This book has 'marmite' written all over it! - You'll either love it or hate it. Yes it's poorly written, in some cases, grammar and punctuation errors, HOWEVER, That's what makes the book genuine, and I believe that Fazer, Tulisa and Dappy have done a good job of it.
Structure & Presentation
The book is structured in 4 parts:
1. The Early Days
2. First Taste of Success
3. Pushing on After Byron
4. N-Dubz Domination , Today and Tomorrow
All four chapters have input by each group member, the structure is set with Fazer's part first, followed by Tulisa then summed up by Dappy. This provides a viewpoint from all three of the band members, and is in my opinion an effective way to reach out to fans and create a personal relationship with the reader, however the criticism would be that many of it is constantly repeated. The structure takes you through the life of Fazer, Tulisa and Dappy including the early stages of their careers with the struggle they faced with rejection from various record labels, their dependence upon 'Uncle B' and his determination to give them the chance and act as a stepping stone , through to entrepreneurship, success, and to end with - their ambitions of 'going worldwide'
Content
The book is more a less a biography of the trio, about their life in North London, what they felt it's been like growing up, experiences that they've faced and so on. The parts that best appealed to me is Tulisa and her stories, not only does it relate to many young girls nowadays, she's structured it and written personal things that'll help young people come to terms with their own problems, same goes for Dappy and Fazer, however - the only criticism with them is that it feels as though they're not matured enough and still have a 'street attitude' to them, even after moving on from that, this is later justified when they've used the term 'Mother Hen' to describe Tulisa, then it explains to the reader that, 'Ah, I see..' and that there's a higher element of genuineness as a pose to image. Undoubtedly the second and third chapters are the most emotional, this is where the reader will see the journey of N-Dubz and will help the reader understand the ideologies behind the groups music.
Audience
This book is aimed more at a younger audience, in particular those disadvantaged and that come from socially excluded backgrounds, it's a book of encouragement and inspiration for teenagers and is a good read for the targeted audience, the structure, relativity and emotional connection between book to reader is one of which would keep the reader wanting more, the book is in-particular good for those that wish to pursue a career in show-biz, and that are interested in UK- Underground hip-hop style music.
Criticism
There isn't much I can fault in this book, as it says in the title of my review - It's like marmite and you'll ever love it or hate it. There are slang words used which may take you some time to get to terms with, grammar and punctuation errors all over, and most certainly not something that the Queen of England would be picking up to read, it serves its purpose and delivers to it's targeted audience, there are occasions when each of the group members are repeating one another and you find yourself reading the same thing again, however - It's made up by the fact you start to understand and see N-Dubz' relationship with one-another as you read along and get a sense of each of their personalities. - I would say to Dappy, that to advise young men to take their prospective girlfriends to McDonald's as a first date is probably a silly idea, and that Fazer should start working with the police as a pose to having a hate towards them - They're trying to do