#Team Real: Book Review (Spoiler Free)

So, after monitoring to see tons of people getting their pre-ordered copies of Irish Dizon’s Team Real: Your All Access Guide Pass to James Reid and Nadine Lustre’s World, National Bookstore finally shipped my copy, and delivered it through Xend just in the nick of time before office hours ended. As I received the delivery, I was grinning from ear to ear. After I read the book, I slept with the same grin on my face, resolute that I was rooting for the right team.

In Team Real, James and Nadine bare their souls to their fans and talk about themselves – not because they want to generate interest for their careers (seriously, they get more than enough attention) but because they want their fans – the best fans in the world in James’ own words – to get to know them better, what makes them tick, what makes them happy, what gets them angry… as James and Nadine, real people and not as cardboard cutouts who perform at will.

I will try to make this as spoiler free as possible and not mention anything that Irish has not mentioned in her tweets, but truly, all I can say is its well worth the wait.

If you’re simply in it for the kilig, you’ll get your fair share when Chapter 8 talks about the Wang Fam premiere and why they really fought, but more than that, you’ll get an idea of what turmoil they were going through to explode like that. Its very interesting so try to read between the lines before you judge either James or Nadine. And if you have followed them SOCO-style since the beginning of the team up, you’ll see that their actions really match the timeline of their story so that was the kilig part for me.

But more importantly, James and Nadine talk about their views on life, personal space, money, personal style, family, their bashers and they talk freely, no holds barred. It feels like you’re having a real conversation with the two of them over coffee, and you get to see their substance and depth as individuals and as artists, like a friend would.

Its truly their book – James wasn’t kidding when he said you haven’t seen JaDine like this. The dude is seriously honest.

I want to commend Irish for three things – 1) for steering the conversations to topics that would get to the heart of James and Nadine as individuals and as a couple, 2) (with Clau) for transcribing the interviews in toto, especially with James’ Aussie accent and 3) for editing the book in such a way that flows freely. I’m glad I didn’t skip to Chapter 8. The book felt like a novella – it had a beginning, a middle and flows freely until this point in their life when they’re finally together. Yet it doesn’t feel like the end and it feels just right.

As for creative director Merlito Pabatao, while the cover was initially bashed by MeMas (Me Masabi — I actually thought it was good) I would just like to say that the inside pages were awesome. The layout was fresh and edgy and more in line with his design style (check out his IG). Thank you for your obvious effort to include as much photos as you can given the limited space you had.

Seriously, thank you #TeamReal. The book is a labor of love, by Irish and Merlito because they love JaDine (and us) and by JaDine because they love “the best fans in the world.” We will always have your back. ALWAYS.

PS. In the interest of fairness, I did find one downside… BITIN! I would really love for them to have a coffee table book of their travels — the photos are on point. These two have a real eye for art.