Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers - Review

I know I've read The Offing by Benjamim Myers and enjoyed it, but I can't remember how or why I picked this one up. I think it must have just caught my eye in the library. I go to craft club every Monday morning in my local library but they are refurbishing it at the moment so they're in the local town hall at the moment. They still have a room we can use which is brilliant. They only have a few books in the much smaller room - but of course, they can order anything in that you might want - so maybe that's helped me to see the wood for the trees or something, because I have picked up a few books that have popped out at me. 

I read this at the beginning of October so the details are a bit hazy - we're in mid November as I'm writing this - so please do bear with me. I did really like the book, though. It's set in Scarborough and I love books that are set in the north of England as it's where I live myself. I know Scarborough quite well after going a thousand times throughout my life, so it was lovely to be able to picture the streets and the harbour and bays perfectly. 

The book is about Northern Soul music. In Scarborough there's Dinah, who lives with her husband and son, who are both useless human beings. Her husband drinks too much and her son, while an adult, sits in his bedroom smoking weed and so on. She works a thankless job (I want to say in like a supermarket or something, can't remember exactly) and she loves Northern Soul. She can lose herself in the music a couple of times a week, and she does. She reaches out to a musician called Bucky Bronco, who had a couple of hits way back in the sixties, and then vanished off the face of the earth. Dinah has managed to find him, and she invites him to Scarborough to sing. 

Bucky Bronco is now an old man, living by himself in Chicago after the death of his beloved wife, Maybelle. He had some kind of injury and now has an opioid addiction. He is basically just getting through life, talking to his late wife and wishing it was his turn to go. He doesn't really think of his musical life. He has a lot of regrets and through the book we learn why his musical career was cut so short. This part was actually fascinating, because yes things happened in his personal life, but there was also a lot of music industry stuff that was so interesting. He hasn't sung since the late sixties but he decides to go to Scarborough anyway. 

Then he manages to leave his pain pills on the aeroplane, so he is in England going cold turkey for the first time in like a decade or something. He stays in the Grand Hotel, which is a real hotel in Scarborough which anyone would recognise. Ben has described it perfectly - I know people who have stayed recently and apparently it's very shabby and run down now and not a patch of its glamorous past. I loved that Bucky - who was himself a bit faded and a call back to a different time - stayed there. 

In all I'm giving this four out of five, it was a really good book about music and nostalgia and stuff. 

Little Baby Nothings by Manic Street Preachers and Valerie Phillips - Review

Alright, so it's not technically a 'book' because it doesn't have words. It's just photos. But I liked it, so I'm going to write a little bit about it here. 

You might know that I was a big fan of the Manic Street Preachers back in the 90s. I have the words 'cheap tarnished glitter' tattooed on my left wrist. I haven't really liked much of their output since like 2003, but I do sort of keep an eye on them. I would have loved to see them with Suede round about now actually, but the logistics of it just didn't work out for me. 

So I saw the band advertising this new photo book and I was intrigued, so I bought it. The first hundred or something were signed copies, and as you can see, I was lucky to get one of those! It arrived really quickly and I was really pleased. The photos are from 1991, way back when the Manics were touring songs from Generation Terrorists. They were supported by the Wildhearts, who I also really like, so it was cute to see that. T shirts cost just £7! There are plenty of photos of the tour, including some photos of the band in tacky bed and breakfast hotels which ended up on the front of the Motorcycle Emptiness single. There are also a number of photos in James' old house, showing the band in his and Sean's bedroom (they're cousins and Sean lived with the Bradfields for quite a while as a teenager) on their bunk beds. There's some beautiful photos of Richey - who has been missing since 1995 - including some of him in leather pants which I don't think I've ever seen before. There are just so many beautiful photos and lots which were poignant and lots which made me laugh, too. I read this really quickly one evening waiting for tea and I'm glad I bought it.

Also see below for the most beautiful end papers ever! 

Anchored in Love: An Intimate Portrait of June Carter Cash by John Carter Cash - Review

One thing you might not know about me is that I really love Johnny Cash's music. I've been a fan for a long time now, and so is my mum. I also like quite a lot of June Carter's music, and the music of The Carter Family, too. I could probably stand to learn more of her music, but I do like her. Also, if you don't know, she wrote some of Johnny's biggest hits, like Ring of Fire! That's an absolute classic! I know a bit about their lives but not loads, so I wanted to read this book when I heard about it a few months ago. It was published in 2007, only four years after June and then Johnny died in 2003, but I hadn't heard of it until recently. I don't even remember how. But it was expensive to buy so I decided to not bother.

And then Spotify started doing audiobooks on Premium, which I have. And this was on there! So I started listening to it while on car drives by myself, and I finished it in only a few weeks. It's narrated by another country singer, who had a good and engaging voice and who really sounded like Johnny Cash at times!

It was really interesting to hear about June's early life and her place in the Carter family. The book doesn't focus too much on her previous marriages, but does talk about her daughters Carlene and Rosie and their places in the family. John Carter remembers Rosie living with them when he was little, but he also recounts her addiction and the pain that she put upon her family and especially her mother when she was ill. He talks about how all Johnny's four daughters had their place in the family too and that June pretty much accepted them all as hers. John Carter talks about being the spoilt youngest child - and only son - in the family and what that meant; I actually felt he was quite self aware here on what privileges that had given him that maybe his sisters didn't benefit from. I also think that John Carter clearly only focussed on his own parents and not on their previous spouses, because that really just didn't interest him. 

