Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Mini Reviews: Ghosting and Rock Angel

Hey everyone! Today I've got two mini reviews for you guys. I was sent both these books for review from BookSparks and my opinions are 100% my own. Let's get into the review :)

Ghosting by Edith Pattou
ISBN: 147784774X
Pages: 392
Source: BookSparks
Appearance:
21558973

Summary:
On a hot summer night in a Midwestern town, a high school teenage prank goes horrifically awry. Alcohol, guns, and a dare. Within minutes, as events collide, innocents becomes victims—with tragic outcomes altering lives forever, a grisly and unfortunate scenario all too familiar from current real-life headlines. But victims can also become survivors, and as we come to know each character through his/her own distinctive voice and their interactions with one another, we see how, despite pain and guilt, they can reach out to one another, find a new equilibrium, and survive.
Told through multiple points of view in naturalistic free verse and stream of consciousness, this is an unforgettable, haunting tale.


 Ghosting is one of those books that completely took me by surprise. I usually have a hard time getting through verse novels and I have no idea why. I've put down so many books because I couldn't continue reading the story in verse. Ghosting did not read like a verse novel to me, the words just flowed together and I become so engrossed in the story. I swear, I must have looked insane flipping pages at the rate I was reading.

The story follows a group of teenagers, we've got the jock and his girlfriend + bestie, the druggie, and the girl who just moved back to town. They've decided to attend a Halloween party but ditch early and take a detour down the cemetery. The book switches between the character's perspective as well as that of the Ms. Popular's sister and the boy who lives in the house by the cemetery. Each perspectives gives you more insight as to what is going on in the story and when the big climax hits, I was left with one hopeless thought: That was all just a big misunderstanding.

Ghosting manages to tear you apart as the characters in the book shatter in different ways after the accident (and no it wasn't a car accident). Thankfully, the climax of the story occurs somewhat in the middle and you get to experience and see the characters pick themselves back up from the ground and piece themselves back together. The journey itself is absolutely moving and each step they take towards healing gives you even more hope for what the next page holds.

There aren't enough words to describe my emotions for this book, but it was a freaking fantastic story and took me on a crazy journey throughout life. Highly highly recommend!

4 out of 5 stars

Rock Angel by Jeanne Bogino
ISBN: 098523136X
Pages: 400
Source: BookSparks
Appearance:
21844287
Summary: 
Shan is young, beautiful, talented, and addicted to heroin in Rock Angel, a novel that follows her meteoric rise to guitar goddess stardom in the 90’s. She is discovered in New York by a handsome, arrogant musical genius named Quinn, and sparks fly between them when he hires her as lead guitarist of his band. Although Quinn is accustomed to bedding a different groupie every night, he can’t ignore his deepening feelings for his new band mate. From gritty Greenwich Village clubs to L.A.’s Troubadour; gigging and touring the country to the cover of Rolling Stone, Rock Angel is infused with the passionate music and intense sexual chemistry of Shan and Quinn. Shan must work out her personal demons and learn to trust Quinn enough to love him, but still remain true to the music that has always been her salvation. A hot, hard-driving story set in an intoxicating world of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. 


I was supposed to participate in a book tour for Rock Angel but ended up receiving my book late. Not to worry, I got it in the end and it blew me away as well. I'm being 100% completely honest when I say that, not sugarcoating anything because for one, Rock Angel is not a book that is sugarcoated. It presents the raw problems of drug addiction with such incredible force you're left feeling stunned at what you just read. 

Again, I came into this book with relatively low expectations. I thought it sounded interesting, but I mean, drugs and the music industry, we've all read something about that. What I didn't expect was for Jeanne Bogino to walk up to us and slap some reality into our brains. 

Our main character Shan deals with heroin addiction and she's been fighting it for years. When she joins Quinn and his bandmates, she switches to another drug, one that is prescribed by the doctor to wean her off of heroin. Later on, she falls in love with Quinn and they get married to find that their future child could possibly be a drug addict as well. And things spiral from there. 

Drugs is such a prevalent theme in this book, it really surprised me. While drugs was the devil, Shan's music proved to be her savior. Both she and Quinn poured their hearts out in their songs and it's their escape from the world. Quinn is so supportive of Shan, but she's just been hurt too much to fully trust him. Their relationship is fragile and there are moments when it literally seems like everything was going to break into a million pieces. 

Rock Angel is definitely not a light fun music industry romance, it's heavy on all sorts of levels and really makes you look at the world differently. 

3.5 out of 5 stars

Foreverly Obsessed,

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