Selena's Secret: The Revealing Story Behind Her Tragic Death

Ok for starters there’s no big secret revealed but it was good read with lots of information and juicy details. Although the author could be very self-aggrandizing (and annoying) at times, I thought she told the story in a unbiased manner while still showing Selena respect. I suspect that all the people giving this a bad review and saying that all this is untrue are just sensitive to Selena’s memory and reputation. My question is how Is everyone absolutely certain that all of the information in this book is false? In all the years that I’ve been a Selena fan, only her family and business associates have come out to speak about her. I never ever hear of anyone saying they were Selena’s best friend. Maybe there is some truth to Yolanda’s claim that Selena confided in her (But take this with a grain of salt, Yolanda is a cold blooded killer and has not showed regret over her actions). Selena was a wonderful performer and a joyful person, however she was young and human! She probably made many mistakes being only 23 at the time of her death. Again how is everyone absolutely 100% certain that this is false? I have a good feeling that a good chunk of the information in this book is true and it shows that what was going on in Selena’s life was waaaayyy different than the movie portrayed.

Saw the series before buying the book. What drew me to the series was that it shows the trial part and events leading up to her death that weren't as publicized as other aspects of her life. Maria Celeste did an amazing job investigating and documenting the process. It shows how Yolanda thought and acted as well as how she manipulated, not only Selena, but everyone around close to her. You can almost feel the shock of finding out things that she was doing and did as if Selena was finding it out. Poor kid had adrenaline running from the moment Yolanda was exposed. I'm also glad we get to see things from a raw point of view and not what the family wants you to see. Maria Celeste has documentation of everything which is why she's never been able to be taken successfully to court for the book and what it says. I appreciate solid info. Admiring someone and looking up to their music and career shouldn't mean being blind to human beings being human beings and exploring themselves or breaking out of chains and wanting to expand on their own. Well done journaling job. A def must read.

All the negative reviews that are filling up this book's page are ridiculous. As a Selena fan I have to say that the Telemundo show is inappropriate as it shows unnecessary painful reminders of what happened that day on March 1995. However, this book goes into great detail about Selenas life and does an excellent job of giving us a glimpse of how her life was during the build up to that day. Having said that, read the book thoroughly before jumping to conclusions!However, If Celeste had any type of sympathy and respect for Selenas family and her legacy she would stick to her findings and not let the producers show that awful scene witch only discredits the show by being overly graphic for the sake of ratings. We all know what happened on that day!Celeste, it's all in your hands, do what's right and respect the family's and fan's wishes.-J

The book takes you on a roller coaster, ride while trying to get you to read between the lines of what she's telling. Ultimately, she doesn't outright expose this alleged "secret", instead leaving readers to draw their own conclusions based on the information she provided. Interesting read.

I was intrigued with this book from the get-go. As I have only seen the movie starring Jennifer Lopez in the late 90s, this book gave me an entirely new perspective on Selena, her death, and the key players involved. I am withholding one star, because I thought the author’s promotion of her own journalistic work especially during Yolanda Saldívar’s trial was excessive.

