Stephanie KuehnertCritiques

This book was okay. It wasn't amazing, it wasn't bad by any means, but it was a little to angsty for my taste I suppose. I guess I just get annoyed with books about teens and drugs sometimes. I want to just say get the fuck over it, you are fine, your life is not that dramatic. Maybe I just got really lucky with my childhood/teenage years, but I never did drugs, I was never exposed to them, and (as far as I know) most of my friends didn't either. Sure, there was drinking, but no one I know OD on heroin in a park. I really liked the ballads, each kid had a sort of story of there own. A lyric, and then a couple of pages kinda in their head explaining who they were. Those were really interesting. The main character Kara, I didn't dislike her, and while the stuff she was going through was angsty and dramatic, she didn't narrate that way. She simply told it like it was, it could have very easily become melodramatic, but it didn't. I never really connected with her though. I remained mostly indifferent. I'm not sure what it was. I liked the book. I'm glad I read it, but its one of those that I'll probably forget about.

Trigger Warnings: Drinking/Underage, Drug Use, Near Death Experience due to drugs, Bad trip due to drugs/drinking

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone follows Emily Black through childhood and into young adulthood as she finds her way in the rock and roll world. Her mother, Louisa, let Emily with her father as a four month old to "follow the music" and no one has seen her since. Now with her own band, Emily is determined to make the music that will bring her mother home.

This book was okay for me. I enjoyed it and read it all the way through because I did get invested in Emily's life but at the same time, I ended up being slightly annoyed with most characters throughout it at some point. But, I do relate to Emily's love for music and Stephanie Kuehnert did a marvelous job at getting that into words. Anytime Emily talked about her passion and itch to play her guitar, I would nod my head in understanding. Music is something you can feel in your soul.

The ending was about what I expected it to be and I wasn't upset with it at all. Emily went through a lot in this novel and it was a journey. This isn't a typical YA novel, I would push this more towards being a New YA due to the content of it and the age that Emily is through the later half of it.

Torn between 2 and 3 stars. I liked it more than I thought I would, as I was leery of a YA book put out by MTV books. I am way to old for that. Quite a bit of the plot seemed totally preposterous, or crazily oversimplified. For example a character is addicted to drugs... but then they stop. But overall it kept my attention as a quick read and wasn't nearly as sappy as I thought it may be.

Emily Black lives in small-town Wisconsin, brought up by her music-loving father and the legends of her rebellious mother Louisa who left when she was an infant to follow the punk music scene. This book is about Emily's own journey on the path of music, the boys that distract her from it, and her search for answers about her legendary - and absent - mother. Also told from the perspective of Louisa, this book weaves an amazing and emotional narrative of punk rock and the emotions we run from. Highly, highly recommended!

The only slight disappointment I had was how quickly it ended. There was a pretty emotional scene at the very end, and then boom, you're done. I kind of wish there had been a little bit more of the story, just a tiny bit of what happened next. It just goes to show you that I wasn't ready to let go of these characters. I wish I could hang out with Emily Black. ;)

Totally nails 90s rock cliches. And the dialogue, ouch. Not unpleasant though.

Man, it's just effed up. I cried like twice.
I've had a copy of this book for almost a year now, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. I've never done drugs and I don't drink; however, I'm surprised how I felt like I could relate to some of these characters in a way. And I think that there is something that everyone can relate to in these characters. I think Stephanie Kuehnert did a such great job on the characters and their stories.
Ballads of Suburbia is filled with friendships, anger, sadness, love, heartbreak and self-destruction. And in the end, even though it isn't a happily ever after story, there's still a bit of hope. It's the most real and rawest story I've probably ever read.½

I loved "I wanna be your Joey Ramone" by: Stephanie Kuehnert. It was one of the best books I have read in a long time. I really felt like I was in the story and living the life of Emily Black who wanted to be a rock star hoping that it would bring her mother back to her. After her father told her that her mom left to follow the music. She grew up in the time of punk and rock and roll and bases her life off of the values her father instills in her.

