View source for Drummer Girl by Bridget Tyler

{{infobox2
|title=Drummer Girl
|author=Bridget Tyler
|reviewer=Robert James
|genre=Teens
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1848776920
|pages=432
|publisher=Templar Books
|date=May 2013
|aznuk=1848776926
|aznus=1848776926
|cover=1848776926
|website=
|video=
|summary=Stunning teen contemporary novel with a wonderfully portrayed set of characters who develop brilliantly through the book. Massively recommended. Bridget Tyler popped into Bookbag Towers to [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Bridget Tyler|chat to us]].
}}
Lucy is really pleased when Harper McKenzie decides to start talking to her again and suggests forming a band. From then, life gets increasingly wonderful as they recruit three other girls, enter a talent show, and make it to the finals. Parties, fame, and success await - until everything comes crashing down. What went wrong? 

We're pitched straight into the action here - the first paragraph of the book sees Lucy discover Harper's dead body in a swimming pool. After a brief first chapter, we're catapulted back eight months to the formation of Crush, as Harper pulls together the other four by sheer force of personality. It's the start of an utterly intriguing read which knocked me for six. 

Over the years I've been reviewing books, I think one of my most common complaints has been that so many books run a hundred or so pages longer than they ideally would - with the worst offenders taking two books to tell a story which could have fitted into one. It's much rarer for books to seem too short, but this is the first I've read in all that time which I thought needed to be more than one book!

Except, actually, that's not right either. To suggest it needed to be anything than what it is - a truly stunning stand-alone (with perhaps some potential for a sequel, fingers crossed!) which masterfully juggles a big cast and several subplots. Having said that, if this one had been a trilogy instead of just one book, I'd have pre-ordered the others already because I found it completely fascinating. All five main characters are brilliantly portrayed, with even Harper - probably the least likeable - seeming sympathetic as we're aware of her tragic fate right from the start. My favourite of all, though, are Hollywood princess Skye and tyrannical producer Alexander Holister, who both reveal hidden sides as the novel progresses. 

This novel has a strong plot which takes in the talent show, media manipulation, drugs, romance, and friendship issues, but it's the character development that impressed me most here. The five girls in Crush and several other characters all have clear character arcs and really change over the course of the book - an incredible achievement given that it's under four hundred pages long!

Huge recommendation, one of the top teen contemporaries over the year so far.

For a lighter read about a teen becoming a celebrity, [[Geek Girl by Holly Smale]] is fabulous.

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