Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2010
All great performances deserve a warm-up! Enroll early at McKinley High–before New Directions was even a glimmer in Mr. Schuester’s eye. When did Rachel first decide Finn was more than just a jock? When did Puck and Quinn start their secret romance? And how did the fledgling Glee Club function without a fearless leader? Hint: It wasn’t exactly a perfect melody.
Break out the gold stars and refill the slushies: It’s time to find out what happened to all your favorite characters before the show-mance began.
From Indigo website.
God I wanted to love this book. Really. I was all set to gush about its wonderfulness and how it’s the perfect Glee fix until the second season starts next month. And then I started reading it. About ten pages in I sighed. 20 pages in I could feel my shoulders slump in defeat. 90 pages in I gave up. I couldn’t even finish it.
Out of all the books I have ever read and didn’t like, this one was the biggest disappointed by far. It was boring. And I don’t see how it can be called “The Beginning” when really it was just rehashing things fans of the show already know.
The following may be considered spoilerish unless you’ve seen the show. Then it’s no big whoop.
The following info is all discovered in the first 90 pages:
Finn and Rachel may like each other.
Puck and Quinn may like each other.
Artie and Tina may like each other.
Emma has a crush on Will.
Mercedes has a crush on Kurt.
Brittany is dumb as a post.
Santana is a bitch.
None of this is new information. At all. It’s all been major plot points of the first season. And some of the new information just didn’t mesh. Kurt convinces Rachel to join Glee, which comprises of Kurt, Mercedes, Artie and Tina. But what about dude that Sandy, the former Glee teacher was touching? And I thought Mercedes didn’t have a crush on Kurt until Quinn put the idea in her head?
As I read the first 90 pages I kept getting a sense of deja vu. Very weird. Then it hit me: some of the scenes in the book were eerily similar to scenes in the show. In fact, it was one such scene that made me decide not to finish the book.
Rachel is in Emma’s office. Emma is trying to listen to her, but then Will comes to the bulletin board outside her office. She is instantly distracted by him.
I’m sorry, but that scene was so done in the show! Remember when Emma catches Rachel trying to purge her lunch? Yeah, so did I and so will most fans.
Okay, I’m going to cut the book a bit of slack here, and put some blame on myself. See, I am such a huge Gleek that I’ve seen the first 12 episodes 5 times. Yes, 5 times. I can recite some scenes. So it only makes sense that I would notice every single little thing that may have been snatched from the show.
I’ve seen mixed reviews about Glee:The Beginning. Some people loved it, others hated it. If you’re interested in it, I’d say borrow it from a friend or library. Or stick with the show.
Lavender Lines 