I of course knew about Johnny's addiction problems, but hearing about them through John Carter was absolutely heartbreaking. He talks about sharing a hotel room on tour with his dad when he was really quite a small child and listening to his dad's laboured breathing and that John Carter would worry that his dad had died. I feel like there was a lot of unpacked trauma here but because John Carter was just talking about his mother for the most part, he just talked about how she acted and the huge love she had for her family. It was interesting to hear about the family as a whole - their homes, their staff, their touring - as well as the bad parts. 

John Carter also suffered from addiction and he isn't quite as open about that as you would perhaps like, but it was still interesting and it still added to the story of June. I didn't know that she herself had problems with drugs towards the end of her life. The stories about her last recordings are pretty sad, actually. The part about her death was really sad, too - and then of course Johnny died just a few months later. 

I generally liked the book and I particularly liked John Carter talking about the funny things June used to say and the 'klediments' (treasures) she had in each of their houses. It was cute to hear about how his second wife made him listen to the Carter Family more - his own legacy! It's quite funny. I didn't like that there was quite a lot of fat shaming of his mother towards the end, and I do think that some of the talk of addiction and god was a bit much. But maybe that's because I'm not a believer. I'm giving this four out of five as I did like it for the most part. 

Kerrang! Living Loud by Nick Ruskell - Review

So one thing you might not know about me is that I love music. I'm a big fan of indie music, punk music, Irish music, some metal, some pop, some country. I've been into music ever since I was a small child, and when I was thirteen I got really into Placebo and the Manic Street Preachers. I then got really into metal for a bit (while still loving the Manics) and then punk when I met Lee, and then I fell out of music for a bit until I got really into The Libertines when I was twenty one. Then I got into 3rd generation emo in my mid 20s, and the Gaslight Anthem, and now I just listen to what I want to and while I don't really keep an eye on music, I did see that this book came out and wanted to read it. I first of all read NME and Melody Maker, but when I was fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, I bought Kerrang religiously. I used to buy it from a newsagent on the way home from school, and the owner would keep a copy for me especially. I scoured every page of it weekly, looking for stuff about my favourite bands but reading all of it. I kept articles and stuff cut out from it for years. In fact, I probably still have them somewhere. There's definitely some issues of Kerrang hidden under my desk right now. I bought it again for a few years in my 20s, and I know it has remained important to some of my friends. 

The book is a pretty straightforward history of the magazine from its inception in 1981 to now, from when it was weekly in the 90s to the rise of its website and its own TV channel through to the present day when it's published quarterly. I learnt a lot about the history which was interesting, as well as the type of bands it would cover to those it wouldn't, and those it got criticised for covering (for example Muse). I will say that one of my only criticisms is that there is too much about the band Metallica, who were instrumental in the magazine's success I guess, but I really don't care about them and there was a LOT. I also think there's a lack of women (both in bands and in the writing team) featured, but metal music has always had that problem so it isn't surprising that the magazine reflected this. From my own memories I do remember them looking at some women, but often in a really sexualised way - and I do think they piled on the hate of Courtney Love in the years after Kurt Cobain's suicide. That's not a failing of this author or this book, of course, but it could maybe have been looked at. 

There are pages inserted throughout the book from different musicians that have feature a lot in the magazine and are particular faves, like Dani from Cradle of Filth, Muse, Ozzy Osbourne - a wide va\riety of people I think. I liked these and it really made me feel as a reader that the writers and the bands had had a lot of fun together and that there was a lot of mutual respect in most cases (although I utterly don't understand what the hell happened with Axl Rose...) I liked mentions of some of the high profile deaths that have happened, like Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, Kurt Cobain of course, and more recent deaths like those of Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington. 

It was a really nostalgic look for me at the past and at my teen years when I knew all the writers (and had my faves, of course) and the bands by glance if not more. I kept reading bits out to Lee and I really want him to read it. He is a secret Metallica fanboy so he'll probably love it! I am giving this four KKKKs out of five - thanks lads, for all the music. 

Given by Natsuki Kizu - Review

My friend Chloe lent me this book because it's about boys in a band who fall in love and she thought I would like it. She was right, I did! I like graphic novels because I like looking at the art at the same time, and the artistic choices that have been made.

So the story is about a band and it ends up that there are two relationships going on between the four of them. Because this is the first volume, though, it mostly just sets up the band getting together. Ritsuka is the electric guitarist and he's still at school. He goes to his special spot one day and finds another boy sitting there. A boy with a very fancy guitar, but with apparently no idea how to play it. It's got broken strings, so Ritsuka helps the boy, Mafuyu, mend it. He isn't sure who the guitar belongs to, but Mafuyu wants to learn to play it so Ritsuka helps him. Ritsuka already knows the bass player, Haruki, and the drummer Akihiko, so the four of them do start a band by the end. 

Chloe asked me to guess which one of the boys was her favourite and it was a no brainer, it was obviously the soft blonde one Haruki. He's my favourite too! 

I'm looking forward to reading more in this series. I'm giving this four out of five. 

