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hsienhsien27's review
5.0
When it comes to music and certain forms of art, you can either lift an eyebrow or cheer and grab it off the shelf hoping for some feel good, rock and roll fun. Because there are plenty of books and movies that shout out that same old clichéd "rock and roll and drugs and sex," theme. I'm talking about stuff like Wayne's World or That Thing You Do!. As of yet, I have never read a music related novel that was close to the corniness of those movies. I've actually never seen Wayne's World, but judging by the little snippets of it I've seen on Youtube, it is definitely one of those. Not that they're necessarily bad and should be thrown in a pitch of fire, but sometimes it can get stale for awhile. Watching or reading something in the same branch of themes can get very predictable. So when I came across Alt. Punk, I was kind of expecting the same thing. It has the punk rock, the dysfunctional characters, the edgy humor. But of course, I was wrong, it's so good that I wish I could recommend it to all of my friends and I don't even care if they get grossed out and never want to talk me again for reading such a filthy book.
It's bad to laugh at a person's misery, especially when you can sort of see the same things in yourself. I'm not a germaphobe, but I am indeed a self loather, and I didn't even graduate from college yet. The identity crisis victims are getting younger and younger. I also, unfortunately, produce a lot of saliva in my mouth but not as extreme as Otis, but I did have a few incidents of showering people. The cynicism, the awkwardness, what isn't there to love about the germaphobic main character, Hazel?
In a really weird way, Alt. Punk is a coming of age. But unlike most coming of ages, it doesn't end with a happy note and the main character really doesn't get what she wants, except for one thing, which was her book getting published, but that doesn't even count because someone actually helped her achieve that. Instead she gets a tad bit worse than before. But she does get some revenge in the end. When she gets with Otis and tours with his band, she starts to lose some of her germaphobe tendencies as she falls in love and gives herself away for Otis (As Good As It Gets?) and then soon out of love. When she falls out of love, she actually reverts back to a version of her that is a hundred times worse, but for some odd reason, it seems like she finally accepted that. This is why I thought Alt. Punk was freaking wonderful, it was the least sappiest of coming of ages. It was actually a bit more realistic compared to most, it was a bit too honest, honest enough to feel the burn of the oh so cleansing feeling when you clean a wound with hydrogen peroxide.
Then there's the punk rock music scene. By the time Otis came around, she still loved the punk rock, but didn't really do anything particularly punk, except maybe drink a lot and wallow in her own misery over her job and life in general. So of course this brings in the theme of punk elitism and identity, where you have to really decide on what you want as your identity and what you truly feel like and can't help but feel like. This whole disparity of lifestyle, feelings, and basically the whole self of Hazel rips her away from the unforgiving band of Otis and his brother Landon. They are beyond healing and Hazel seems to recognize that she is indeed broken, much like Otis, but there is nobody out there except herself to fix that.
One thing that I noticed that seems to be uncommon in novels written by female authors, especially in the YA genre, is this belief that a relationship will somehow fix everything, especially if it's with someone whose broken, so two broken people will somehow screw in the loose screws for each other, which is totally unrealistic, but in this case with Alt. Punk, everything got worse. You can also add in the main character's emotionally abusive mother and the family members that support that support the abuse, drugs, her germphobia, an enabler friend with an emotional imbalance, her clueless husband, Kree,that somehow came back more well off than her like a sort of revenge for the break up. Alt. Punk is just really torn up. And despite all of this dirt and grit, Ludlow writes some really some really nice sentences that deserved my dog eared pages and this book was so enjoyable for me that every time I sat down to read it, it was such a fun experience. The characters were so enjoyable and real, quirky and cute, and disgusting all at the same time. It's one of those books to hug, but you might get all the fictional germs of the universe leaked out from the pages onto you.
Rating: 5/5
Originally posted here: http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2015/01/alt-punk-by-lavinia-ludlow.html
It's bad to laugh at a person's misery, especially when you can sort of see the same things in yourself. I'm not a germaphobe, but I am indeed a self loather, and I didn't even graduate from college yet. The identity crisis victims are getting younger and younger. I also, unfortunately, produce a lot of saliva in my mouth but not as extreme as Otis, but I did have a few incidents of showering people. The cynicism, the awkwardness, what isn't there to love about the germaphobic main character, Hazel?
