Review: Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert

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:

Wow. That's just one word that describes Ballads of Suburbia. I was hooked from the beginning of this realistic book. I'll admit, reading the summary, I wasn't too sure if the author could pull off such a hard topic without it coming off as not realistic as it should have been. Booooy, was I wrong! This book is so real... you don't even really understand HOW real until you're reading it. The characters could be your best friends standing right next to you, that's how real we're talking.

This book definitely is a great story. It takes you through all the emotions: love, happy, sad, so sad that you cry. (And, yes, a few parts of this book I did cry.) The plotline is pretty original, too. Reading the summary, it's like, ahhh, maybe it's not, it might've been done before. But, really, if it's been done before, it hasn't been done this good. This is a book that I can tell will be one of my favorites of the year.

So. If you haven't read this book yet, please do. If you want a copy of this book, come back later, and I'll be giving one away. =)

If you haven't figured it out yet, I give Ballads of Suburbia five hearts. =)



hope.