Stories I Might Regret Telling You by Martha Wainwright - Review

I've been a fan of Martha Wainwright since about 2007 when my friend Sam introduced me to her music. We've seen her in concert a few times, including with her half sister Lucy Wainwright Roche, and with a full band which included her now ex husband Brad Albetta. I really love her first three albums, but I will admit that she's dropped off my radar over the past few years and I'm not sure what she's been up to. I knew she had had two sons, and I knew she and Brad had divorced. She has two albums that I'm not familiar with so I will have to check those out. It was interesting to read her side of lots of things, but I was aware throughout that I was only getting her side of the story. Still, her divorce from Brad sounds like an absolute nightmare and there was clearly lots she couldn't say. 

Martha is the daughter of folk musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. They split up when Martha was tiny and she grew up with her mum in Montreal with her brother Rufus. She often toured with her mother and aunt, Anna, and her cousins. Loudon had two more daughters, Lucy and Alexandra, and Martha often toured alongside them and Lucy's mum. Her parents never got along. Loudon would write songs about both Rufus and Martha. Martha talks about being a bit adrift in her late teens, when Rufus was starting to write music  but Martha didn't want to go down the family path. She spent a year living in New York with Loudon (which he wrote a scathing song about) (it's okay because Martha wrote her own some years later) and did eventually start writing music. She met Brad when she was quite young and he was somewhat older than her. 

She writes a lot about the decline and death of her mother Kate, and the grief she still feels absolutely shines through. I relate a lot to this and was pleased Martha wrote so much about how Kate dying affected her. I had forgotten Kate died so long ago, way back in 2010 just after Martha's first son was born. Martha also tells some stories about other famous people which are often funny, but sometimes sad - like the breakdown in her friendship with Leonard Cohen's daughter Lorca (who is also the mother of Rufus' child, which is what broke the friendship down). 

I'm giving this four out of five - it's definitely interesting if you're already a fan of Martha or any of the Wainwright clan.

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid - Review

I have heard so many people raving about this book, so when I saw it in a charity shop on a recent trip to Holmfirth for just £1.50 I snatched it up. Then I had a conversation with the woman in the baker's who said she had loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and that I should read that! I'm on it - I have reserved it at the library after a bit of a kerfuffle. 

Anyway I picked this up in mid November. People on Instragram raved about it, but a couple said that they had found the structure weird to get into. It's not told in typical narrative structure. Instead it's told in oral excerpts, in interviews with Daisy and the six members of the Six. It's a brilliant way to tell a novel, and even though I found it quite difficult to get into, once I had then I definitely liked it. It's interesting because you get different people's points of view straight away, and you get differing versions of what happened. That's always true in life - people have different versions of the truth, especially when recollecting events that happened years and years ago. I liked picking up on the inconsistencies between what people said.

So Daisy Jones is from LA, child to two parents who don't really care about her. She is a singer and has a friend who is also a singer, Simone. As she gets older Daisy gets a recording contract, but she's stuck doing covers. It's the early 70s and Daisy is fashionable and cool. She wants to sing her own songs, though. She is also a drug addict. She undeniably has talent, but as the book goes on she is losing it due to her addictions. 

The Six are a band headed by brothers Billy and Graham. I'm writing this a few weeks later and I can't remember the names of the rest of the band, sorry, but there's Karen who plays keyboards and two more brothers, one of whom is called Eddie. He gets more and more displeased with the band as the years pass. He and Billy often fight with each other. Billy has a girlfriend, Camila, who he later marries. As The Six start their first tour Camila is pregnant, and with that pressure, Billy goes a bit off the rails. 

Daisy and the band get put together by their label, and while Billy doesn't want her anywhere near his band, even he can't deny that together they make brilliant music. Their fame escalates, and Daisy joins the band. They have one brilliant album and then split up - but why? Here is why. Daisy and Billy are drawn together, even while they desperately try not to be. 

I enjoyed the book - I'm a big music fan so I love stories like this full of drama and intrigue. I know that the book was inspired by the interpersonal lives of Fleetwood Mac, and I think that shows. I am giving this four out of five.

One Track Minds edited by Kristian Brodie and Adam Shakinovsky - Review

I backed this book on Unbound and it arrived a few weeks ago, and after I'd finished my last book I was digging around in the pile next to the side of the bed and thought, oh yes, this sounds perfect. I had to move many boxes of tablets to dig around in the pile of books, which is the reality of chronic illness life to be honest! 

This book is a small collection of essays about a song that has changed someone's life in some way or another. Most of these essays have been performed by the writer for a podcast, but it was nice to read the words too. Some of the songs I knew and some I didn't, but the book helpfully has QR codes after each song for the reader to check the songs out on Spotify or similar. Some of the songs are classics and some are really unknown - one essay is about a video game theme tune! 

I like people writing passionately about music so this was right up my street. I'm giving it four out of five. 

Threepenny Memoir by Carl Barat - Review

I've been a Libertines fan for nearly two decades now, and I regularly see them and their associated bands, and buy merch and stuff. Peter Doherty's memoir has just come out so I ordered it, and then realised that I've never read Carl's memoir, which came out in 2010. So I bought a copy on eBay and took it on holiday with me at the end of June to read. I really enjoyed it, but I feel like Carl would write a totally different memoir if he did it now. A lot of time has passed both professionally and personally and The Libertines got back together in 2014 and recorded a new album, and even now are talking about recording again and tour pretty often. Carl seems like a different person now, too, having mellowed quite a lot as he's got older. So I'd be interested in an update!

