I attended a book launch in early November for one of my good friends and fellow blogger, Day’s Lee. If you missed it, you can check it out HERE! Her new book, Guitar Hero was launched and I, of course, took the opportunity to get myself a hard copy which she signed for me. I promised her that I’d try to get a review up in December. I had already read through it once before earlier in the year (I think) to tell her what I felt. I don’t remember whether anything was changed but I did give it a complete read through this time.
Let’s start with a little synopsis:
Sometimes you have to lose it all to discover what you really have. Life can’t get any worse for David Chang. He lost his job, is on the verge of being kicked out of his best friend’s band, and Christine thinks he lied to avoid going to the prom with her. How can one little mistake totally ruin a guy’s life? One is all it takes to make David face the music and learn what it really means to be a guitar hero.-Guitar Hero, Goodreads
Guitar Hero is a young adult book and something of a coming of age because David makes a revelation about certain things in his life and he grows from the decisions that he makes. Day’s likes to make it revolve around Canadian-born Children children and the somewhat generation gap that there is as its not only generational but also cultural to certain level. Reading novels set in my hometown always make me feel a little bit more personal as I can relate and with books with Chinese references, it even gives it a little more close as its something I go through with my parents.
However, even if you aren’t, Guitar Hero is a fun book to read and I think very suitable for adolescents and teens because it does bring up some nice lessons about life and its a good read. As with most books, the beginning does start a little slow to introduce the characters and then let us know what situation our main character, David Chang is in and to let us see where he’s going to go with that. However, once we get that part away which only is about the first 30 pages or so, it starts picking up and I devoured the book.
I learned at the book launch that Guitar Hero was originally a short story that was extended into the novel. I really enjoyed the book and went through it rather quickly. David goes through conflicts, hard decisions and choices and just a lot of predicaments that teens find themselves in but he also makes revelations and grows.
Overall, Guitar Hero is not a long read but it is a good one. It also moves along quickly after the little beginning. Plus, it introduces the readers to a little bit of Montreal and also sheds some light to the generation and cultural gap between the Western and Eastern mentality. Its a fun read and I’d definitely recommend it.
Show Day’s some support and give it a read. Also, head on over and check out her blog HERE if you’d like! Oh and I’d like to mention that Guitar Hero is actually on sale on Amazon from December 17th to 23rd so thats an extra incentive if you need it 🙂 I linked her post on that up there with the blog. Don’t I have excellent timing? I promise it wasn’t planned. It just worked out that way 🙂
Tranquil Dreams 