Confessions of a Backup Dancer

by Tucker Shaw

Ever wonder what your favorite pop divas are like AFTER the cameras stop rolling? Kelly Kimball spent a summer as a backup dancer for Darcy Barnes, the biggest pop star in the world. Kelly's got the real story on Darcy, her life, her family, and her entourage - and she's spilling it here for the first time. If you think the life of a superstar can't possibly be all it's cracked up to be, you're wrong. It's all that and more. And it's all inside Kelly's tell-all diary.Available only in The Literacy Bridge 5.

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens, Chick Lit, Teen, High School, Contemporary, Fiction

Paperback

First published May 25, 2004

About the author

Tucker Shaw's novel, WHEN YOU CALL MY NAME, follows two gay teenagers during the height of the AIDS crisis in New York City in 1990. In hard times, nothing is more powerful than friendship.

Reviews

[Jennifer Currey · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a librarian, this is a good one to recommend to a teenage girl who says she doesn't have time to read but knows absolutely everything about pop stars. This gives you the inside look with all the drama.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorites from middle school I re-read to enjoy the nostalgia. Started off pretty clunky, but as I kept reading I found what I enjoyed about it so much in middle school. Great nostalgia read.

[Bookaholic (reads every mortal thing) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was just going through all the books in my useless Library, a place where you just cant get any good books, when I see THIS. The cover was fairly okay and the condition of the book was good compared to all the other books available, so I picked it up and issued it out of plain curiosity.

I now hate my library eons more.

Confessions of a Backup Dancer might have been an acceptable book had it not been edited by a pre-schooler, written by a first grader and named by a prom queen. And if it had a better plot but who cares since almost every 'biographical' book out there is 'plotless' . When I say there is absolutely no plot, I mean absolutely no plot. But really, even if it actually did manage to get a plot later on in the book, I wouldn't know. I had had enough of crap from the first 3 chapters alone.

The whole book is narrated by Kelly Kendall, a backup dancer for Darcy Barnes, The biggest pop star in the world . Being a backup dancer to Darcy, Kelly knows all her dirty secrets. After that, Im pretty blank. I'm pretty positive that even if I had managed to somehow complete the book, I would still base the whole so-called 'plot' on these 2 lines.

First off, being a back up dancer does not mean you'll get to know all of your pop star's inside info.(sorry to people who are considering becoming a back up dancer to a famous pop star just to get the juicy stuff. Time to face reality 'cuz THAT AINT HAPPENING!) I have a friend who is a back up dancer to many famous people, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't get any hot news whispered into her ears. It doesnt happen. And besides, while just flipping through 96% of the book, I saw that Darcy made Kelly her 'fake Best friend'. Why in the holy hell would Darcy tell all her secrets to her 'fake' best friend. Darcy has been in the industry long enough to be crowned the 'biggest pop star in the world' title, but with time, had she not learnt that someday, Kelly might reveal all her secrets? If had'nt, she is one of the stupidest people in the industry. Trust no one.

The secondary characters were plain stupid. Kelly's friend, Tito, I felt was bland and uninteresting. He was always pushed into the sidelines and was constantly the emotional punching bag of Kelly. GET A BACKBONE, MAN!

This is by far, one of the most lamest books I have ever read and ever will read. Heck, I could finish Twilight, Fallen, Hush Hush and Evermore (I personally think I should get a medal for that) but I just couldn't finish this . I loathe you, you hear me. LOATHE!

[Colleen Deitrich · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book shpuld be retitled "2000: The Book" because its one hell of a time capsule of YA lit. This was before series like Twilight and the Hunger Games succeeded in getting teen girls to read so I didn't expect substance...and that turned out to be an accurate estimate.

In short, Kelly is a dancer who lives with her single mom and troubled brother. In order to pay for her brother's schooling, she auditions for some Spice Girl knockoff group but doesn't quite make the cut. Their producer still takes notice of her and offers her a job as a back up dancer for Darcy, the Not-Britney Spears "biggest star in the world." Kelly finds herself contending with Darcy declaring her a "fake best friend," rival dancers, flirty DJs, a stage mom from Hell, and eventually, the spotlight when Darcy's rival Pashmine (the Not-Christina Aguilera) nabs her for her own tour and the girls begin a fight over her.

Goes without saying this isnt exactly based on reality. Its a teenie bopper fantasy published during a tine where most girlie lit was about the common teen suddenly becoming a star thanks to Princess Diaries being a hit. None of the characters have depth. Kelly is dull. Darcy is annoying. Tito is the typical gay best friend in every way except the label (it was 2004). The DJ boyfriend is a dick. The stage mom is a cunt, etc. You get it.