But I did enjoy this, there were a lot of stories that I didn't know beforehand, even though I do know a lot about the history of the band. There isn't a lot about the end of The Libertines, which was obviously painful for all concerned, but there was quite a lot about the end of Dirty Pretty Things, Carl's next band. I felt quite sad that he was sad about how they ended, it felt like Carl feels like they never got a fair shot at the cherry which isn't something I'd considered. 

The book is in quite a non linear fashion which didn't annoy me, but which I think reflects Carl's stream of consciousness way of writing. I could hear his voice in it a lot, which I liked. I'm giving this four out of five, I liked it!

 

Mixtape by Jane Sanderson - Review

This book has very much the feel of a YA novel which I really liked, because it felt very present and very immediate, but it's also about two older people falling in love, so I liked it because I don't often read books about people in their fifties falling in love. Then of course there's the music, which I always like to read about. My friend Helen put this on her list of best books of the year, and I liked the sound of it, so I ordered it and picked it up almost immediately. 

So, in 2013, a music journalist called Dan Lawrence is living his life in Edinburgh with his partner Katelin and their son Alex. He's friends with Duncan, who owns a record shop, and his wife Rose-Ann. Kateline and Rose-Ann decide to do an America road trip. Dan also owns a houseboat in London which he uses when he travels down to see gigs and so on. I wouldn't say he's unhappy, but maybe just bored with life, perhaps. He's around fifty-three years old.

Then his old friend Kev Carter mentions on Twitter that their old friend Alison Connor is on Twitter, and that she's a bestselling author! Dan is immediately thrown back to the late 70s, in Sheffield, when he fell in love with Alison Connor and how she left him, heartbroken and upset, and unable to put his life back together until he met Katelin four years later. 

Dan sends a message to Alison, a link to Elvis Costello's Pump It Up, and over the next few weeks the two send music back and forth to each other, and sparks fly between them.

Alison, now better known as Ali, now lives in Adelaide with her husband Michael McCormack and their daughters Thea and Stella. Michael is from an old Adelaide family with plenty of money and a sheep station up north, and a live in housekeeper, Beatriz. He and Ali met when she was travelling in Spain, and her took her back to Australia as his bride. She is an author. She has a reckless best friend called Cass, and is in touch with Sheila, who used to know her mother back home in Sheffield. 

There are also flashbacks in the book, where we're in Sheffield in 1978, when Daniel and Alison, aged eighteen and sixteen, fall in love. They fall in love over music. Alison's home life is chaotic - her mother Catherine is an alcoholic, and she has an abusive boyfriend called Martin. Alison's brother Peter tries to protect her from everything, but she's still a mixed up kind of kid. But in Daniel she finds solace, especially among his family with his kind dad and guileless sister Claire. Daniel's mum Marion is somewhat wary of her, sure that she will eventually break Daniel's heart. And indeed, throughout the book, we learn how she did that. 

As I say, I really liked the book and loved how it talked about love, and loss, and nostalgia, and music. I'd highly recommend this!

Grown by Tiffany D Jackson - Review

Where did I get it? I ordered it as I had read a couple of reviews and thought it sounded really good. It arrived in the middle of October and then I read it in November for a virtual book group. I suggested it. I'm writing this before that happened, so I don't know what everyone else thought!

What's it about? Enchanted is seventeen and lives in New Jersey with her family. She's the eldest of five kids, including sister Shea, who's fourteen, twins, and a little girl. Her parents work all hours to pay the bills and keep Enchanted and Shea in private school, meaning Enchanted is often left looking after the kids. She's on the swim team, but what she really wants to do is sing. She goes to an audition for a thing a bit like American Idol or The X Factor, and while she's there she meets musical superstar Korey Fields. She becomes infatuated with him, and eventually her takes her on tour as a backing singer. 

But his charm turns abusive. He stops Enchanted having any contact with her family, he tells her that he's paying their bills now so she can't leave, and he is physically, emotionally, and sexually abusive. She's not allowed to do anything by herself, and she's starved, kept from going to the bathroom, told what to wear, and so on. Korey has another girl in tow, too, and an absolutely chilling assistant, Jessica. 

At the very beginning of the book, Enchanted wakes up in Korey's apartment, and finds him covered in blood, dead. So throughout the book there's stuff from 'now', when Enchanted is having to answer questions about what happened, and 'then', when we see how she descends into getting stuck in Korey's circle with no hope of escape. In the 'now', every way Enchanted tries to turn to prove herself innocent is met with problems. 

I immediately drew parallels between what R Kelly did to Aaliyah and other women (watch the documentary on Netflix, it's so good, although extremely difficult to watch), and it's something the author mentions in the back of the book. I do want to point out though, as a white person, that this is also something that white men very much do to women too, and I sometimes think that the way society has latched on so much to black abusers is really racist, while we ignore abuses that have happened and continue to happen that are perpetrated by white people. I hope that makes sense, I just wanted to acknowledge it. 

