Stephanie Kuehnert

This book was okay. It wasn't amazing, it wasn't bad by any means, but it was a little to angsty for my taste I suppose. I guess I just get annoyed with books about teens and drugs sometimes. I want to just say get the fuck over it, you are fine, your life is not that dramatic. Maybe I just got really lucky with my childhood/teenage years, but I never did drugs, I was never exposed to them, and (as far as I know) most of my friends didn't either. Sure, there was drinking, but no one I know OD on heroin in a park. I really liked the ballads, each kid had a sort of story of there own. A lyric, and then a couple of pages kinda in their head explaining who they were. Those were really interesting. The main character Kara, I didn't dislike her, and while the stuff she was going through was angsty and dramatic, she didn't narrate that way. She simply told it like it was, it could have very easily become melodramatic, but it didn't. I never really connected with her though. I remained mostly indifferent. I'm not sure what it was. I liked the book. I'm glad I read it, but its one of those that I'll probably forget about.… (mais)

Trigger Warnings: Drinking/Underage, Drug Use, Near Death Experience due to drugs, Bad trip due to drugs/drinking

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone follows Emily Black through childhood and into young adulthood as she finds her way in the rock and roll world. Her mother, Louisa, let Emily with her father as a four month old to "follow the music" and no one has seen her since. Now with her own band, Emily is determined to make the music that will bring her mother home.

This book was okay for me. I enjoyed it and read it all the way through because I did get invested in Emily's life but at the same time, I ended up being slightly annoyed with most characters throughout it at some point. But, I do relate to Emily's love for music and Stephanie Kuehnert did a marvelous job at getting that into words. Anytime Emily talked about her passion and itch to play her guitar, I would nod my head in understanding. Music is something you can feel in your soul.

The ending was about what I expected it to be and I wasn't upset with it at all. Emily went through a lot in this novel and it was a journey. This isn't a typical YA novel, I would push this more towards being a New YA due to the content of it and the age that Emily is through the later half of it.… (mais)

Emily Black lives in small-town Wisconsin, brought up by her music-loving father and the legends of her rebellious mother Louisa who left when she was an infant to follow the punk music scene. This book is about Emily's own journey on the path of music, the boys that distract her from it, and her search for answers about her legendary - and absent - mother. Also told from the perspective of Louisa, this book weaves an amazing and emotional narrative of punk rock and the emotions we run from. Highly, highly recommended!

The only slight disappointment I had was how quickly it ended. There was a pretty emotional scene at the very end, and then boom, you're done. I kind of wish there had been a little bit more of the story, just a tiny bit of what happened next. It just goes to show you that I wasn't ready to let go of these characters. I wish I could hang out with Emily Black. ;)… (mais)