In a really weird way, Alt. Punk is a coming of age. But unlike most coming of ages, it doesn't end with a happy note and the main character really doesn't get what she wants, except for one thing, which was her book getting published, but that doesn't even count because someone actually helped her achieve that. Instead she gets a tad bit worse than before. But she does get some revenge in the end. When she gets with Otis and tours with his band, she starts to lose some of her germaphobe tendencies as she falls in love and gives herself away for Otis (As Good As It Gets?) and then soon out of love. When she falls out of love, she actually reverts back to a version of her that is a hundred times worse, but for some odd reason, it seems like she finally accepted that. This is why I thought Alt. Punk was freaking wonderful, it was the least sappiest of coming of ages. It was actually a bit more realistic compared to most, it was a bit too honest, honest enough to feel the burn of the oh so cleansing feeling when you clean a wound with hydrogen peroxide.
Then there's the punk rock music scene. By the time Otis came around, she still loved the punk rock, but didn't really do anything particularly punk, except maybe drink a lot and wallow in her own misery over her job and life in general. So of course this brings in the theme of punk elitism and identity, where you have to really decide on what you want as your identity and what you truly feel like and can't help but feel like. This whole disparity of lifestyle, feelings, and basically the whole self of Hazel rips her away from the unforgiving band of Otis and his brother Landon. They are beyond healing and Hazel seems to recognize that she is indeed broken, much like Otis, but there is nobody out there except herself to fix that.
One thing that I noticed that seems to be uncommon in novels written by female authors, especially in the YA genre, is this belief that a relationship will somehow fix everything, especially if it's with someone whose broken, so two broken people will somehow screw in the loose screws for each other, which is totally unrealistic, but in this case with Alt. Punk, everything got worse. You can also add in the main character's emotionally abusive mother and the family members that support that support the abuse, drugs, her germphobia, an enabler friend with an emotional imbalance, her clueless husband, Kree,that somehow came back more well off than her like a sort of revenge for the break up. Alt. Punk is just really torn up. And despite all of this dirt and grit, Ludlow writes some really some really nice sentences that deserved my dog eared pages and this book was so enjoyable for me that every time I sat down to read it, it was such a fun experience. The characters were so enjoyable and real, quirky and cute, and disgusting all at the same time. It's one of those books to hug, but you might get all the fictional germs of the universe leaked out from the pages onto you.
Rating: 5/5
Originally posted here: http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2015/01/alt-punk-by-lavinia-ludlow.html
daviddavidkatzman's review
4.0
As soundtrack to this novel, I recommend you create a new channel on Pandora by selecting my favorite hardcore band, Screeching Weasels. The main band featured in this book seems to be of the hardcore variety along the lines of NOFX, No Use for a Name, and the Weasels. Back in the day, I was a DJ for our college radio station, spinning indie rock, indie pop, and noise of all sorts. I was into punk at the time, but it was more of the syncopated dissonant variety, bands like The Jesus Lizard and Big Black.* Hardcore is more straightup and melodic (to me, anyway). Think of The Ramones with extra distortion and anger. The distinction is important because the scenes are very different. Hardcore was more leather jackets, tattoos, and piercings. Punk rawk came from the indie rock side and was populated by college emo kids dressed like slackers. Hardcore sometimes had a stiff PC code ranging from anarchist to straight edge. Punk was less rigid and somewhat less political. Bands like Fugazi straddled the line.
The main character in alt.punk is a hardcore germaphobe and hypochondriac who manages to fall into a relationship with a physically repulsive hardcore punk rocker. All you need is to be a rock star, right? He drools and spits while talking, he has bacne, he rarely bathes and is often covered in vomit, alcohol or dirt, and he has epileptic seizures mixed with the occasional suicide attempt. Oh, and he shoots heroin. Sounds like a match made in hellven. And it is.
Our main character, Hazel, has very low self-esteem. Her family has always psychologically abused her and beaten the esteem out of her. At the beginning of the novel, she is living with an unemployed actor who sponges off of her. She dumps him and falls for this punk rocker guy who at least has passion…even if he talks somewhat like a sixth grader with a big heart. He seems to represent a sort of freedom for her, freedom from the constraints of her abusive retail job and family. She hates both but is trapped by them until she quits to go on tour with her boyfriend’s band. Unfortunately, she also fails to get respect from the hardcore punk crowd around her boyfriend, and he’s too dim-witted to do anything to protect her. Hazel can’t seem to fit in anywhere, and she can’t seem to live independently either. She lacks the self-awareness to recognize that her germaphobia really is to the extreme of a mental illness. She can’t seem to move beyond that to feel good about herself. It’s rather torturous (not that the book is hard to read, it’s emotionally painful) to watch Hazel descend further and further into a drug-fueled haze that feels degrading.
