Ashley Jean Granillo

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and LibraryThing (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review.

I’m actually kinda bummed that I couldn’t give his book a better rating, as I was so stoked to have been selected to receive an ARC of this book from LibraryThing. The subject matter is right up my alley, having been a total band groupie/geek in my late teen/early adult years. However, I had a hard time following the back and forth date structure of the book, and once I’d finally gotten characters straight, and where they fit into Aijae’s story, the book ended. I think had the chapters been in chronological order, while the story may have had to have been reworked to some degree, it would have made for a better reading & enjoyment experience overall.

One thing that didn’t actually bother me while I was reading the book, but I can definitely see as being an issue in the future, is the timeframe that the plot takes place over. I believe the earliest entry is around 2007, with the latest entry in 2012. With it being 2018 currently, I can relate to these dates in my life fairly easily, and remember what was going on during those years musically, but I think this will really date in the book in years to come. While it may appeal to young adults *now*, it may not appeal to them in five or ten years.

Some of the bands mentioned in the book were real, while some of them were made-up (for obvious reasons if you read the book... no spoilers). While this made for a good reading experience *now*, as I could relate these bands to a specific style of music that the main character enjoyed, I feel that this will also quickly date the book in years to come. For example, most young adults nowadays probably know/remember the band Taking Back Sunday, but if they no longer produce music, will people still recognize the name in five years? I’m not sure. I know that longevity of stories is something that authors absolutely strive for, so it was strange that there so many things in this book that could eventually make it unrecognizable and/or unappealing.

I thought the storyline itself was fairly powerful, and with a little better execution, this could have been a strong book with an important message for young females. While the main character looked down on her own actions, other characters strived to make her see that she did nothing wrong, and that double standards between males and females are never fair. Young women are constantly told to act a certain way or look a certain way, and this book absolutely touches on those subjects. Unfortunately the story did fall a little short for me in execution, but I enjoyed it well enough overall to keep my rating on the positive side.

Unrelated side note: I received an ARC, which is an uncorrected proof, so you expect these to include random typos & grammatical errors. However, the sheer number of errors in this ARC (completely missing words, wrong words, spelling & grammatical errors, etc.) made this hard to follow at times. I’m sure these issues will be corrected in the final book, so it did *not* affect my rating at all, but it is something that stood out as quite unusual.… (más)