I did read this in 2004 when it came out, so the reread took like 4 hours max. The format lends itself to how damn fast this read was. Its stupid but harmless...and the throwback references are fun enough.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book! It was a quick read. Summary: Kelly auditions for a gig, but doesn't get it. The main guy then puts in a word for her for a really famous pop star, Darcy. The tour life is crazy; Kelly becomes one of Darcy's closest friends since all the other backup dancers are older than them. Darcy's mom is crazy. Near the end of the book, Darcy has a wardrobe malfunction, so she pushes Kelly out for a solo. The crowd loved it and this was the biggest show of the summer. So Kelly gets fired from Darla, Darcy's mom. She's hired by the 2nd most famous teen pop star, but then when the two have a concert thing in New York, Darcy brings her back. Kelly's home life is complicated. Her dad died a few years ago, and her mom has been depressed. She got remarried, but they are having issues and eventually separate. His twin girls are annoying. Her younger brother is a delinquent, but has learned from his mistakes.

[TJL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn if this wasn't a blast from the past.

I read the first page, then stopped, and challenged myself to guess the year it was published. I guessed sometime between 1998 and 2004, and lo and behold: 2004!

It really shows, but honestly, dated or not, it was a nice little reminder of my childhood when Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were the big stars of the day. I don't know if Darcy and Darla, or Pashmina, were based on actual stars of the day (based on the song names, like "Indentured To Me" which is a blatant play on "Slave 4 U") I'd be willing to bet Darcy may be a mix of Britney Spears and maybe someone else?

Either way, fun book. And the writing may be a bit cringey, but really... I mean, welcome to e-diaries in the early 00's, kids.

[Simone Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

at first I was enjoying this. felt like a 90s teenager again. it was a very quick read diary entry style book. only took me a day to finish. got half way through and just got bored.

[Olivia Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books was trashy and great, I remember it feeling so scandalous when I read it, probably because I was in 4th grade when I read it lol

[Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I decided to read this nostalgic book, and can’t say I’m surprised that I’m disappointed. It did not age well.

[Marcus Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally one of my favorite books ever.

[Tiffany L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confessions of a Backup Dancer is about a girl named Kelly Kimball and she is 17. She works at a dance studio. Theres a girl named Darcy and Kelly wants to meet her and when she does she's very excited. When she meets her they start practicing their dancing. As time goes on they go on a dance tour. They both perform their own dances. Once everyone sees their performances everyone is happy that they did it together. After the first performance they practice for more dances because they're so good. After the second performance Darcy doesn't want to do anything anymore. So Kelly is stuck doing it by herself. Once Kelly finds out what Darcy is doing she gets upset because she's doing drugs and other bad behaviors. Kelly does the last performance on the tour then Darcy finds out about that and that she says she's sorry that she wasn't there. Then they make up and become friends again. Backstage they have a garden outside of the building and Kelly and Darcy start helping plant flowers in it. That's how they become friends again. I like this book because it's about friendship that comes and goes and sooner or later they fix their friendship. I would recommend this book to others. Mostly girls though because it's about a girls friendship.

[Jayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright,so like many Teen novels there's what I like to call TAF(The Teen Angst Factor) and Confessions of a Backup Dancer has plenty of it. Yes it has some golden nuggets like finding yourself and all that jazz but the book is not based in reality so it's hard to take it seriously especially with the main character's names Kelly Kimball and Darcy Barnes, seriously, I was ready to choke Anonymous, What's with those names.Now that I've spewed my bookly venom let's get to the good part because with all the darkness comes a little bit of light, right. Well for Confessions of a Backup Dancer the saving grace was Tito. "Tito, who the heck is Tito?" Tito, my book loving friends, keeps the pages rolling, the angst ebbing, and Kelly Kimball from committing suicide (NOT A SPOILER). If not for Tito I would have thrown this book into the Not worth my time bin. Anyways,this book is pretty much fluffy crap I don;t recommend it at all, unless your into angst with no purpose or just want to numb your mind and not think in coherent sentences for a while.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

All I've been doing these days is reading history books, so that I can become better at trivia. Trivia trivia trivia. I live and breathe for trivia all day and night, you can't even imagine. Then, Saturday, I bonked, hit the wall, no more presidential history, no more anatomy, no more art facts. I couldn't do it! I couldn't cram any more bits and bobs into my dumb little head.

And so I turned to this book that I had picked up at a used book store or a garage sale or something along the way. I read it in about three hours. It was wonderful in the way that a mediocre burger at a greasy spoon diner is wonderful after you've been backcountry camping for a week and living off of dehydrated food is wonderful.

If you ask me next week about any major plot points, or the names of any of the characters in this book, I'm going to look at you with a blank stare, I guarantee. Consider this a palate cleanser if you need one between heavier books. You can't go wrong.

[Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

The storyline of 'Confessions of a Backup Dancer' was OK.

It was pretty flat, in my opinion. Yes, of course there was /drama/, but it's the drama you see everyday from dumb celeberties and teenagers everywhere.

I kind of liked the digital-diary format; usually I'm not one for those.

And the language was pretty.. /colorful/ for being a book for teenagers. Now, I'm not saying teenagers don't cuss, but using it in a book shows them that it's OK to do, which it isn't. Teenagers are influential (I should know; I am one) and, although teenagers don't read as much as they should these days, they are still influenced by books because one day, when they're soooooooooooo boooooooooooored, they might just decide to pick up a book.