I loved Enchanted's family unit, I loved how her parents worked so hard for the family and were good parents even though things were tight. I loved Shea. I liked Enchanted and her friends. It's a good book, I would definitely read something else by the same author. 

What age range is it for? Trigger warnings abound for rape, sexual assault, physical abuse, and more, so I'm going to say from a mature 15 onwards. Be careful! But it is written in such a way that it is still for teens (very deftly done, I think). 

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? No. 

Are any main characters people of colour? Yep, Enchanted and her whole family are Black. I loved the subplot about Enchanted's hair. She shaves it all off, mostly because it's better for swimming, and it's something her Daddy does for her. Korey likes her to have her hair long, and it becomes a thing between them. 

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? There's some mental illness which was quite triggering, so be careful there too. 

Is there any sex stuff? Yes, and I would say none of it is consensual. It's hard to read. 

Are drugs mentioned or used? Yes, Korey drugs Enchanted to keep her compliant, with what she calls 'purple drink'. There's some description of how it feels when she's taken it, so be careful there too. However, personally, I didn't think it was too graphic. 

Is there any talk of death? Yes, obviously, as Korey ends up murdered. It is somewhat graphic. 

Are there swear words? A few, but not many. 

 

What criticisms do I have? Almost none, but I did feel like the book tried to fit in an awful lot, and that meant there were some odd gaps in time when I felt even just a few words like 'three weeks later' would have contextualised things more.

I also wish we had seen a bit more of Korey's charm at the beginning of the book so that we understood why Enchanted fell for him so quickly. But that's a minor gripe. 

Also, as an adult reading this, I was just SCREAMING at Enchanted to PLEASE run, or PLEASE call home, but I appreciate that teenagers just don't think the same, and Enchanted seriously had been brainwashed by Korey and thought she had no other option but to stay with him. 

Would I recommend the book? Yes, a hundred percent. 

Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? I knew I wanted to, so the book club was the perfect time to!

 

What do I think of the cover? It's gorgeous isn't it? It's the earrings Enchanted wears at her first audition, lent to her by her friend Gab. I love it. 

 

What other books is it like? A lot of the family background reminded me of Elizabeth Acevedo's novels. 

How many stars? Four out of five. 

 

Where is the book going now? Oh I'm keeping it for sure! 

The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde - Review

Where did I get it? I bought it a couple of months ago. I think I'd seen it recommended on Twitter, and I do love books about music, so I took a chance, I'm really glad I did! 

What's it about? Emmy King is the drummer in the hottest new band The Brightsiders. Based in LA, the band is huge and they should all be having the times of their lives. But Emmy is falling apart. Her girlfriend Jessie keeps making her do things she doesn't really want to do, and she's partying really hard. At the beginning of the book, the two are involved in an accident while drunk, meqaning Emmy's management are on her back, and she gets thrown out of the hotel in which she's been living. 

She has to move back in with her parents, who she really dislikes. They're both a mess of drugs and alcohol, and they have no money, and they're pretty abusive. . Emmy desperately wants to buy her own house, but she's not yet eighteen. She has tried to help her parents out with money, but they sell stories about her to the tabloids and tell her she's useless. Eventually, she goes to stay with her friend Chloe instead.

The other two band members are Alfie and Ryan. She's known both of them since they were young teens, and the three are close friends. However, on a trip with all their friends, Emmy and Alfie start some kind of relationship. They're intensely attracted to each other, but starting a relationship might mess up the whole band. 

Emmy has paparazzi after her constantly, waiting for her to mess up. Her fans are totally dedicated to her, though, so, feeling brave one night at a Pride show, she feels able to come out as bisexual. She then writes a song for their fans, which she wants to sing, but she needs to prove herself to their management before she's allowed.

Plus she and Alfie just keep making out!

The book is a fun story about being famous and all the pressures that entails. I loved Emmy and Alfie and Ryan, and all their friends. 

What age range is it for? 15+, due to some mature themes. 

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? Yes, lots. Emmy is bisexual, she has friends of other sexualities (and a really nice coming out from someone other than herself, which I won't spoil). Alfie is genderqueer (I LOVED HIM) and Emmy's BFF Chloe is nonbinary. There's a plethora of queer people included which I really liked. 

Are any main characters people of colour? Yeah, Chloe is black I think. Ryan is Korean. Again, there's a diverse range of characters which do reflect LA currently.

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? I'm going to see that both Emmy and Alfie have mental health issues. 

Is there any sex stuff? No, not graphically. I liked the way this was done actually. 

Are drugs mentioned or used? Yes, mentioned, but I don't think used. There's some alcohol abuse though. 

Is there any talk of death? No. There is some violence though, it is graphic in parts. 

Are there swear words? Yep and I loved them, they were used so well and really fitted in the context especially in the music business.  

What criticisms do I have? Here's the thing. I LOVED the story of the book. If I was fifteen I would be all over this, I love stories about bands and love and friendship and queer teens. The story is excellent, and would get me to read something else by Jen Wilde.

However, some of the writing left me cold. I found the time span really strange - there's a trip that lasts loads of chapters, and then other things go by really quickly? Plus there's some continuity issues which made me flick backwards wondering if I was misunderstanding. The writing alone would have made me give this book just a three, but I liked the story so I'm giving it a little bit of leeway. I hope that makes sense!

