The bummer is that the band barely tolerates her. And when teen heartthrob Lucas Rivers take an interest in her, Chelsea is suddenly famous, bringing Melbourne to the next level—not that they’re happy about that. Her feelings for Beckett, Melbourne’s bassist, are making life even more complicated.

Chelsea only has the summer tour to make the band—and their fans—love her. If she doesn’t, she’ll be back in Michigan for senior year, dying a slow death. The paparazzi, the haters, the grueling schedule… Chelsea believed she could handle it. But what if she can’t?

Chelsea just had a run on a talent show (similar to American Idol) but in the end lost. However, one of her favorite bands just had a fall-out with their female lead singer and Chelsea’s agent gets her in as their new lead singer. While she’s ecstatic to be there and in total fan-girl heaven, the guys are less than thrilled by the newbie. This story revolves around Chelsea as she tries to make it work with her new band mates, survive her first tour, and date teen heart-throb, Lucas Rivers.

For the Record is basically every fan-girls dream. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be part of their favorite band. Let alone, date a movie star. Chelsea went from someone who was bullied in school to having her face plastered on magazine covers in the blink of an eye. I thought I knew how this story would go and while I was sort of right, the author still managed to surprise me.

There’s one rule that must never be broken–do no fool around with anyone from the band– and that includes the crew. That’s no problem for Chelsea though because she’s caught the eye of movie star, Lucas Rivers. With Chelsea dating the teen heart-throb, ticket sales have gone through the roof. However, the band is not a fan of the new-found fame. Heck, they aren’t even a fan of Lucas at all. I will admit that Lucas was an interesting character. I mean, he definitely owns his career and lifestyle and doesn’t make excuses for it. When he tries to go on tour with the band to spend time with Chelsea, he ends up getting his own tour bus since he was clearly not welcomed on the band’s bus. However, that bus is a rolling billboard for his upcoming movie. So, essentially it’s a rolling beacon for any Lucas fans. Granted, he didn’t get the bus, when he inquired about getting a bus to go on tour with Chelsea, his team sent him the promo bus for free. So, he ran with it. He wasn’t a bad guy, but he wasn’t as down to earth as some of Chelsea’s band mates.

The band mates were an interesting bunch. Pem (the bassist) is kind of the ring-leader and the serious one. He’s the one that freaks out over little things and is kind of a monotones pre-madonna. Malcolm is the drummer and true to most drummers in books, he’s the crazy and wild one. He likes to hook-up with girls at every stop and is kinda of snarky. Then there’s Beckett who’s the guitarist. He’s the nice one who kind of balances everyone out.

For all the characters in this book, there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of depth to them. You were kind of told that this is who they are but you don’t actually understand them. It all kind of felt superficial. You’re told that Chelsea was bullied in high school. You’re told that Chelsea and Mandy the merch girl are best friends. However, you don’t actually feel any of it. So, when things are revealed and stuff goes down, it all sort of felt “meh” to me. I didn’t really care about the characters and what went on with them. I simply just enjoyed reading about all the behind-the-scenes stuff. I will say this though, I liked the ending. While it was definitely interesting, it wasn’t the cookie cutter ending that I expected.

“So the day had started out rich with possibility but ended with me fighting for bathroom privileges. Sounded about right.”