SORTA LIKE A ROCK STAR! Winner, review, giveaway

Of course,. Mr. Random originally selected the one person who elected NOT to win the book. So I had to roll the diceys again and the winner of 1 copy of Th1rteen R3asons Why is....

BROOKE!

Congrats!

Today I've got the book that turned me on to Matthew Quick up for grabs.

From Back Cover:

Maybe I am a freak- but I'm one hopeful misfit, and you could be worse things in this world.

True? True.

--

Sorta Like a Rock Star is the story of Amber Appleton, a self-proclaimed freak, who's so poor she's living in her mother's schoolbus. Still, Amber finds a way to the rock in several people's lives- from the old folks at the home she visits weekly to her Korean ladies' English class to her 4 best friends, the other misfit members of Franks Freak Force Federation.

One thing I didn't love:
It took a while to get rolling. I felt like I was in a backdrop, but I fell so hard for Amber that I held on. And, boy, am I glad I did!

The bitsies I loved:

There were two things that I really adored about this book, above the other million things that I just loved.

Firstly, this book has important 'issues' in the background.

'Whoa! Isn't that a bad thing? Shouldn't important issues be at the front?'

Lemme explain.

There are a million and one books about Christians, or about being the only Black kid, or about special-needs characters, or immigrants. But I hate feeling like every book with an issue is ABOUT that issue. Can't I just read about a black character? Why does said Black character HAVE TO be struggling with being Black? Some of us are past that. Are we implying that a Black character who is not struggling with being Black is the same as a white character?

This book features all of the things I mentioned above, but isn't ABOUT any of them. It gives them a chance to just exist without taking centrestage. And it's fabulous.

Secondly, I loved the irreverence.

There's a general feeling that if you talk about a sensitive issue, you have to use a sensitive tone. Everyone is so PC these days that noone wants to make a joke about any group unless they are a part of it and can therefore claim they meant no prejudice.

Not Amber Appleton. She refers to Jesus as "JC" and even goes so far as to call him as a "sucka!" She calls her Vietnam veteran friend on his bullcrap. She cusses out a blind old lady in a wheelchair.

And even though she does all this, it's not evil or bitter; it's actually 100% Amber optimism, and people can't help but love her for it.

And I can't help but love Matthew Quick for writing this book.

To win:

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Good luck!