Would I recommend the book? Yes totally, even with my reservations. It's fun! It's a really fun book.

Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? It was still hanging out at the side of my bed so I picked it up. 

What do I think of the cover? I LOVE it! It's so badass and colourful. It shows Emmy with her dyed hair and fierce purple lipstick.  

What other books is it like? It really reminded me of This Song Is Not For You by Laura Nowlin. 

How many stars? Four out of five.  

Where is the book going now? I'm keeping it!

Shut Down Strangers and Hot Rod Angels (Anthology) - Review

This book is an anthology of words inspired by the work of Bruce Springsteen. There's poems, fiction, and memoir and life writing. You may not know but I'm a big Springsteen fan and have used his music as inspiration in my own work. I even wrote a zine about Bruce, which you can buy here on Etsy. I wish I had seen the call out for this anthology because I would have definitely submitted sometihng. I was raised on Bruce's music - my parents both liked him. Listening to him now reminds me of my dad, who we lost tragically nearly twelve years ago. It reminds me of going on holiday and sunshine and wide open motorways with Bruce playing loudly on the car stereo. So when I saw this anthology on Twitter, I ordered it immediately. And then picked it up as soon as it arrived because I wanted to read other fans' thoughts and feelings and stories.

As with all anthologies, there's some pieces I connected to a lot more than others. I especially liked the life writing, where people wrote about their own lives and experiences. I really liked the pieces set in New Jersey seaside towns with delapidated boardwalks and faded glamour. I think this is a really accomplished collection of works, and I'm really happy to have read it. I'm giving it four out of five, and I love love love the cover!

Shut Down Strangers & Hot Rod Angels is available to buy here. I am just sharing this link, it's not an affiliate link or anthing!

The Wicked + The Divine: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie - Review

I was at a conference in April (I like saying that because it makes me sound so academic!) about fan studies and someone mentioned this graphic novel. I liked the sound of it so ordered it. I don't often read graphic novels. I find that the illustrations go over my head at times - I read the words and don't understand what the picture is trying to add to that. But I thought I would give this one a go!

So the premise is that Laura, a mixed race teenager from London, who meets some of the Pantheon, a group of twelve gods who come back to earth every ninety years, then die within two years. She meets Luci, aka Lucifer, who comes up against Cassandra, who is trying to discover the truth about the Pantheon. All kinds of stuff starts to happen that Laura has to make sense of.

I spent a lot of time looking at the art trying to really take it in. I liked the nods to pop music - Luci clearly looks a bit like David Bowie and one of the gods has a definite Rihanna vibe to her - and I also really liked the pages where the artwork wasn't just in cells but took over the whole page. Paying more attention really did add to my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

I'm still not sure graphic novels are for me but I did enjoy reading this and have passed it to Lee to read. I've giving it four out of five.

Clampdown by Rhian E Jones - Review

First of all, I need to say two things: one, I received this book free from the publisher so thank you very much to Zero Books, and two, Rhian is a friend of mine. We met years ago through The Libertines, but we have quite a lot of music in common and are quite similar politically. When I heard about the book I wanted to read it so was thrilled to receive a copy, but then I lost the book and unearthed it recently and decided to read it. I would like to read more non fiction in 2018 so this seemed an ideal place to start.

Concentrating on several bands of the 90s Britpop and later 00s British bands, Rhian talks about the class identity of those bands, how they used class signifiers, and how bands with women in in particular identified. She particularly looks at how working class women have been demonised in the press and how the 'chav' image is used against women more than men. She looks at working class bands like Kenickie to comment on the ladette culture of the 90s and so on. The text is pretty dense so quite often I had to break sentences down to make sure I really understood them, but there were parts that made me actually laugh out loud. This may be because I know Rhian and her dry wit, but she also has such a way with words - for instance, describing the 'camp wit' of The Libertines and the 'languorous sleaziness' of Elastic (two of my favourite bands, which helps!) I don't think the book is too difficult for someone non academic (like me!) to read. It is similar in parts to Chavs by Owen Jones, a book I've skimmed but not read properly. I really liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who grew up on Britpop and other guitar bands. Five out of five!

Did Not Finish - This Beats Perfect by Rebecca Denton

It is so rare that I don't finish a book so when I don't, I feel really bad about it. But I've not been reading like a smart reader recently, for one reason and another, so I decided to fall back on a rule I read once. The rule said that if you're under 50 years old, you should read fifty pages of a book before deciding whether to give up on it or not. If you're over 50 years old, you can deduct every year over 50 off the pages you should read. So my mum, who is about to turn sixty, should read forty pages of a book before giving up on it, and my grandma, who is 91, should read just nine pages of a book before being allowed to toss it. It makes sense, right, no one who is 91 has time to spend on a book that just isn't grabbing them!

I'm 33, so a fair way under the fifty years old, so I'm stuck with fifty pages. So I picked up This Beats Perfect as I've heard loads of good things about it, and I also knew I was about to start editing my own novel, which is about a band. As This Beats Perfect is also about the music scene, I thought it might be good to read.

