NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
If you’re one of the people who scour #booktok for your next read but are sick of the same fantasy romance novel being the only suggestion, I’ve got you. As an avid reader, I try not to get caught in one genre or another, despite enjoying some of those fantasy novels. From time to time we all need that palate cleanser. In search of that, I was recommended Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl by a family member. I’ve owned the book for a little bit, just was waiting to read it when I needed a break. With a recommendation in hand, I finally pulled the trigger and was glad I did.
Admittedly so, I had fallen out of love with wrestling, meaning I’m not the fan I was in my younger years. I’ve always kept an eye on it trying to catch the big PPVs (now PLEs), so I’ve always had some backstory on a handful of the bigger stars. Without more recent history and in-depth backstories, Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl helps fill in some of those gaps.
The Backstory:
Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl tells the tale of author Rebecca Quin as she makes her way from a young hopeful dreamer in Ireland. It showcases her doubts about making it in the wrestling business to the biggest stage of them all headlining WWE’s Wrestlemania.
What Works:
Within the first few pages, I began to sense a feeling of familiarity. It wasn’t far into the book that I got an early sense of Have A Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley. Great! Mick’s book is easily one of the better biographies I’ve read. Surely I was going to enjoy this one, right? The irony is that feeling paid off shortly after as she reveals one of her biggest influences in wrestling was Mick himself.
The book itself comes off as very genuine. Too often you read these biographies and it comes off as disingenuous. It’s almost as if most of them do a 20 minute interview with the person whose book it is, gets a few buzz item stories, and then fluffs the rest. Not with this one. It feels like it’s from the heart and showcases the very night and day differences between the character of Becky Lynch on screen and the real life Rebecca Quin. Not only does the book highlight her hard work, by being so different you also see how much effort she puts into the character of Becky Lynch.
It has a lighthearted charm and doesn’t linger too long in the past. Biographies will have chapters of history that spend too much time explaining their side of the story. Again, it comes off as fake. It’s almost as if they’re trying to convince you they weren’t in the wrong in the situation and the more they talk you realize, you’re the jerk in that scenario.
By keeping a good pace in storytelling and keeping her story simple, not only does it feel authentic, it doesn’t go out of the way to prove someone else is the bad guy. Real story tellers don’t need to save face by throwing someone else under the bus.
What Doesn’t Work:
There’s not much in this book that doesn’t translate to the reader and finding something wrong seems like a nitpick. However, if you come looking for that behind the scenes, tell all, spicy gossip, thankfully you won’t find that here. If that’s what you were hoping for then I guess that could be the disappointment to point out, but given the genuine nature in which she tells her story, it would only harm the book.
The real issue is, now I want to know the other half of the story. Quin goes on to tell her story on meeting her husband Colby Lopez, known by most as Seth Rollins, and it’s done so in such a charming way that you almost want to hear the other side of the story.
The Verdict:
For me, Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl is absolutely a 5 out of 5 book. At just under 400 pages, I couldn’t help but want to keep reading. Biographies are tough and more often than not can leave you wanting a fast-forward button through some of the more bland parts. With The Man the reader is treated to just enough stories from familiar wrestlers without feeling as if it’s telling someone else’s story. If you’re a WWE fan and enjoy biographies, this one is easily a must-read. You can grab your copy from our partners at Amazon here.
About Team NBS Book Club:
If you came here looking for the types of books you’d see in The Finer Things Club from The Office, you won’t find that here. In this journey of life, one of the few things we leave behind are our stories. Movies, books, or television all come from tales and experiences in life. I can’t promise you’ll always get recommended a 5-star reviewed book, but everything recommended will be something I have found some degree of value in the story being told.
