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jdbrown90's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
lyrareadsbooks's review
5.0
A Gen-X gem filled with roller rinks, music discovery pre-internet, generational trauma, and finding out who you are. Much love
beccajdb's review
I loved it. The writing, the sweet melancholy and nostalgia, the details of a life lived with an unforgettable soundtrack. But, I decided not to keep reading because the lack of movement through a story was a little claustrophobic and one-toned. I wanted to persevere, but there’s so much else to read.
stephe's review
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In Till the Wheels Fall Off, Brad Zellar’s clear, capable yet unassuming prose transforms a series of memories and childhood recollections into a hazy, hypnotic, beautiful bildungsroman of a Gen X slacker.
Matty Carnap looks back on his childhood growing up in a roller rink in small-town Minnesota in the 80s. His relationship with his oddball stepfather cracks open his small world and initiates his lifelong obsession with music—an obsession that both enhances and inhibits his own connections with the people and world around him, especially as he slowly recognizes and comes to terms with his own outsider status. These swirly, meandering recollections make even the most inane slice-of-life moments shimmer.
Till the Wheels Fall Off is an engrossing and vivid example on what it can mean to examine one’s life without judgment and move toward acceptance.
Content Warnings
Against the odds, it has a very sweet, even maybe saccharine, happy ending.
categal's review
3.0
This one surprised me. It took about 50 pages or so for me to realize that there really wasn’t going to be much of a plot, more of a hangout with Matthew the narrator and a drive through his memories growing up at his stepfather’s roller rink.
The writing is very beautiful. Some of it felt more like writing exercises that a writer might do leading up to writing the actual novel.
The writing is very beautiful. Some of it felt more like writing exercises that a writer might do leading up to writing the actual novel.
galpalcentral's review
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
andy5185's review
4.0
As someone who came of age in the 1980s, this book was a fantastic and nostalgic step back in time. Records, rollerskating and finding passion and identity in the music - well, I really enjoyed this. Fans of music from the 60s, 70s and 80s will be delighted, amused and see a bit of themselves in the narrator's obsession and enthusiasm for spinning records and discovering new music. This book reads more like a memoir than fiction - and felt so believable as to be true. The story is also touching and full of heart.
rogueoneapologist's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5