Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams: book review

Beatle Meets Destiny (2009) is young adult fiction. It is about eighteen-year-old John Lennon—not THE John Lennon of the band, The Beatles—but an Australian teenager with a girlfriend, Cilla. But one day he meets seventeen-year-old Destiny. Destiny McCartney. He meets her in February, on Friday 13^th—is that good luck or bad luck?

It would seem to be destiny that Lennon and McCartney end up together—but life is not that simple. Cilla is a nice person—a perfect girlfriend, and Lennon, nicknamed Beatle, cannot just dump her to date Destiny. Even though Lennon believes in signs, horoscopes, astrology charts, coincidences, and serendipity.

Besides, Beatle’s twin sister, Winsome, is dating Destiny’s brother Frank. And Lennon doesn’t want Winsome or Frank to mention to Destiny that he is dating Cilla. His mother, an astrology freak, has just presented Cilla with her horoscope chart for the next year—what does it predict? Neither his mother, nor Cilla, is saying anything, except “this will be a year of change.” Cilla is getting suspicious of Lennon anyway. Why is he suddenly acting strange, giving her gifts, and giving her mixed messages?

What Beatle is not telling Cilla is that he is seeing Destiny. And Destiny doesn’t know about Cilla. Awkward!

Throughout the novel, Lennon and his twin sister are taking part in a documentary called Twin Thing, to be screened later in the year, on Friday 13 November. The documentary is a series of interviews with other twins, of all ages and backgrounds—an interesting backdrop to the novel.

While it is easy reading, with some comical writing, there is not enough to take it out of the realms of young fiction into a work of wider appeal.

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