Review: Rockoholic by C.J. Skuse

Release date: November 1st, 2012
Publisher: Scholastic
Age group: Young Adult

Pages: 358
Overall: 4/5

She's got it bad, and he ain't good -- he's in her garage?

"I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me..." 

Gonna have to face it: Jody's addicted to Jackson Gatlin, frontman of The Regulators, and after her best bud Mac scores tickets, she's front and center at his sold-out concert. But when she gets mashed in the moshpit and bodysurfs backstage, she's got more than a mild concussion to deal with. By the next morning, the strung-out rock star is coming down in her garage. Jody -- oops -- kind of kidnapped him. By accident. With a Curly Wurly candy bar. And now he doesn't want to leave. 

It's a rock-star abduction worthy of an MTV reality series...but who got punk'd?!

If you know much about me, you know that I am pretty obsessed with music. I don't really have a favourite genre but realistically the majority of my iTunes library is rock music. It's pretty sad that when I saw this book at B&N I thought that this was something that could happen to me.

Rockoholic starts out with a girl names Jody who is pretty crazy obsessed with this band guy named Jackson Gatlin who is the lead singer of a band called the Regulators. Now I get obsessed, I recently few to Canada to see my favourite band play, but I was a little concerned for Josie's wellbeing, I spent the first few chapters thinking that she really needed a hobby other than the Regulators. But as the book went on I started to identify with her and understand her obsession (not enough where I would kidnap a band member let's be clear about that), but it made me think about myself and my heros and how amazing it would be to talk to them for longer than they give you in a meet and greet line.

When I bought this I was expecting a fluff read but this book actually has a lot of substance to it, Jody is sarcastic and funny, but also a very kind person. She was still mourning the loss of her granddad, who she loved a lot, and so was understandably very confused sometimes, and didn’t know what to do, or which path in life was right for her. I felt a little sorry for her because Jody always felt like she could never compare to her sister Halley, who was the “golden child” of the family. Jackson was much the same; as a jaded rockstar who’d fallen from the pedestal everyone put him on, he too was confused about what he should do with his life. But both Jody and Jackson changed a lot in this book, and they overcame a lot of problems together (it’s amazing how this novel could be so hilarious and yet quite moving at the same time). By the end of the story, Jody was no longer the immature fangirl she used to be, and I grew to love her even more. Jackson was also no longer an unhappy, spoilt brat, and I think being with Jody and Mac helped him so much – he even started playing with Cree, Mac’s little sister, which was a huge change for him. He was actually a lot wiser than I first expected him to be, and was able to help Jody with a few of her problem as well as finally sorting out his own. Even Mac worked up to courage to change a few things in his life, and I have to say, Mac was one of my favourite characters. He was quirky, funny, and very lovable  and was always willing to help Jody, even when it was with something as crazy as looking after a kidnapped celebrity – he truly was the best friend a girl could have.

 The ending of Rockoholic was just perfect in my opinion, and though everything was wrapped up, I was really sad to see these characters go. I had grown really attached to Jody, Jackson and Mac – they were all people I could relate to in some way, and I think I’m really gonna miss them.

Overall, I loved Rockholic – it was a fun, light, wonderful book with a heart-warming underlying message, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good summer read, or for anyone who just feels like laughing their head off.

Writing: 4/5 
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 5/5
Ending: 5/5

ps. this is our 100th review! I can't believe we've done this 100 times!

xoxo,
Shelbie