Review: unconvincing
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 28, 2012
This is the first part of a work; up to now three volumes have been published but, as the author actually published a chapter per week (what a nice XVIII century English novel habit, by the way) more could follow if she decides to continue with her story.Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll (see the blurb) are actually not the issue here. Drugs we hardly see any, the characters are all clean; sex we see very little of which is not bad in itself (quite the contrary) and rock might be the music Daron is playing but we do not know for sure as music covers little of the actual plot.True, the first part is set during a band's tour and every chapter is named after the title of a song but we see more behind the scenes and the titles are seldom related (for me) to the content of the chapter.The focus of the author's interest is the struggle of Daron. At odds with his family, at odds with himself (like most teens), at odds with a sexuality that he will not even acknowledge to himself, he is the dictionary picture of a loser. Barely any friend, no money, no future except for his dream to become a famous rock guitarist with a band.Ms Tan does not overdo it, he is not whiny or utterly disfunctional, but that is all there is to him. Remembering my long gone youthful years I could relate to him and feel sympathy even, but I kept wondering: "Is that all?".Ms Tan has devised a good plot and a sympathetic character but she is not so good as to make his struggle all that interesting.As no real action takes place, as the lead is interesting but incomplete and side characters two dimensional this was not actually a read I did cherish. From what I read in the blurbs of the following parts this will probably continue on this track in there as well and I am not sure I am willing to keep up with the story.