Author: Ally Brooke
Price: 17.99 (Purchased during Prime Day, now listed as 24.99)
Published: October 13, 2020
I’m a huge fan of Fifth Harmony and I really miss the music this group made. Like many around the world I was one that was left floored when they announced their hiatus. So when I decided to buy this book, it was with the intentions of getting a glimpse as to where the troubles had started for Fifth Harmony and what eventually led to the break up. I’m pretty sure that’s probably what the publisher and Ally’s team was hoping for, curious Harmonizers wanting to know the details. My goal is to not say too much in regards to what is in the story because it was a very good read for me. I’m only going to focus on the parts that I particularly came for and a few points outside of that.
It was definitely interesting to get more insight on how Ally got her start and what it was that she was doing before Fifth Harmony and her plans for her career afterward. I had no idea that she was pursuing a career before X-Factor at all and the way that she described that time made me respect her parents a lot for all that they sacrificed in order to help her achieve success. I really related a lot to the struggles she described with her body and feeling insecure about it. I’m in that phase very strongly right now regardless of when people say my size is okay. This is something though I wasn’t too shock to hear, but it made me feel even worse for her as she talked about reading comments saying she was built like Sponge bob. I don’t think a lot of the younger fan base of Fifth Harmony realizes how much their words can affect someone. It was also surprising how she spoke about her faith. I got kind of use to most mainstream artists only really mentioning God and religion when either something bad happens or when they are accepting an award of some sort, so it was really different how she constantly spoke of her faith and had God in her mind all throughout her time before Fifth Harmony, with the group, and now as she embarks on a solo career.
I’m not even going to lie about my disappointment when the topic of the Fifth Harmony disbandment was touched on for the briefest of brief moments and when I realized that the girls that the group would often say was like their sisters were only mentioned once or twice. The thought that was reinforced however was that Fifth Harmony wasn’t going to last as a group anyways. Ally had spoke about having only a line or so in their first single ever and my mind immediately drifted to the BlackPink documentary that’s currently on Netflix. Jisoo had stated something along the lines of everyone knowing their roles and how there isn’t any battles in regards to who gets to be in the center or over singing lines and that is how they create synergy and work so well together. This synergy wasn’t there for Fifth Harmony for a few reasons, the first was that they were all originally solo artists which would definitely explain Ally’s push for more lines and to sing choruses. This could also be the reason why most in the group felt like you didn’t get to hear the real them while in the group as well, seeing as the line distribution for the songs weren’t exactly even until their self-titled album. Something else I noticed is during Fifth Harmony’s last days, they spoke as if this was just purely a hiatus so that they can explore themselves individually, but when Ally spoke of the situation she stated things that would make me think that this is more of a permanent disbandment. It was both realistic and disheartening for me.
This was actually my first music memoir I read so I think initially I was expecting to learn some secrets and behind the scenes things in the music industry, but surprisingly again she spoke very favorable of everyone including Simon. Maybe that speaks more to the character of Ally in regards to how no one was spoken about negatively at all and could pull out positivity from all of the situations. In all, the book confirmed for me that Ally is actually how she is portrayed to be to the public and it is amazing that even after being in the limelight and in the sometimes toxic music industry and Hollywood for so long she was able to hold onto the beliefs that she was raised with. Overall, I enjoyed the read very much despite not getting what I had originally been seeking.
Thanks for reading this far and for your continued support of my blog!
NeshLovesBooks 