Sorta Like A Rockstar by Matthew Quick

I think I'm going to have to start reading longer books, because I am just rattling through them at the moment. So here I am, already breaking my rule about doing one book a week, but only because I've got a really good book this time!

Matthew Quick's name first caught my attention from the critical acclaim that surrounded the hit film Silver Linings Playbook based on his novel of the same name. I have yet to be lucky enough to get hold of this (please charity box Gods let me find it!) but have read on of his other novels, Forgive Me Leonard Peacock. All about a boy who does that American horror and kills in his own high school. So along with depression in amongst his other novels (such delightful topics), it comes as no surprise to find in Sorta Like A Rockstar many issues including homelessness, abuse and death. Why are young adult novels always so damn depressing? I guess you only realise this as you get older. But then, they must learn.

Quick is responsible for Silver Linings Playbook. 

Set around the character of Amber, we follow her story, right from the outset where she is living in the school bus that her mother drives for a living. We immediately can connote facts about her past of course; abandonment, not knowing her father and her mother having boyfriend after boyfriend all feature. But there is something incredibly different about Amber that you don't get in these usually cliched stories. She is full of hope. And always keeps herself busy. Whether it be having debates at on old peoples' home, visiting a war veteran who writes haiku's endlessly, teaching the Vietnamese 'diva' choir by seeing diva classics or cooking tequila omelettes (sound delicious), there seems something so pure about Amber's character. And something else Quick does well to eradicate is the teenage girl chase for a boy, or a boy coming along and saving the day. There is no mention of relationships or her desire for one. It is something we need to see more of, and it is so important for girls to know relationships at such a young age is not the be all and end all.

There are some lovely moments throughout the novel, especially the relationship between Amber and her eventual adoptive mother Donna. Donna is the woman that she, in my opinion, should aspire to be. Quick sure does know how to great a fantastic and strong mother figure, someone that Amber never really has in her life. And their relationship feels so real, never forced. I guess that because Quick used to teach, he knows how to write in teenage talk (God I feel old writing that, and yes I'm only 21). You forget after awhile it isn't a teenager writing the book. He does it is so seemlessly.

Sorta Like A Rockstar

Another poignant moment in the book is where tragedy strikes with Amber's mother. The book literally falls apart in the middle as Amber's life does. Quick gives us mere sentences as chapters, intercut with Amber's talks with the local Vietnamese church priest where she contemplates life as anyone would in the situation. And this is where the book begins to lose some of its momentum. Her friends try to rally around her but she just rejects those who try to help. It gets extremely difficult after sometime to understand she this after awhile, and I think Quick drags this out slightly. Also the constant haiku's eventually, for me, were moments to skim read. I hate poetry (sorry guys, awful English graduate right?). But Quick manages to pull it together at the end, with a fantastic ending. We can only hope that every teenager who goes through hardship has people like Amber does to pull around her in times of need. But deep down I know that's not true. Truly heartbreaking for me.

So in a story that is full of a variety of characters, most of them old but let's face it, aren't they the ones who have the most to talk about? But Quick does something quite special with Amber by matching her to these people. The interaction between the old and the young never feels false and you always get a sense reality from Amber. Whilst the tiresome references to religion and JC get old very quickly (typical atheist me), there is plenty to keep you entertained. Yes it might be for the young adult market, but come on, the issues are so serious that we adults will have no problem enjoying a book as great as this. There are rumours of a film for this too. Cross those fingers. And them toes too.

Sorta Like A Rockstar by Matthew Quick is published by Headline books in the UK.