Leah
Written on Apr 26, 2010
I first came upon the world of Tracie Martin a couple of years ago. I read the first chapter of WAGs Diary before putting it down again as it just didn’t take my fancy. I finally picked it up again at some point and I actually found myself absolutely loving it. I’m a huge football fan anyway so I know all about the WAGs and I thought The WAGs Diary was a hugely refreshing novel and I immediately went looking for the second book A WAG Abroad. I enjoyed that, too, and I wondered if that was the last we would hear of Tracie. However with England doing so well and qualifying for the World Cup in rather fantastic style, Alison Kervin obviously saw an opportunity to bring back everyone’s favourite WAG and so we have WAGs At The World Cup.
WAGs At The World Cup is similar to the previous two books in which it’s written almost like a diary with dates, times et al. which means it’s very easy to get into. The book itself begins just as Dean gets the job helping the England coaching staff and it pretty much is then a lead up to the World Cup. Due to the nature of Dean’s job, Tracie is asked to keep it all hush-hush as well as keeping the WAGs in check after the farce of Baden-Baden. Tracie agrees to do no interviews and certainly not the TV show pilot she’s been asked to do… except that, you know, Tracie isn’t very good at being told what to do and goes and does the TV pilot anyway (“It’ll never be shown on TV.”) and after making a fool of herself, the video inevitably ends up on YouTube and the FA decide that the best course of action is for Tracie to head off to South Africa immediately in a bid to put out all the fires she’s managed to start.
Tracie heads off to South Africa, along with friends Suse and Mich, daughter Paskia and assistant Shariz. However the flames don’t die down and so Tracie goes onto South African TV and becomes something of a hit. The public fall even more in love with Tracie when she decides to help a local charity. All the while, Tracie is awaiting the arrival of the “Wonder WAGs” (Coleen, Victoria, Alex, Abbey and co.) and hopes to become lifelong friends with them all. Tracie’s life never runs smoothly, though, and she’s soon in the middle of yet another scandal, which seems to be Tracie’s trademark.
It’s fair to say that Tracie isn’t exactly your normal WAG. It’s more like Tracie is a super-hyped up version of every single WAG ever to grace a World Cup. She sounds more like Jordan than she does Coleen and she’s so fake it’s actually unbelievable. But, at her heart, Tracie isn’t a bad person. Yes, she’s superficial and totally shallow but deep deep deep deep down (and further deeper still under all of that make-up) she does have a softer, nicer side particularly when it comes to her husband Dean and daughter Paskia. I admit she probably is difficult to like but I actually do like her. Because the fact is, she doesn’t take herself seriously. Well, she does take herself seriously but I don’t take her too seriously. She’s definitely a Marmite character, that’s for sure. Particularly since for the majority of the first half of the book all she seems to do is get drunk. We don’t see too much of husband Dean and daughter Paskia, but they both seem likeable enough. I wasn’t a huge fan of Tracie’s friends Suse and Mich, they seemed rather fake which is funny considering, you know, Tracie’s rather faker (if that’s even a word) but at least Tracie has some sort of substance to her whereas Suse and Mich were rather vacuous. One of my favourite characters, though, was Tracie’s assistant Shiraz. She knows nothing about the world of WAGs and I loved how frustrated Tracie got with her about that. Despite being total opposites they seemed to get on incredibly well.
My main problem with WAGs At The World Cup though is the lack of action. The title is a bit misleading as anyone expecting a least a decent chunk of World Cup action will be sadly disappointed. The book is more about Tracie becoming friends with the Wonder WAGs and making herself look better after making a fool of herself and the World Cup only covers the last quarter of the book, which as a football fan, was wildly disappointing. I understand Tracie knows nothing about football but I did think the entire (or at least the majority of the) book would take place during the World Cup. Nothing actually really happens in the book either until a quick crisis appears just before the end but even that’s wrapped up before there’s any chance to even delve into it properly. It was like it was there and then, blink, and it was gone. As the book progressed it just got to the point where I was waiting for something to happen other than Tracie wanting to get some silver boots.
WAGs At The World Cup is a solid enough book but even for me it was a bit light and airy. Tracie is as fantastic as ever and there are a few funny moments – in particular a conversation Tracie has with the film crew about when she and Dean went on their first date to the zoo and Tracie saw some “fat penguins”, I thought that was hilarious. I probably think this is the last we’ll see of Tracie – it’s been fun but I think she’ll just seem a bit daft if she comes back a fourth time. The big worry though is that this book will go completely out of date really really quickly. To feature the World Cup 2010 before it’s even began is a risky move and, sure, it’s fictional, but it’s still a risky thing to do and because it’s so current (futuristic even since the book covers the end of the World Cup which is in July – three months away as I write this review) anyone reading it after the World Cup will be undoubtedly comparing the two events. Still though I enjoyed it and if I was a betting woman, I’d so bet on all of the results Kervin has predicted.