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ParaBooks
Posted October 5, 2011
Now THAT was a fun book. If you guys have read any of my past reviews, you know that I'm a huge fan of old school punk and girl bands. The SHADE series by Jeri Smith-Ready is my favorite partly because it makes me feel like I'm back in high school with references to my fave music and the band scene. And JUNE OF ROCK was brilliantly executed with a fun, smart voice and super cool plot that did just that.
June was easy for me to relate to. I was so much like her when I was younger. I had exactly one girlfriend. One. And we ended up getting into a fight. Yes, a real pull-your-hair- and-scratch-your-eyes-out cat fight over our punk band boyfriends lol. Except, I played rhythm guitar, and June plays the drums. Which, by the way, is the coolest things ever. Girl drummers rock. And June is having a hard time relating to girls in general. Even her boyfriend. All she cares about is the music and her dreams of becoming a rock god. But she's not unlikable. She's thinking this is the smart way. She believes that her music will be there when others fail her, just like her father. So, she keeps everyone at a distance. It's easy to understand her logic and thought process. I get her completely. I loved watching her growth over the novel. She forms friendships with the most unlikely girls, and learns a thing or two about the rockstars she idolizes.
I knew I was going to love this story from the very start when the author mentions The Donnas. Sold. And even though there wasn't a lot of romance, not the "we're meant to be and we'll fight against all odds and save the world to be together" stuff, I really liked the outcome for June and Micah. You'll just have to read to find out. No spoilers. It was light romance, but there was still a powerful message about relationships, trust, and love. The real kind. The writing was clear and descriptive and put me right in the story with these characters. I enjoy Ms. Ludwig's writing style very much, and also June's youthful yet bright voice.
If you're a music lover and are looking for a light, fast, but a fiercely intelligent book that will rock your socks, JUNE OF ROCK is a must.
I will always be a fan of Disney Channel movies. There's just something about them that brings a smile to my face and makes me happy. June of Rock, from the beginning, gave me the same feelings as those movies do.
Elisa Ludwig's book touches on many young adult aspects I love reading about: camp and music. I've touched on this before, but I don't listen to much music so generally speaking it's either hit or miss for me with music related books. This book was a hit for me. I enjoyed the feelings June had regarding music and the little lists and song lyrics we were introduced to throughout the book.those were some of my favorite parts to read. :)
June learned and grew during the pages. She needed to learn not to push people away from her, to trust others, and sometimes there is more to people then what they show for everyone to see. I'm happy with her growth and how different she was by the end of camp.
Just before I read June of Rock, I had read/started reading/did not finish a couple of other self-published books that fell completely flat for me and I figured out why they may have had to publish their book themselves. This book didn't have self-published feel to it whatsoever. It was a breath of fresh air for me because a part of me was going to give up on reading titles like these. I've learned you just have to find the right ones.and June of Rock is one of those!
Overall for me this read was cute and fun and almost had me wanting to get more involved with music in my every day life, which is a CRAZY thought for me!
I enjoyed this quite a bit, somewhat to my surprise, since June started out as a self-admitted bit of a hostile b. Her acknowledgement of that, and her attempts to move past it, are kind of a charming part of the story, as she becomes more accepting of what is really going on with her, her relationships, her fantasies about her Dad returning, and her attempts to make her rock fantasies become real. I went to a rock/guitar camp a few years ago, and although I'm not a teenage girl (obvs), June's experiences rang true to the vibe of the weird social microcosm these places are. By the end of the story I was empathizing with and rooting for June, who it turns out really is a pretty cool, if somewhat mixed up person.
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Overview
Fresh out of 10th grade and freshly dumped by her dreamboat music nerd boyfriend Micah, June Dixon is headed to Camp Decibelle for the summer. The girls-only rock camp sounds like the perfect destination for a budding drummer with a respectfully punk attitude — except for the “girls-only” part. Once at Decibelle, June is thrown in among her fellow campers, a hodgepodge of indie wannabes, aggro-folkheads and metal sleazoids. All of them are aiming for superstardom, starting with the camp’s Battle of the Axes competition. Learning to keep a beat and start a band is tough enough but June must also contend with the dueling egos (and rhythms) of her bossy bandmate Jess, Jess’s disgruntled best friend from home M3, and a bitchy ...