However, I just couldn't get into it. At the beginning of the book, it's Amelie's birthday and she's going backstage at a gig that her dad is doing the sound for - he's pretty famous at doing that. The band on stage is The Keep, a boy band that Amelie feels she is far too good for. She gets photogrpahed with one of the band and wakes up to a million Twitter notifications, all wondering who she is.

I was a bit unsure about this beginning to the novel, because it just didn't grab me. It seemed to be existing in nothingness. We saw Amelie and the band and her dad and a couple of other people, but we didn't care about them enough to get emotionall invested. The second part of the book (around 60 pages in, I actually went over the 50 pages before I gave up because I really did want to give it a chance) has Amelie celebrate her birthday with her mum the next day, but it seemed to flash forwards and backwards in time with no warning, and I couldn't centre Amelie very well in that world either.

So, I gave up. Do I feel bad about it? Yes. Do I think this author is a bad author? Of course not. I would give her another chance, for sure. I just didn't click with this book - and that's okay.

Reading the beginning of this combined with reading my own novel brought one thing very clear to me - writing about music is hard. Music is such a sensory experience, but it's auditory, and auditory traits don't tend to translate well on to the page, which we read and don't always otherwise interact with. There's a couple of bits in my own novel where I hope I get across the idea that playing a gig is scary and exhilarating and thrilling and sometimes painful and often amazing. I probably need to work on them more, but it's definitely something I want to pay attention to.

There are a couple of books about music that I really do love, like Songs About A Girl by Chris Russell and My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend by Eleanor Wood. You can check out all my posts with the label 'music' here.

Becoming Betty by Eleanor Wood - Review

I read Eleanor's first book, My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend, over Christmas, so as soon as I read that she had a new book I immediately ordered it. The cover is so beautiful that I'm swooning over it! Isn't it enticing?

Where did I get it? Wordery.com, which as a reminder, has prices very similar to Amazon, free shipping, fast service, and most importantly they pay their taxes (unlike Amazon).

What's it about? Lizzie Brown has just left school and is starting college. Her friends Daisy and Jake are staying at school, so she won't know anyone at college, but she had a bit of a bad time during her GCSEs so is looking forward to a clean start. She decides she reinvent herself and buys a vintage dress from a cool shop in Brighton. She starts college and on the first day meets Viv, who is so cool that Lizzie can barely stand up. Together, they skive off college and meet Viv's boyfriend Rex. Viv wants Lizzie to join her band as the bass player, and reinvents Lizzie as Betty Brown, ready for a local Battle of the Bands.

This novel is just lovely! I thoroughly lost myself in the story and was on Lizzie's side the whole time. She is a bit clueless but basically a gentle soul. There's also a cameo from Tuesday Cooper, protagonist in My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend, which was just lovely. I did think there were some things I'd have written differently, but that for me is part of the enjoyment of a good novel. Viv is the type of girl we've all known over the years. I liked to dislike her!

I also really like Eleanor's use of older music to signify moments for these kids. That's probably partly because I love music and also write about music and bands in my own work. I can't wait for Eleanor's next work - she's an auto buy for me now.

What age range is it for? 15+, nothing too salacious

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? Yes, but no spoilers

Are any main characters people of colour? No

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? Lizzie has mental health problems which are really well portrayed. I loved the description of her panic attacks and they felt really true to life.

Is there any sex stuff? No not at all. 

Are drugs mentioned or used? No

Is there any talk of death? Not much, if any

Are there swear words? No hardly any

Would I recommend the book? Yes absolutely. I loved it. 

Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? Partly because I wanted to get ahead of the curve and read it on its launch! I never manage it but I did now!

What other books is it like? It's a lot like Eleanor's other book, and also Songs About A Girl by Chris Russell

How many stars? Nine out of ten. Practically perfect in every way.

Where is the book going now? I'll keep it, I hope to see Eleanor at another event in the future and get it signed!

My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend by Eleanor Wood - Review

Where did I get it? I bought it at YA Shot. Eleanor was one of the panellists in the music panel, and I liked her and the sound of her novel, so immediately went to buy it from the Waterstones stall and then went to get Eleanor to sign it for me. We talked about zines and music tattoos and honestly she is one of the nicest authors I've ever met!

What's it about? Tuesday Cooper (yes that's her real name) is 18 and about to do her A levels. She's got two good friends, Nishi and Anna (who are a couple), and a boyfriend in a band, Seymour. She's really into vintage clothes and older, alternative music, and she writes about music on her blog. She's into a modern band called Sour Apple and likes their lead singer, Jackson Griffith. She blogs about him at one point, and someone saying he is Jackson comments on the post. No one believes it's him, but eventually Tuesday starts up an email relationship with him, and then agrees to go to London to meet him. He's a typical rock star - a bit muddled, a bit of a mess, but with a lot of charisma and charm. 

I sort of want to review this book from three perspectives. They definitely all popped into my head as I was reading it, so here we go.

Firstly - as a writer I often look at books with a view to HOW they're written, and whether I would've written things in the same way or not. Each chapter of this book starts with some kind of electronic message - whether it's a blog post from Tuesday or an email between her and Jackson, or something else. I liked this, and thought it was cleverly done. It moved the action on from day to day very neatly. I felt like Tuesday's character and relationship with her mum were beautiful and so true to life, and I felt like their working class lives were talked about honestly, which I also really loved. 