I seriously loved I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone (review here), but my reaction after reading Ballads Of Suburbia makes Stephanie Kuehnert's debut a silly infatuation. Seriously. Stephanie has taken the rockstar elements of I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone and brought it to new heights in this latest release as her teenaged characters poured their heart and soul into music and drugs as a way to replace the hopelessness that they face every day. If I had to describe Ballads Of Suburbia using one word, it would be Raw with a capital R. Filled to the brink on emotions, I found the "ballads" (confessions) of each character powerful and believably honest.

Kara proves to be such a heartbreakingly shy main character who has to find her backbone and learn not depend on a razor blade, pot, parents, best friends who ditch you or don't take your side, and most importantly anyone with a Y chromosome (including those who say "I love you" but hurt you; and those who don't say it back when you do). It was rewarding to watch her gain confidence, then lose it, only to bounce back stronger, then lose it even harder, and finally finally manage to climb out from rock bottom.

What is more amazing is when I realized that her climb has only begun - she may have won the battle, but the war is far from over. Every day, every second, she has to make a conscious effort to not fall back into old patterns - and when she returns to her hometown, seeing her old friends up to their old tricks test her resolve.

Ballads Of Suburbia has a more serious vibe than I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, and it felt so beautifully real that I never knew what to expect, sometimes fearing that Kara was in way over her head, upset when the boys acted stupid (will they never learn?!), and holding my breath as life unfolded into utter chaos. Readers of the debut will surely find Ballads Of Suburbia to far exceed all expectations already set by I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone and for the next Stephanie Kuehnert project (which, for the record, sounds amazing - and I love the working title: Anarchists, Soap Stars, And Regulars, though it will probably change).

The cover is a little quirky - that smile on the duck borders on Joker-spooky - but I think it totally goes well with the story since Kara and her friends frequently met at the park. Ironically, not to play on the playground, but play with other things of an addictive sort. If you feel like you don't know what the story is about from the cover or the book summary, don't be alarmed. Both are merely tips of the iceberg. To be honest, my own summary above hardly does Ballads Of Suburbia any justice. Trust me when I say that whatever you find within that iceberg will make you glad that you took that leap of faith!

Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway!), Ballads Of Suburbia makes it official: Stephanie Kuehnert is a literary goddess of rock music and soul!

reviewed here: http://book-splot.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-wanna-be-your-joey-ramone-stephanie.htm...

I didn't like this book nearly as much as I liked her second, Ballads of Suburbia. It just didn't speak to me the same way or ring as true.

This by no means was an easy story to read. Kara's life is hard. She parties all night long. She does multiple drugs and drinks herself into a stupor. If your looking for a quick feel good read, skip this one. If you are looking for a real account of a troubled teenager, this is for you.

I bought this book because it was on everyone's 'Best of 2009' lists. So I knew that it was going to be good but at first I didn't see what all the fuss was about. It was not a book that I just had to sit down and read but I would find myself thinking about these characters while doing mundane tasks around the house. They slowly crept into my head until the second day of reading when they firmly wedged their selves in my brain and I could not stop reading.

I completely related to these characters. If I would have grown up in a different place, I think this totally could have been me. Which is a scary thought. Thank the universe that I grew up in the middle of no where! I did some bad things as a teen but nothing compared to Kara and her friends. I was too well-adjusted. My family was too involved in my life to let things like this happen. But I was angsty and depressed enough as a teen to connect with Kara.

This is a dark story. It's heartbreaking. I shed a few tears. It's powerful. This book could be anyone's anti-drug. It's beautiful. On top of all the disturbing actions it's really just about friendship and love. Everyone needs to feel like they belong. Like their family loves and understands them. That's what Ballads of Suburbia is really about.

Another thing to add to the list of things I loved about this book is, the music references. I was pretty young in the early to mid 90's but I had a big sister. So we watched MTV. We were huge fans of Nirvana and just about any other 90's rock band. I still listen to that music today. It totally shaped my taste in music. So I loved that their was mentions of all these bands that I love.

Overall this book is not for the weak at heart. It's a tough story. If you ever felt like you didn't belong as a teen, then you should read this. It's not a book that I will put on the self and forget about. It will definitely be in my head for a long time. It's been over a week since I finished the book and every time I pass by my bookshelf and see it I want to pick it up and start reading again. I see what all the fuss was about.

