“A true ballad tells a story of real life.”
I decided, being in the publishing industry and all, that perhaps I should put my blog to use for something related to that. So here it is, my first serious book review. I definitely won’t turn this into an all-reviews-all-the-time blog, but I find it’s a nice outlet to share all the great (and perhaps not so great) stuff I’ve been reading with a wide(r) audience. Oh, also, I decided to post images of me with the book, if possible, rather than use copyrighted pics of the actual cover art from Amazon or wherever. I realize using them probably falls under “fair use” but whatever.
Title: Ballads of Suburbia
Author: Stephanie Kuehnert
Publisher: MTV Books
Length: 368
Age group/reading level: Young Adult (14+)
Summary: The summer before her senior year of high school, Kara nearly died from a heroin overdose. As a freshman, when she moved away from her best friend and then her family fell apart, Kara turned to music, booze, drugs, self-injury, and bad-boy Adrian to make everything better. Between all the parties and concerts, her friends collected their heartbreaking ballads of the moments that defined them. After four years away from her friends and family, Kara returns to Oak Park to confront her past, and to finally write her own ballad.
Edited: July 23rd, 2009