Marissa Stapley's latest is nostalgic, angsty, gritty, and bingeable.
Marissa Stapley's rock-n-roll fable takes you into the 90s grunge rock scene with a mystery, a love letter to the healing power of music, and a sharply observed commentary on misogyny in the music industry.
Stapley's storytelling is mesmerizing as she covers the rapid rise to fame of Jane and Elijah, two musicians who fell in love as teens and became The Lightning Bottles, the hottest 90s grunge rock duo on the planet. As the two spiral into addiction amid the pressures of fame, Jane is blamed, then Elijah disappears. Five years later, Jane moves to a remote part of Germany and encounters teenage superfan Hen, who claims to have a theory about Elijah's disappearance. The unlikely pair embarks on a European road trip chasing down mysteriously coded clues.
The characters are well-developed and memorable. Jane, Elijah, and Hen all come of age and are saved in one way or another by their deep love of music. Their stories play out and intertwine in surprising and poignant ways. Jane was the most complex of the characters and my favorite. It is her story and strength that is the heart of this book. Despite being a talented musician and songwriter, and the driving force behind the duo, she is misunderstood and vilified by music industry executives, the press, fans, and even Elijah's friends. Through Jane, Stapley offers thought-provoking commentary about the ways women are often negatively portrayed, serving to diminish their talents and contributions.
There are lots of fun pop culture references and song lyrics in this, too. Highly recommended!
Bahni Turpin narrates the audiobook, and she is stellar as usual! Perfectly cast as Jane, she also brilliantly embodies several other characters with different accents, ages, and emotions to bring the story to life. Super entertaining!
Pub date: Sept. 24, 2024
Thank you to Simon & Schuster, SimonBooks and Simon & Schuster Audio and Libro.fm for the free book, audiobook, and such an incredible PR box!#Simon&SchusterPartner #SimonAudio
My steep was Pink Moment Pixie from Club Magic Hour
PUBLISHER'S SYNOPSIS:
The author of New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick Lucky returns with a spellbinding story of rock ‘n’ roll and star-crossed love—about grunge-era musician Jane Pyre’s journey to find out what really happened to her husband and partner in music, who abruptly disappeared years earlier.
He was the troubled face of rock ‘n’ roll…until he suddenly disappeared without a trace.
Jane Pyre was once half of the famous rock ‘n’ roll duo, the Lightning Bottles. Years later, she’s perhaps the most hated—and least understood—woman in music. She was never as popular with fans as her bandmate (and soulmate), Elijah Hart—even if Jane was the one who wrote the songs that catapulted the Lightning Bottles to instant, dizzying fame, first in the Seattle grunge scene, then around the world.
But ever since Elijah disappeared five years earlier and the band’s meteoric rise to fame came crashing down, the public hatred of Jane has taken on new levels, and all she wants to do is retreat. What she doesn’t anticipate is the bombshell that awaits her at her new home in the German countryside: the sullen teenaged girl next door—a Lightning Bottles superfan—who claims to have proof that not only is Elijah still alive, he’s also been leaving secret messages for Jane. And they need to find them right away.
A cross-continent road trip about two misunderstood outsiders brought together by their shared love of music, The Lightning Bottles is both a love letter to the 90s and a searing portrait of the cost of fame.
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