I received an advanced reading copy of this from Forge Books via the Goodreads' First-Reads Giveaway program.

I was hot and cold with this novel, though mostly warm.

I love anything to do with late-60s/early-70s rock. It's my favourite time for music. I'm also a sucker for any novel (or non-fiction, for that matter) that digs into band dynamics, especially with an up-and-coming band.

So, this was a novel tailor-made for my reading pleasure. And mostly, it delivered. The era, the lower-class town, just waiting to be escaped, the drugs, the women...all of it came across beautifully. On par with them were the Vietnam flashbacks. In fact, Matty, one of the band members, as a whole, was an absolutely fascinating character, from start to finish. What could have been a cliche, instead came alive.

The other characters were also mostly well-drawn.

I think my two concerns with the novel were, first, too much navel-gazing reflections on dead writers. Yes, I get that Bark was supposed to be a wunderkind when it came to writing, could toss off a written story so good that his English Lit girlfriend thinks it a plagiarism, though she can't name the source, but the constant name-dropping got a touch tedious.

The second thing was actually two sides of a whole. On one hand, the author would take us through incredibly detailed scenes that really didn't have a lot to do with the story. Then, apropos of nothing, he'd toss a line out for some very important scene that happens offstage, and it's never really referred to again, though it's obviously a game-changer. The one I remember the most (and I apologize for the crassness of it, but it's a quote) was when Bark, the narrator, stated: "On Monday, I told Laura to wash her cunt."

I don't know about you, but when one person states that to another when they've politely chatted through most of the relationship up to now, that's going to redefine how each looks at the other going forward. And yet, thought it's stated, there's no true ramifications.

These, honestly, are smaller quibbles, because mostly, the book is well-written. The music scenes are (as they should be) a particular standout.

Overall, I'd absolutely recommend this novel to any fan of so-called "classic" rock. ( )