Customer Reviews

Out of the Blue: "Clay" It Forward

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(39)

 

 

I bought and read the book several months ago. I am a Clay Aiken fan and a participant on several of the Clay Aiken message boards. The bottom line is this: the main Clay Aiken message boards are well interconnected--information passes rapidly from one to the other. The vast majority of Clay fans feel that it was unethical and illegal for Holleman to have sold copies of DVDs of Clay singing at her daughter's wedding and copies of Clay's pre-American Idol demo CDs on E-Bay. Clay fans were aware of this profiteering long before they ever learned that Holleman was writing a book. Any posted disapproval of the book from Clay's family or friends--the alleged basis of Holleman's law suit--is simply beside the point. Had it not been provided, some dedicated Clay fan would have paid the outrageous price, bought and read the book, and effectively informed the entire message board community not to buy the book.

This book is both excruciatingly boring and highly invasive of the privacy of Clay and his family. The author had little real contact with Clay, although she presents herself as being a long-time friend of Clay's "family" (loosely defined to her advantage). This is blatantly obvious from the book itself, although I doubt that it was obvious to the many trusting Clay fans who "befriended her" and subsequently contributed "tribute" letters for the book. Moreover, Holleman spends considerable space in the book "screaming at" the nasty Clay fans who don't think she should have sold those DVDs and CDs--probably most of the potential buyers for this book. She also rants about Clay fans she claims are stalkers, even as she keeps revealing herself to be the stalker supreme. Ergo, it is not surprising that no one is buying her book.

My heartfelt sympathies go out to any who wrote a positive review and/or contributed a "tribute" to the book and now regret that.

I bought this book when it was first published - but I did not do my homework before I bought it - if I had, I would never have done so. I thought I was buying a tribute to Clay by a friend. It is, instead, a poorly written book by someone who does not know Clay at all. You can get more facts about Clay on any fan web site. It is also the most boring book I have ever tried to read. Save your money, by-pass this book, and spend your money on the new CD instead!

Unauthorized - that should give you a clue. I believe this to be a misguided attempt to take advantage of people's love of an extremely popular vocalist/Humanitarian.

Stay far, far away. You will find the book riddled with poor grammar, poor sentence and paragraph structure.

Where is the track record for this "author"? Is it published by a well-known or trusted publishing house? Does the "author" have previous works? As a school librarian I taught my students to investigate the source when judging the validity of information. I would hope people would do that before purchasing this item.

I would not read or buy this book for a few reasons.

1. The author is invading the privacy of Clay & his family. She never had consent to write the book.

2. The book is about how Clay has touched many lives, yet the author is suing him.

3. The cost of the book is outragious!

4. The author is trying to make money off of Clay. The author tried to sell me a copy of American Idol Season 2 for $400.00.

I do not understand the intention and rationale of this author. She writes an UNOFFICIAL book about Clay Aiken, which would mean that Clay never endorsed the book!

Now she wants to sue Clay and expect him to pay her a huge sum of money, endorse her book, which as mentioned was never endorsed by Clay, and she wants free publicity by demanding that Clay sells her book at his concerts for 5 years!!!!

In addition to that, I am a member of many of Clay's fansites, including his official fan club. Never at any time have I read any critisims from Clay or his mother about this book.

In fact, I was never aware of this book until I read the news that she is suing Clay!

This "author" is beyond being ridiculous! If anything, Clay should be the one suing her!

This is a tribute in the true meaning of the word UNAUTHORIZED, written by a woman who was a friend of Clay's neighbours from over 25 years ago. Clay's family was apparently going through a difficult time and was in the middle of a family breakup. The book is presented in a way that is appealing to those who are Clay fans, such as presenting true statements that Clay has changed lives and also has great fans. The cover is also very attractive. However, the content of the book has come into question because of the latest legal developments. The author would like Clay to authorize the book and to also promote it. Clay has stated through his lawyers that he wants to protect his family from the lies the book contains. For me, that is enough not to waste my money on it, especially when Clay so strongly opposes it. Somewhere the book went wrong - a book that is supposed to be a tribute and all about people's love for Clay is now in the courts? Nice idea, but poorly presented. The only way amazon will stop carrying this book and recommending it to fans, is if Clay fans stop buying it.

I actually used a birthday gift certificate to buy this book because it was linked to my "account" as "something I would like" by Amazon. Imagine my surprise to read a few days after I got it in the mail that the author was suing Clay! I do not recommend this book. If you are interested in personal stories about Clay and his fans, why not read his "Learning to Sing" and join an online fan community? This book is poorly written but could be viewed as a simple, fangirly collection of tales which was published by a "vanity press". There is certainly nothing wrong with being a fangirl! But now it has been revealed as just an attempt to make money off of a celebrity and to appear "important" to his fans by using a nebulous "connection" to his extended family. It almost never ends well when someone wants to be "paid" for their "love"!

Just remembered I'd bought and started this book. Found it was so uninteresting that I dropped reading it and forgot I had it. Repetitive and self-serving, if anything.

Yeah, she loves him so much she wrote a book about HIM without permission and is now suing him, his mother, and a bunch of others because they did not support her attempt to profit off of him. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU REALLY DO CARE ABOUT CLAY.

If you want to read a really good book, buy Learning to Sing, by Clay Aiken. This is just another cheap attempt to profit off of someone elses celebrity status.