Despite the dark relationships, some killer, hilarious lines lighten the load along the way. One of my favorites: “He appears to be having a snapdragon of a time discussing musical influence with my brother […] but after a quarter bottle of Absolut and a fistful of muscle relaxants, Otis could be having a snapdragon of a time if someone was whittling off his nut sac with a dull table knife.”
Oh, which reminds me, this book is also quite raw and revealing about sex and drugs. So specific that it kind of reminded me of some of the best of the bizarro literature out there, like Lance Carbuncle’s [b:Grundish and Askew|6774979|Grundish and Askew|Lance Carbuncle|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412ESx1GPYL._SL75_.jpg|6975258]. alt.punk is also a book about sex and the strange ways that men and women’s bodies attempt to connect. It’s also a fascinating portrayal of a band’s touring lifestyle. If you’ve ever wanted an insider view…way, way inside…you’ll enjoy this.
Hardcore is a good metaphor for this story. While being quite funny at time, alt.punk is hardcore in its honesty and examination of a thoroughly modern relationship: Caught between the mundane world of the bourgeois and the poverty of the bohemian, where is there to go? SUVs or dumpster diving? Do we have more choices than that?
*See also my intro to this review.
The main character in alt.punk is a hardcore germaphobe and hypochondriac who manages to fall into a relationship with a physically repulsive hardcore punk rocker. All you need is to be a rock star, right? He drools and spits while talking, he has bacne, he rarely bathes and is often covered in vomit, alcohol or dirt, and he has epileptic seizures mixed with the occasional suicide attempt. Oh, and he shoots heroin. Sounds like a match made in hellven. And it is.
Our main character, Hazel, has very low self-esteem. Her family has always psychologically abused her and beaten the esteem out of her. At the beginning of the novel, she is living with an unemployed actor who sponges off of her. She dumps him and falls for this punk rocker guy who at least has passion…even if he talks somewhat like a sixth grader with a big heart. He seems to represent a sort of freedom for her, freedom from the constraints of her abusive retail job and family. She hates both but is trapped by them until she quits to go on tour with her boyfriend’s band. Unfortunately, she also fails to get respect from the hardcore punk crowd around her boyfriend, and he’s too dim-witted to do anything to protect her. Hazel can’t seem to fit in anywhere, and she can’t seem to live independently either. She lacks the self-awareness to recognize that her germaphobia really is to the extreme of a mental illness. She can’t seem to move beyond that to feel good about herself. It’s rather torturous (not that the book is hard to read, it’s emotionally painful) to watch Hazel descend further and further into a drug-fueled haze that feels degrading.
Despite the dark relationships, some killer, hilarious lines lighten the load along the way. One of my favorites: “He appears to be having a snapdragon of a time discussing musical influence with my brother […] but after a quarter bottle of Absolut and a fistful of muscle relaxants, Otis could be having a snapdragon of a time if someone was whittling off his nut sac with a dull table knife.”
Oh, which reminds me, this book is also quite raw and revealing about sex and drugs. So specific that it kind of reminded me of some of the best of the bizarro literature out there, like Lance Carbuncle’s [b:Grundish and Askew|6774979|Grundish and Askew|Lance Carbuncle|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412ESx1GPYL._SL75_.jpg|6975258]. alt.punk is also a book about sex and the strange ways that men and women’s bodies attempt to connect. It’s also a fascinating portrayal of a band’s touring lifestyle. If you’ve ever wanted an insider view…way, way inside…you’ll enjoy this.
Hardcore is a good metaphor for this story. While being quite funny at time, alt.punk is hardcore in its honesty and examination of a thoroughly modern relationship: Caught between the mundane world of the bourgeois and the poverty of the bohemian, where is there to go? SUVs or dumpster diving? Do we have more choices than that?
*See also my intro to this review.
urban_mermaid's review against another edition
1.0
More like 2.5 stars, I rounded up. More to come after book club.
nicolewolverton's review against another edition
I had a real problem with suspension of disbelief, which led to me abandoning this novel. Hazel is a hypochondriac germophobe, right? So after dumping one slovenly guy, she starts dating (and having unprotected sex with) a truly repulsive guy? He spits, he's covered in acne, and his apartment is a practically condemned hovel, yet I'm supposed to believe this woman who regularly sterilizes the walls of her apartment, has bi-quarterly medical checkups, and uses umpteen different kinds of hand sanitizer willingly has bodily contact with him?
It's a shame. The novel came highly recommended, and I love the music included in the book. It's just not for me.
It's a shame. The novel came highly recommended, and I love the music included in the book. It's just not for me.
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