Seriously, don't bother. At the risk of sounding like a thirteen-year-old Selena fanatic, I direct you instead to Chris Perez's autobiography about his life with Selena. It is one thousand percent more believable than this supposed journalist's tale of intrigue and soap opera crap, which reads like it was written by a tabloid broadcaster. Rarely have I felt an author was simultaneously so self-satisfied and so horrifically duped, but this one appears to have been. She comes across as desperate to sound legit, not to mention important (if you count the number of times she compliments herself, I am positive they outnumber the times she compliments anyone else), but she is taken in by someone who clearly has Borderline Personality Disorder. She also comes across, at least to me, as desperate for dirt. She claims to have been merely 'following the story where it took her' and 'staying above the fray' and 'finding Saldivar innocent until proven guilty', but she continuously dives headfirst into the muck, and dismisses Abraham Quintinilla's heartfelt question, 'why must you all look for what isn't there' as unfair to her. I think it's incredibly fair, especially to her.I wish to hell I'd listened to all the reviews. Unfortunately, I mistook all of them being what some of them definitely are: complaints by people who think Selena is a saint, rather than a 23-year-old girl who was murdered by someone she'd been taken in by. Chris Perez put it best when he said that Abraham had once called him a cancer on the family; 'I turned out to be benign', but the real cancer wasn't detected until it was too late. (I'm paraphrasing, naturally.) Between all the garbage about lesbian dalliances (silly, because an obsessed fan can be obsessed without admitting to sexual feelings... perhaps they can be obsessed without having sexual feelings, I don't know), this author continually focuses on the close, personal relationship between Selena and Yolanda. Yes, we know, the entire family will be hating themselves forever for not seeing the danger in time. But that doesn't mean Yolanda Saldivar is anything other than an obsessed fan who lucked out and met her idol... and then, as fanatics do, took her life in what no sane and intelligent person thinks was an accident.People with BPD can fool many people. They can be charming. They can be loving family members and friends... to a point. Until you cross them, at which point you become their mortal enemy, as Selena became to Yolanda. While she was just beginning to mistrust her after months of being manipulated and lied to, Yolanda had already decided Selena was the enemy now. Based on the activities and encounters in the days beforehand, I think Yolanda considered killing her 'daughter' (another thing: Arraras lets her get away with the repulsive epithets; I don't think of myself as overly sentimental, and it made me feel sick to read the words of the killer) but was thwarted by Selena's husband's presence several times (you know, the one she was on the verge of divorcing).Oh, whatever. I'm wasting my time refuting a book that is thinner than one of its pages, which just aren't worth my energy. If this review does anything, I very much hope it convinces the next person not to buy this book. I sure wish I hadn't.

Right off the bat, I have to confront the fact that this book does not contain 'Selena's secret'. Its existence is alluded to, but never revealed. The chapter entitled 'The Secret' is barely three pages long, and only implies that the reader is being disrespectful to Selena's memory for wanting to know what the secret is. Well okay Miss Arrarás, if you really feel that way, then maybe don't entitle a book 'Selena's Secret' then spend 200+ pages hyping it up?! That being said, I doubt there even is a secret. I am certain it is just the invention of Yolanda Saldívar for the sake of giving her a means of keeping herself in the headlines whenever she feels like hinting at it. The book obliquely references what the secret is; I won't repeat my inference here in case I'm mistaken, but even if I am right, and even if Yolanda is being truthful (which I highly doubt), it in no way lowers my opinion of Selena or in any way goes to explain or justify her assassination.The author did the right thing in treating Yolanda Saldívar as a person with her own thoughts and feelings. Miss Saldívar does get a fair hearing in this book. There is no need to rant and rave about what a monster she is, the facts alone speak to Saldívar's true nature. Prior to her intrusion on Selena's life, Yolanda was quite a sad individual who, by her own admission, "had no social life". Selena's stardom offered her a way out of that, but Yolanda being who she was, she was soon overcome by an envy that demanded Selena's destruction. This is why I don't get the sensationalism over 'Selena's secret'. The book is a perfectly interesting examination of Yolanda Saldívar's machinations and Selena's assassination without the need for any of that.Another thing that unfortunately stood out was the author's sniping at her media competitors as well as anyone who wouldn't talk to her in interviews at the time. At one point, she describes a (named) lawyer's dandruff in a moment that I can only think was included as a way of insulting him for not granting her an interview. Furthermore, she spends a lot of time boasting about her own career and the success of her TV station. Like 'okay, that's great, but it's not really relevant though is it'. Most of the book is devoted to Yolanda's trial, with both Yolanda and Selena receiving brief biographies before that. I would still recommend this book for the facts it contains, but would urge readers to disregard the veiled melodramatic references to unsubstantiated rumour.

Enjoyed reading it.

Written well but really did not answer any questions. More like showing off how moral of a reporter she is. It was a good read but left me disappointed and left me with more questions than answers.

It is a very good book of the Selina murder coverage and trial from a noteworthy journalist. 👍

good book so far haven't finished reading yet, but is well written