Ballads of Suburbia Review + Giveaway

Posted August 28, 2009 by shooting in Uncategorized / 5 Comments

Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert
Review by: Lauren

Summary: Kara hasn’t been back to Oak Park since the end of junior year, when a heroin overdose nearly killed her and sirens heralded her exit. Four years later, she returns to face the music. Her life changed forever back in high school: her family disintegrated, she ran around with a whole new crowd of friends, she partied a little too hard, and she fell in love with gorgeous bad-boy Adrian, who left her to die that day in Scoville Park….
Amid the music, the booze, the drugs, and the drama, her friends filled a notebook with heartbreakingly honest confessions of the moments that defined and shattered their young lives. Now, finally, Kara is ready to write her own.

Review: I meant to post this review a long time ago, and if you know me, you know that I’ve already been finished for even longer. I do apologize. However, I’m here now and I have to say, in my opinion, this book is amazing.

I loved that you saw a side to all the main character’s through Kara’s interaction with them as well as their own Ballad, since that allows them a chance to voice how they view their world. These ballads are strategically placed throughout the novel, giving it a new quality to most coming-of-age books.

And it is a coming-of-age story. I could relate to various people in parts of their lives and I could see my friends and people I know inside them too. It made the book interesting and relatable. I think most people could connect to something or someone in this novel, whether you are a teen now or much older. It doesn’t matter.

When it came to the setting, I didn’t grow up in Chicago during the 90’s but Kuehnert made it seem like I could have. I pictured the places, lived in the character’s moments. It was a very enjoyable read. That’s not to say that there aren’t parts where you want to cry or parts where you want to scream, but in the end, I’m glad I read the book. I loved it and I think a lot of people would so give it a shot.

One of my all-time favorite books is The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (an MTV books release too) and now that I’ve read Ballads of Suburbia, I’m adding it to the top of my list with Perks. They are both about growing up and learning about life. I loved Stephanie’s first book, but Ballads bypasses that by a ton, in my opinion.

Read it. You’ll love it, or at least think about it.

Small Giveaways-

I have a few giveaways coming up that I feel, in some way, make me think of the book. And if it doesn’t, enter anyway!!

HUGE GIVEAWAY-

I’m sorry I haven’t been updating people. This might be extended but I don’t know…so if you bought the book, send a pic to my email (lauren51990 AT aol DOT com) or a picture of the receipt if you still have it or buy it now. This contest was meant to end on August 31, but again, if we can extend…we might. If not, BUY AND ENTER NOW! Hardly anyone did, and I apologize (again) for not updating people more but please support. Remember: The More People that Enter, the More People that WIN:

5 responses to “Ballads of Suburbia Review + Giveaway

Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.