I wasn't that crazy about this author's first book. I just didn't identify with the characters and felt that the changes in POV didn't mesh well. This book, however, was fabulous. It's been one of my favorites this year, and I highly recommend it. It has fairly mature subject matter for a YA book, but is a great and touching story for mature readers. I would recommend this for fans of Ellen Hopkins' books or just anyone who loves a good read.

I've read & LOVED both of Kuehnert's books. No sugarcoating. No BS. She writes beautiful terrible truths.

After four years, Kara has come back to Oak Park.

It's only a visit with her childhood best friend Stacey and meeting Stacey's young daughter that have finally brought college age Kara back home. Home where her whole life changed during high school.

Kara's an entirely different person now but for three years everything she knew fell apart around her and reformed into something else.

Like I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, Stephanie Kuehnert's second book is far from a happy, fluffy little light read but really, that's what makes it amazing--there might be music all over this book but there's certainly no 'sophomore slump' at play.

Razor blades, Ecstasy, heroin, and whiskey bottles all abound in Ballads for sure but so do pain and truth and friendship and love and reality....and being a teenager. It might be what everyone's reading to say after reading a Sarah Dessen book but then afraid to after reading this or IWBYJR, but for some teens, they're more likely to see themselves in this book. Maybe not exactly, but if you read some lighter contemporary YA book, chances are you don't have that many guys chasing you or as many mishaps. So, maybe you can relate to Kuehnert's characters but with certain events downplayed.

I know while half of my friends would be more at home in a Sarah Dessen or Meg Cabot type world, some I know would identify much better with different characters in Ballads.

Why I'm saying this at all (and I hope I'm making some sense!) is not only because a) some bookstores (and my library) have Joey Ramone and presumably ballads as adult fiction and a few have it as YA and I hope teens will read it but also b) there really are not a lot of YA or YA-ish books that are, grittier ? That's not necessarily the right word but I don't know what is.

Even if you think I made no sense with my 'relating to this type of character here and that one there' talk, know that you really should read Ballads of Suburbia. It's one of those rare first person books that doesn't feel like it's a book written in first person. What I mean is, it feels like you're reading Kara telling her story, not Stephanie Kuehnert telling you Kara telling her story. The story manages to read with the ease of a well written novel, but with the truth (the 'yeah, this stuff really did happen, didn't it?) of a memoir. You can believe that Kara and Stacey and Maya and everyone else are real people.

Partially, I think, that's because it sticks with Kara's POV, it doesn't switch off to someone else to aid in the storytelling even if just for a minute-you know what she knows. There are 'Ballads' interspersed with the chapters that are written by other characters to fill some things in but the main story is all told by Kara. I think the other part is that there's never anything that's too outrageous, nothing's unbelieveable. There wasn't one event that you had to chalk up to it being fiction.

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Emily Black was born for rock and roll. Her father always told her stories about how her parents lived for the music. Music was what took her mother away from her. At least that's what Emily has always been told.

Emily has never needed her mother. That's what she's always told everyone else. But the music written by Emily tells a different story. Emily and her friend, Regan, have dreams of being rock goddesses. During their high school years they form a punk band. After a crazy escapade, they coerce Tom to join the band, as well. The group forms She Laughs, and the rest is history. Or it should be. But everything about Emily always goes back to her mother. And why she left.

The angry, bitter songs Emily writes reflect her subconscious desire to mourn for her missing mom. Then, after a nasty break-up with her boyfriend, Johnny, Emily knows what she must do. She sets off on her own quest to find her mother, who has not wanted to be found for the past nineteen years. But Louisa Black has secrets of her own and will do anything she can to prevent anyone else from getting to close to her bad vibes.

Told in a dark, woeful manner, Emily must come to terms with her real need for her mother. She's always been the strong, confident one, telling all that she never missed not knowing her mother and that all she's ever needed is her dad. But as Emily goes from adolescence to adulthood, the hidden desire to know her mother forces its way to the surface, leading Emily on a journey that reveals more about herself than she expected. And her journey may just bring her closer to her mother than she thought possible.

I absolutely loved this story! Ms. Kuehnert writes a powerful story of a young woman trying to be her own person, but always having the specter of her mother's past hovering over everything she does. Music is infused throughout the entire story and plays an important part in the character development of Emily. I could relate to the musical references in the story and could almost believe that Emily was a real musician, not a character created by the author. I was sad to come to the last page, wanting the story of Emily to go on forever.