Secondly, as an adult reader I was sort of cringing through some of the book. Tuesday tells just one person where she is going when she goes to meet Jackson, and never tells her mother what she's up to (even though the two of them are quite close). Be safe online, kids, please! Jackson is also 5 years older than Tuesday and he's quite relentless in his persuing of her, and in parts it come off as creepy. He doesn't get a free pass, not at all, but even so, at the beginning I wanted Tuesday to be more wary of him. Which, of course, would have made it a really different novel of course! 

Thirdly, though, thinking of myself as a teen reader, I fell very deeply for Tuesday and her story. I loved her, her hair dye, her vintage clothes, her amazing taste in music. If we were both 18 and Tuesday was real, I would definitely, absolutely be her friend. I would take her to Grin in Leeds and Morgana in Wakefield and the Byram Arcade in Huddersfield. I'd skive off college with her to get coffee with her and I'd buy blue coloured cocktails with her in Wetherspoons. I also loved Nishi and Anna, and Seymour was the exact kind of idiot boy who thinks he's a god just because he's in a band that I knew hundreds of. I liked Jackson too, when he was being a decent human. In all, this is a really good novel about love and music and friendship and growing up. 

What age range is it for? 15+, there's nothing too salacious in it 

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? Yes, Nishi and Anna. They're very sweet and I liked how their relationship was portrayed. 

Are any main characters people of colour? I think Nishi is, but it's not mentioned directly.

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? No

Is there any sex stuff? Not really at all.

Are drugs mentioned or used? Yes, mentioned 

Is there any talk of death? Not really

Are there swear words? Not many, which I think I would have actually put as a negative because I think actual teens swear more!

Would I recommend the book? Yes, absolutely. 

Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? I was perusing the bookshelves just before Christmas and wanted something fairly light to read over Christmas. Not one regret!

How many stars? Eight out of ten, maybe even veering towards a nine. I really liked it, please don't think my criticisms mean it's a bad book. 

Where is the book going now? I'll keep it since it's signed to me, of course!

Songs About A Girl by Chris Russell - Review

Where did I get it? I got it on NetGalley so thank you to Hodder's Children's Books. I saw some chatter about it on Twitter and requested it. 

What's it about? Charlie Bloom is an amateur photographer in the last year of school. Fire&Lights are the biggest boy band in the country right now, and one of them, Olly, used to go to Charlie's school. He gets in touch with her and asks her to take some photos of the band backstage. She does, sneaking out from home. She lives with her dad solely since her mum died when Charlie was small. 

She meets the boys and gets on well with them, especially Olly, and the mysterious Gabe. She's invited to more concerts and even a video shoot. She gets close to Gabe, but his new lyrics are really familiar to Charlie - from a notebook her mum left behind. 

News about Charlie hanging out with Fire&Lights gets spread online and she is targeted with horrible abuse. But she keeps going back to take more photos, 

I liked the novel well enough, but it didn't set my world alight. Charlie's friend Melissa was so annoying, and I felt the bullying Charlie was subjected to at school just wasn't portrayed right. Charlie sometimes seemed like a 12 year old and sometimes like much older than sixteen; I think there was just something slightly off about her characterisation. The boys in the band were cute - Aiden and Yuki especially. I felt like some of the backstage details or the tour bus details were improbable, but I appreciate that some audiences wouldn't have picked up on that at all. I felt like some of the stuff that happened between Charlie and Gabe would have happened between much older teenagers. It's a decent novel, but not the best thing I've ever read. 

What age range is it for? 13+ I think, it's quite tame. 

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? No

Are any main characters people of colour? Yes, Yuki is Japanese and I liked that.

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? No

Is there any sex stuff? No, just some kissing.

Are drugs mentioned or used? Very briefly - there's a mention of someone being "wired" but no further detail

Is there any talk of death? Yes a little bit about Charlie's mum and I need to give a trigger warning for suicide, although it's not explicit. 

Are there swear words? Not many

Would I recommend the book? Yes, if you like books about music. 

How many stars? Six out of ten. 

Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky - Review

Where did I get it? I bought it from Amazon, I had it on pre-order after seeing a post about it on Tumblr I think

What's it about? The narrator, whose name we never get to know, is a fan of a British boy band called The Ruperts, who are about to play a very small show in New York. The narrator and her friends, Erin, Isabel, and Apple, manage to get a room in the hotel that The Ruperts are staying in. Then Apple manages to inadvertently kidnap her favourite, Rupert P, and everything gets really terrible from then on.

What age range is it for? 15+

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? It's not mentioned. 

Are any main characters non-white? Yes, Apple is Chinese and I think Isabel is black. 

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? Not really

Is there any sex stuff? A tiny bit of description.

Are drugs mentioned or used? There are mentions. 

Is there any talk of death? Yes, it is a bit graphic.

Are there swear words? Yes, quite a few. 

Would I recommend the book? Kind of? I didn't love it, but I did like the portrayal of "crazy" fangirls and how being all-consumed by a band can happen, even if the rest of the story isn't very believable. There's a ton of stuff about fan culture in the modern age, which I really liked, being somewhat of a fangirl myself. It's funny and self-referential, but it wasn't the best novel I've ever read. 

How many stars? Six out of ten.

Where is the book going now? I may donate it! I don't think I'll ever read it again.