Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick

Synopsis:

“Ever since her mom’s boyfriend kicked them out, Amber, her mom, and her totally loyal dog, Bobby Big Boy (aka Thrice B) have been camped out in the back of Hello Yellow (the school bus her mom drives). Still, Amber, the self-proclaimed princess of hope and girl of unyielding optimism, refuses to sweat the bad stuff. But when a fatal tragedy threatens Amber’s optimism—and her way of life— can Amber still be… well, sorta like a rock star?”

Review:

I was excited to read Sorta Like a Rock Star. It sounded like an awesome book and I had heard awesome things about it. And in the end, it turned out to be awesome. What a surprise, right?

If you were to take one look at the cover of Sorta Like a Rock Star, you would probably expect a happy, feel good contemporary, right? That’s what I thought when I picked up and started reading Sorta Like a Rock Star. I was half right. It kind of took a while for the book to turn into an unputdownable book, it was interesting, just no quite gripping. The first two parts were mostly an introduction to Amber’s life and personality. But when Sorta Like a Rock Star took a gut-wrenching turn for the worst towards the middle, the pages started flying. I was not expecting what happened to happen at all and I couldn’t find it in me to put the book down.

Amber Appleton was definitely the star of this book. She was one of the most unique characters I’ve ever seen and it was such a blast reading from her point of view. Amber is kind of a freak and an outcast compared to most kids her age, but she was definitely a rock star in my eyes. Amber was kind, caring, awesome, and kick ass all at the same time. Amber was truly one of those good at heart people that you don’t see too often in the real world.

Amber’s voice was very strong and stood out as probably one of the best teen voices ever. She used words like ‘sucka’ and always seem to have an abbreviation for names, like JC for Jesus Christ and FC for Father Chee. Amber was also religious, which isn’t something I see in Young Adult all that often. While Amber was religious, the book wasn’t overly religious in the preachy way. In fact, the topic of whether or not God is just a part of our imagination because we have no way of proving if He is real was brought up at one point in the book. There were some other interesting topics, some religious, others not, were brought up throughout the book. I especially enjoyed Amber’s conversations with Father Chee in the middle of the book.

I really enjoyed the ending to this book. I swear I was smiling the last 50 or so pages of the book. It was so much fun to watch Amber slowly come back into the person she was before the tragedy, if not a better and stronger person. I don’t know about you, but Sorta Like a Rock Star kind of made me want to strive to be more like the rock star of hope, Amber Appleton.

Overall:

Sorta Like a Rock Star was made of awesome. It’s one of my favorite contemporary books I’ve read. Amber Appleton was one of the best main characters ever, she was strong and definitely a rock star by my standards. You should read this book. True? True.

Rating: 5/5 

Buy on Amazon: Sorta Like a Rock Star