Contemp YA Month: Rockaholic - CJ Skuse

Rockaholic – CJ Skuse

Pages: 365

Publisher: Chicken House

Release Date: 7^th March 2011

Other Titles by this Author: Pretty Bad Things

Jody’s obsessed with a rock star.

At Jackson Gaitlin’s concert, she’s right at the front. But when she’s caught in the crush, Jody’s carried backstage. Throw in concussion, a super-wired superstar, and a Curly Wurly – and she finds herself taking home more than a poster.

OMG! Jody’s kidnapped him. But what happens when the rock star in her garage doesn’t want to leave?

Jody’s stuck between a rock idol and a hard place!

CJ Skuse’s second novel is just as brilliantly mad-cap and filled to the brim with laughs as her first.

I have to say that one of the things I looked forward to the most while reading Rockaholic was starting a new chapter because the titles are made of awesome. I mean, you don't come across many books that have chapter titles like ‘Too Posh To Mosh’, ‘Softly, Softy, Catch a Junkie’ and ‘Jody Pothead and the Half-Assed Snail’ very often, do you? I love them – they’re utterly brilliant.

Jody is completely nutty – in the best way, of course.  The way she stumbled into kidnapping Jackson was absolutely hilarious and I can’t imagine it happening to many other people, but her, definitely. Her all-consuming love for Jackson Gaitlin and his band The Regulators is beyond anything I can comprehend – she’s obsessed. Her conviction in them is amazing. It wasn’t just this that made her stand out though. Jody has left school after finishing her GCSE’s and is now working full time and that is not something that I’ve come across very often, if at all, in YA and it really threw me.

Though I don’t recall ever really feeling the way about a band that Jody does, I definitely remember that single-minded conviction that some person, someone completely out of reach, if utterly perfect for you. That that person will complete you and fix everything wrong in our life. Jody gets the shock o her life when he’s not the dream she imagined and I was heart-broken for her. Even after Jody’s experiences, I’m still convinced that my hero, in a different way to how Jody sees Jackson, will be just as amazing as I imagine if, *when*, I get to meet her. I’d be curious to see if anyone can guess who she is...?

 With brilliant escapades, characters to fall in love with and YA references scattered throughout, Rockaholic is a lovely way to see out Contemp YA Month.

Thank you to Chicken House for providing me with a review copy.

Sophie