Rachel was my favourite S Club 7 member (along with Paul – RIP). I haven’t really followed her career since but I was interested to read her autobiography and find out more about her. She has a reputation of being aloof, guarded, a bit mysterious. I’m glad that in this book she claims to have found her voice, but I’m afraid it’s quite a bland reading experience. There are some nice details – the kitten which arrived on her doorstep at the right time, for example, and her attendance at a party hosted by Prince – yet a lot of the writing is vague, repetitive and not meaningful. I felt that she rather skimmed over her early career, including her S Club years, which are what people will most want to read about. There is much about her appearances on various celebrity TV talent shows, most notably the time when she broke her wrist and was brave about it (there is a photo of her looking glamorous with her arm in a bucket of ice water). I think she could have told more stories like that, and cut out most of the self-help reflective stuff. Some of her favourite words are ‘nurturing’, ‘as a parent’, ‘working on myself’ and ‘vulnerable’. I don’t want this to sound mean, because she seems like a pleasant person who has made great progress in her emotional wellbeing. It’s just that I expected ‘More More More’.
In summary, if you’re looking for gossip, funny anecdotes or an engaging writing style, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re a fan of Rachel or simply interested in what she has to say for herself, give it a read.
Published by HarperCollins, 2024.
I wasn’t a big fan of S Club though I did enjoy a few of their songs. I think I’d be disappointed too if I read this if she doesn’t talk much about her time in S Club, I don’t follow her career at all since those days and would be most interested in it.
From reading other reviews of this book, I think people are disappointed there isn’t a lot of S Club content. I was certainly expecting a bit more.