(Note of advice. The story tends to be a bit graphic with sex and drugs. This is definitely written for the older teen reader.)

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Ms. Kuehnert has written another powerful and hard-hitting novel to follow up her stunning debut, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE.

Kara is friendless when her BFF Stacey has to move to another less expensive suburb of Chicago. So when new girl Maya enters Chemistry class and sits down beside her, she's excited to see a kindred soul. Soon the two take to hanging out after school in Scoville Park. Maya is everything Kara isn't, first and foremost outgoing. Maya jumps right in and creates a spot for them with the gang at Scoville. It isn't until Kara becomes associated with fire that she truly feels she's part of the crowd.

Kara uses Scoville to help escape life at home. Her parents are constantly at odds and her younger brother, Liam, is as desperate for attention as Kara is. She begins to bring Liam with her to Scoville and he soon becomes another member of the group.

BALLADS OF SUBURBIA explores Kara's connections with the others that hang out at Scoville. These kids know how to party, and slowly Kara gets sucked into the world of drugs by those around here. She's attracted to bad boy Adrian and is told that he must really like her because he treats her differently than all the other girls. But she knows she should be with Christian, the good guy. It isn't until Christian turns dark that Kara's world truly blows up. Friendships are tested and emotions flare.

Interspersed throughout the novel, Ms. Kuehnert inserts the "ballads" of various characters. Adrian has in his possession a journal that anyone can read, with the condition that you must first write your own story. Kara can never bring herself to write her story, even when tragedy hits...more than once. It isn't until Kara ventures home after escaping the negativity of Oak Park that life comes full circle for Kara.

BALLADS OF SUBURBIA is a dark, desperate look at teenage life in the suburbs in the early 1990s. Ms. Kuehnert gets right to the heart of the teenage angst and struggles to fit in to any crowd. Though a bleak look, the ending leaves the reader filled with hope at the future Kara is trying to create for herself.

Wow, Stephanie Kuehnert doesn't hold back a thing with Ballads of Suburbia! It hits you hard, not letting you forget. Even after I finished reading, the stories and the characters kept playing through my head. Every event that took place, I felt like I was there. And though I've never had the same experiences at Kara, I felt like I was there with her experiencing it all the same. It takes a truly talented writer to do that.

The characters and their stories were all so real, all the characters had some sort of hardship which really had you feeling for them. Stephanie Kuehnert shares the hardships each character has through their own "ballad" where they have the chance to share their story, and how it influenced them and ties into their present lives. Ballads of Suburbia told the truth no one seems to tell. While the characters are fictional, everything that happens to them has probably happened to someone in the real world.

Ballads has definately made its way into my favorite books. I honestly don't know exactly the words to right describe it and do it justice. Hours later I'm still thinking about the story, and throughout the whole book I felt for all the characters as they journeyed through life, dealing with hardships.

I absolutely love the cover! The park is so to central to the story, it would only make sense for it to be on the cover.

I cannot wait to see what great story Stephanie Kuehnert has for us next!

Whoa. Ballads of Surburbia was a gritty, real and honest book. It doesn't hold back AT ALL. It's one of those books you couldn't really say you enjoyed per say but are really glad you read. Another book I've said that about is Wintergirls but I much prefer Ballads of Surburbia, I sometimes felt like the book was suffocating me, but there is a reward within it when reading this book.

While the story was rather depressing at times and hard to read it was also exciting and tender. I love how the story of Kara's years in Oak Park are framed by her homecoming. You know she's come out of this almost disaster zone ok, but how did she make it, how did she get there? That's the story of Ballads of Suburbia. I love that the author didn't just start with Kara in high school, she picked pieces of her younger years that made her the person she was when she started high school, and because of that Kara comes off as a really sympathetic character. Yes, at times I wanted to smack her upside the head but for the most part you were taking the journey with her wanting her to come out of it ok.

