Rockoholic by C. J. Skuse

Published: November 1^st, 2012 (Scholastic)

Pages: 358

Rating: 4/5

Goodreads ~ Amazon

Gonna have to face it: Jody's addicted to Jackson Gatlin, frontman of The Regulators, and after her best bud Mac scores tickets, she's front and center at his sold-out concert. But when she gets mashed in the moshpit and bodysurfs backstage, she's got more than a mild concussion to deal with. By the next morning, the strung-out rock star is coming down in her garage. Jody -- oops -- kind of kidnapped him. By accident. With a Curly Wurly candy bar. And now he doesn't want to leave.

It's a rock-star abduction worthy of an MTV reality series...but who got punk'd?!

When Jody’s life comes tumbling down on her, she turns to the person she’s always turned to for comfort- Jackson. Jackson Gatlin, that is. Yes, the lead band member of the Regulators. Jody is just one of the many fan girls whose life revolves around this American superstar, but his music has a much more personal connection for her. Long story short, Jackson ends up in Jody’s garage in a less-than-sane state, but after she carefully nurses him back to health with her bestie Mac, they discover Jackson doesn’t have any plans of leaving. With the whole world wondering where Jackson’s gone, Jody’s life just got a little more complicated.

 I. Loved. This. Book. To pieces. The storyline is something I’ve been looking for for a long time. It’s something to which we can all relate. I absolutely adored the British lingo- it made it that much more fun to read (even though half the time I was going to Google to figure out what words meant).  I will admit that Jody got on my nerves at first, mostly because her demeanor was depressing, but that passed after a while. Jackson was an intriguing character…he wasn’t portrayed as I thought he might be, though he did turn out to be one of my favorite characters in the book. In one way, Rockoholic makes you think about life as a rock star- how difficult it is and the longing for freedom that comes with it. While this book doesn’t reveal too deep of truths, I did find myself thoughtfully pondering over it more than once. And if you know me at all, you’ll know I like books that make me think.

The only thing I found distasteful about Rockoholic was the amount of language. Let me put it bluntly: there was too much. Way too much. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that it was littered from cover to cover. Some might say it added to the theme of the book, but I thought a lot of it was entirely unnecessary. For someone who tries to avoid books featuring heavy language, it proved to be a distraction, unfortunately. Some of the other controversial material (see Quick Content Review below) had me shaking my head mournfully, also. Hence, my five-star review became a four-star.

  So, you could say I liked this book an awful lot. I didn’t necessarily love it, but I really did enjoy it. It was one of those books I just had to keep going back to, even though I was supposed to be doing other things, even though there were other books I should have been reading instead. It hooked me from the beginning. Despite some issues I had with the profanity, I absolutely relished it. It’s a fun read, and if you think you could turn a blind eye to some of the issues listed below, I would highly recommend it.

Quick Content Review: *may contain spoilers*

Language: Moderate- Heavy (a variety of words fly throughout the book)

Violence: None

Sexual: Mild-Moderate (Jody bathes Jackson when he’s passed out, but nothing sexual occurs. Mac is in a controversial play in which he dresses like a transvestite. Some kissing.)

Other: Drug abuse and some mention of alcohol consumption.