Wednesday, February 18, 2009

"Waiting On" Wednesday (11)

Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert
July 21, 2009

(Again, like last week, I have no cover image, but I have seen the cover.)

Ballads are the kind of songs that Kara McNaughton likes best. Not the clichéd ones where a diva hits her dramatic high note or a rock band tones it down a couple of notches for the ladies, but the true ballads: the punk rocker or the country crooner reminding their listeners of the numerous ways to screw things up. In high school, Kara helped maintain the “Stories of Suburbia” notebook, which contained newspaper articles about bizarre, tragic events from suburbs all over America, and personal vignettes that Kara dubbed “ballads” written by her friends in Oak Park, just outside of Chicago. But Kara never wrote her own ballad. Before she could figure out what her song was about, she left town suddenly at the end of her junior year. Now, four years later, Kara returns to her hometown to face the music, needing to revisit the disastrous events that led to her leaving, in order to move on with her life.

Intensely powerful and utterly engaging, Ballads of Suburbia explores the heartbreaking moments when life changes unexpectedly, and reveals the consequences of being forced to grow up too soon.

I LOVED I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, so I CANNOT wait for this!

ETA: Stephanie emailed me and gave me another summary that her publisher gave her that gives you more incite on the novel:

There are so many ballads. Achy breaky country songs. Mournful pop songs. Then there's the rare punk ballad, the ballad of suburbia: louder, faster, angrier . . . till it drowns out the silence.

Kara hasn't been back to Oak Park since the end of junior year, when a heroin overdose nearly killed her and sirens heralded her exit. Four years later, she returns to face the music. Her life changed forever back in high school: her family disintegrated, she ran around with a whole new crowd of friends, she partied a little too hard, and she fell in love with gorgeous bad boy Adrian, who left her to die that day in Scoville Park. . . .

Amidst the music, the booze, the drugs, and the drama, her friends filled a notebook with heartbreakingly honest confessions of the moments that defined and shattered their young lives. Now, finally, Kara is ready to write her own.

Does that not sound fantastic? I can't wait. Stephanie writing
's is just so addictive! Ugh, July is so long from now!

8 comments:

  1. Great choice! I can't wait for this one either.

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  2. Oooh. Where did you see the cover? I want to see! I wonder if it was designed by the same person, she is really talented!

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  3. This sounds amazing! I love stories about music!

    IWBYJR is still on my TBR list - perhaps I'll bump it to be read sooner :)

    cecilia

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  4. Hey Kelsey, I'm dying to know where you saw the cover and got this description because I've seen a cover and a back jacket description and neither of them matched these! Which is just wild, but I've learned that the author is often the last to know when it comes to publishing so it's entirely possible you know something I don't!

    Yeah email me at stephanie at stephaniekuehnert dot com

    But even though that isn't the description I've seen, it still definitely sums up the book and I'll be launching a revamped website soon that will give you more of a peek into what the book is like. I'm sooooooo glad that you guys are excited about it!!!!

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  5. I'm soo pumped for this one as well. Sounds amazing. :)

    -Lauren

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  6. I am very pumped to read this as well! I wish it was coming out WAY sooner! Stephanie is an awesome writer!

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