Another interesting thing the author does is share all the main characters ballads (or stories) in the form of a notebook they all share, giving a snapshot of their background and the reason they are the way they are. And because of that all the character come off as sympathetic, some more so than others but still they all do. Weaving these rich stories for all the main characters makes the story a lot deeper than you would expect, it's really packed to the brim with emotion.½

Ballads of Suburbia caught me quite off-guard - I was not expecting something so raw. The cover copy mentions Kara's struggles with drugs, family, and friends, but what's on those pages is so much more than that. The book is creatively formatted, with the epilogue both beginning and ending the novel and several chapter groupings, called "Verses", than span specific periods of time. Interspersed between all of this are the "Ballads": introspective confessionals supposedly written by various members of Kara's circle. These vignettes go a long way in adding to the story and developing the secondary characters.The jaded youth in this story use drugs, parties, and sex increasingly as a means of escape from the realities of their home lives behind the white picket fence facade. Lonely Kara, and later her brother Liam, fall into this pattern to find friends, understanding, and her own means of escape. It's a hard tale, often with harsh outcomes. It's an honest look at the difficulties of adolescence. It's a cautionary story of parents who set bad examples and focus too much on themselves and the children who become irrevocably damaged because of it......To continue reading this review, head over to my blog, The Eclectic Book Lover.

Kara goes to USC film school and loves ballads, those songs about one’s life and the events, decisions, and mistakes that make one who he or she is. However, she has never been able to write her own ballad, of her teenage years growing up in the Chicago suburbs amongst sex, drugs, music, and betrayal.

Her friends were all able to write their own ballads in their shared “Stories of Suburbia” notebook, but as Kara relives her teenage years, she realizes that her own ballad is a composition of all of her friends’, and a few others’ besides. Her story consists of a wrecked home life; a younger brother, Liam, whose heart she is always breaking; friends whose loyalties waver; and a boy who’s bad, but not all there is to her crashing-and-burning. And in the end, all the experiences help Kara realize who and what in her life are the most important of all.

BALLADS OF SUBURBIA left me reeling, thinking hard for hours afterwards. I share zero experience with Kara, and yet Stephanie Kuehnert masterfully pulls us into this dangerous, deceptive, yet enticing world of drugs. Only a talented writer can pull you into a world you know nothing about and make you feel as if you simultaneously understand and yet can never understand that world.

I know that I won’t be able to find the words significant to describe this novel, because what it covers is beyond my words. From family and sibling relationships to the ebb and flow of friendships and loves being made and broken, this book follows Kara through her high school years in the untalked about part of the suburbs. All of the characters seem to jump out of the page and walk around you like they are real, problems and all. Nothing is black-and-white: the characters have different and sometimes troubling attitudes, but it’s their (or, rather, Stephanie’s) ability to convince us of their justification for their beliefs that is truly great.

Overall, BALLADS OF SUBURBIA is a remarkable achievement that hits you right where it counts (your heart) and lingers where it matters (the brain). I’m truly looking forward to seeing what Stephanie Kuehnert will do next.½

The writing is solid but I think I expected a different story. This one is an epic tale of love and loss. Not exactly YA either.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone reaches out to my not-anymore-13-year-old girl soul and pushes me headlong into the world of punk rock as loved by Emily Black. She lives in Carlisle, Wisconsin, by an underground music mecca known as River's Edge. It is here where people flock to play to their hearts' content and listen to others play to their hearts' content. It is here where Emily worships the rock god wannabes and dreams of being a rock goddess.

I think the most interesting aspect of I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone is that we also get occasional glimpses of Emily's mother Louisa - what she has been up to and what drove her to leave her family. While it may not be obvious to Emily herself who longs to find her mother and Louisa who longs to come home but cannot, the reader will see the uncanny similarities between mother and daughter.

A great read for anyone who grew up in a small town and found their freedom through music.

This is a great coming-of-age novel about music, friendships, destructive relationships and how music gets you through.½

Emily Black is a punk rock goddess. As she works her way through a series of drunken one-night stands, playing punk music is the only thing that balances her and keeps her sane. Plus, how else is she ever going to find her mom who ran out on her when she was a baby to chase the punk music scene across the country?

I really dug the parts of this book that were about music and Emily's band, but I never really clicked with Emily as a narrator. The story's told through the lens of an adult looking back at her punk rock years which created a distance between the reader and the story.

AMAZING!!!