[Katelynn]

The book "Confessions of a Backup Dancer" by Tucker Shaw is what i think quite a good book. The book is 265 pages. The book is about a girl who really knows her pop stars(The book is bascially her dairy). She writes in it almost every day, sorry I almost her name is Kelly. Kelly biggest dream is to become a dancer. Kelly is a totaly awesome dancer and she gets hired to work for the biggest pop star ever DARCY BARNES(I really don't know who that is). Kelly Kimball spent her summer as her backup dancer. Now Kelly is Darcy's BEST FRIEND and she knows EVERYTHING about her family, her boy friend, and everything else. Overall I REALLY liked this book.

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confessions of a Backup Dancer was one of the first YA books I read when I was around 13 years old. At the time I thought it was one of the coolest books out there but now a revisit back to it shows it's not as awesome as I thought it was. Looking at it now, the fact that the book is set up online diary form means the grammar is well bad. The plot is a little flat and predictable, of course this is my opinion now at 21.

Confessions of a Backup Dancer is much more geared towards the younger end of the YA scale who will enjoy the set up and the story line while more experienced readers will grow annoyed with it.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a good book, but it was written in the form of a blog/ computer diary thing, so nothing was captitalized, there was no real paragraph separation, and everything was just like this:

so he was like hey wanna get something to eat and i was like okay, i'm really hungry so we went and ate Mcdonalds and i got a Big mac and it was super yummo.

If you ask me, it's just plain lazy to write a whole book that way. It takes 5 extra seconds to put things with the proper grammar/capitalization. It was a good book but I felt almost ashamed while reading it.

[When Funmi Met Romance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly this book is not that bad, once you realize what audience it is geared towards. I read this book when i was like 13. and for a 13 year old THIS IS GREAT. its written in a contemporary manner and makes you feel like you are a little older than you should be while at the same time not embarrassing you to the point of scrounging for a book cover. Its a fun and easy summer read, any young pre-teens and 13-14 year old girls will usually appreciate it. I'm talking girls who are PRE-TWILIGHT, post-twilighters won't exactly get with it :)

[Stephanie A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

You've read Pop Princess , now go one step further and experience life in her shadow.

OK, it's not a literal companion book, but it serves a similar purpose: peeling back a curtain on the entertainment industry and exploring a world that the average person probably doesn't know very much about it. That's what keeps it a cut above your average junk food novel, of which this otherwise has all the trappings.

[Breanna Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cofessions of a backup dancer is about a dancer named Kelly Kimball who audition for this dance thing, but didn't make it because she wasn't "real" which wasn't even true because she was. A person who heard about her at the auditions wanted her to dance for a famous pop singer, Darcy Barnes, who she actually became best friends with. She got fired from Darcy's rude mom, Darla and joined this other famous popstars on Pashmina's tour, but came back to Darcy tour.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. The only reason I gave it four out of five stars is because of the writing. I know that it was written in diary form, but the lack of capitals and such was kind of annoying at times. Even though this book is so far off from being relatable, I still enjoyed it. I loved the character Darcy, and I thought that the ending was good - except for the like last page with Kelly's mother. Other than that, great!

[Katie M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not big on reading but I couldn't put this book down. I would say that it was more for the girls but it's a really good story. It focuses on a girl whose about 17 who goes on tour with a pop diva. The language is like what you would hear in the hallways at school, cursing and all. The story is a lot of fun to follow, I would definitely suggest it.

[Anh Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is very addicting. I just started reading and i feel like keep on reading and never stop. This book is about a girl who is very good at dancing. She went to many places to do auditions but the judges thinks that she's a clone of another dancer, so they didn't let her in. Her friend Tito thinks she's a "REAL" one. Which means every movements she dance is flawless.

[Bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

really like the story, you know the saying that the grass is always greener on the other side. That is how fame it, most people want to be famous for reasons like they get free stuff, everyone knows their name, and they get lots of money. Then when you finally become famous you would rather have everything go back to the way it was before.

[The King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of my guiltiest pleasure reads of all time. The book is obviously about Britney Spears, as there are pretty huge references to many of her song titles and her relationship with press (circa 1999-2000). There was rumors in the Britney fan world that the idea of the book was actually given to Tucker by a Britney dancer who saw everything take place.

[Courtney · Rating 1 out of 5]

An ok book. I wish we would've finally learned the real name of the main character and author. It's an interesting, but not that interesting, look at the inside life of a pop-princesses backup dancer. I doubt it's K-fed. :D

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was really good. It is about a who becomes a backup dancer, and she becomes fake best freinds with a rock star. Then she gets dropped and she signs on with a different artist. It was written well, but was unrealistic at times.

[Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

it wasn't a bad book but it wasnt that good either.
there were some interesting charactersand some really funny parts but therewasn't much of a plot. it was exactly what i imagine a backup dancer diary would be like.

[Kassyreadsalot · Rating 3 out of 5]

I completed this book and in all honesty I can't remember much about this book! It is pretty forgettable there was nothing interesting about the characters and I do not know how I even finished this book!

[Mary Bronson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading this book in high school and I really enjoyed reading it. I loved the plot and characters of the story. Once I got started I could not put the book down. I hope to re read it sometime in the near future.