Sorta Like A Rock Star (review)

4/5 stars

Amber Appleton is the Princess of Hope, despite being homeless, not having enough money for food, having no father and generally a sucky life.  But she knows that J.C. (Jesus Christ) is watching out from her and the eternally upbeat girl knows that as long as she's gotta Buddy Big Boy (her dog), her friends and her mom, things are alright.

I can see readers struggling with Amber Appleton in Sorta Like A Rock Star.  She seems simply too odd and too happy to be realistic.  However, for me, she feels like someone who could've been my bestie back in high school.  My friends were a quirky group of girls with our own style, our own slang, who spent most of our times hanging out at Christian rock shows.  (It was a good way to spend high school).  So Amber would've fit right in with us.

Amber's hope takes a hit when she experiences a personal tragedy.  She finds herself feeling hopeless, depressed and wondering why J.C. let's things happen and blaming herself.  She's hurting in a way that feels unfixable.  This book follows a group of friends, a school and a whole community that rally around Amber.  Even when she's angry and lashing out, they want to give her what she gave so many people: hope.

This book hits on a lot of life experiences.  It goes from funny, to sad without ever losing it's voice.  It's hard to imagine that the spunky and fun start of the book could possibly weather a tragedy with it's humor and voice in tact.  But it does and that impressed me.  This book is definitely worth reading (or listening to, the narrator is superb).  Hopefully it surprises you as much as it surprised me.