Author: Marianne Levy
Length: 336 pages
My Rating: 2.25 stars
Preview: "Katie is going to have to face the music... Katie Cox (overnight singing sensation and owner of the World's Worst Bangs) never meant to become a pop star. And she didn't mean to start a war with Karamel (aka. the World's Cheesiest Boy Band). Now her first concert is just days away. Cool? Maybe. Terrifying? Definitely. And with her school friends more interested in her fame than her feelings, and an army of Karamel fans ready to take her down, this battle goes way beyong the charts."
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Review:
This book really was pretty ok and I definitely enjoyed some parts of it. What I especially loved were the parts of the book that revolved around Katie's music career and her passion for songwriting. You can really tell that the author put a lot of effort into coming up with witty and funny lyrics that make up Katie's songs (all of which are featured in this book!).
Katie was also a pretty relatable character (well, as much as any 22-year old woman can relate to a 14 year old teenager). Unfortunately, this also meant that Katie was extremely frustrating from time to time. I think that her decision to act on the feud with Karamel was pretty silly and (at least in my opinion) a tad unrealistic. I can't imagine why any 14 year old person would stir the pot that much and act so disrespectfully towards the members of a world-famous boy band (even if they don't really like them or their music!) However, I think that she really grew as a character throughout the book and going through those phases where she was acting silly and unreasonable were necessary in order for her to learn and grow as a teenaged girl.
What also made me want to shake my head in frustration was the way Lacie acted towards Katie. I do think that Katie acted unreasonable when she lied to Lacie about Lacie missing her birthday party and then secretely acting really passive aggressive about it, but Lacie's attitude was really immature in my opinion. The way that she could move on to Savannah and her gang so fast and completely drop Katie and basically stop caring about her (and then telling Katie to get over her not being at her party!) had me thinking that maybe their friendship wasn't as rock-solid as their BFF charms promised.
What really impressed me about this book though was how it handled the topic of divorce and having a relationship with a difficult parent. I am a big family person and love seeing tight knit families presented in novels, however I also believe that it is important to bring to light the sad truth that sometimes a parent will not be honest or reliable or worthy of respect, but that one can love them anyway, while also keeping them at arms' length.
Overall, the book was alright, but not world-moving. I think a young teenager might really enjoy this book (especially the musical and pop-star theme it revolves around) but sadly there are better children's/middle grade books out there that I would recommend before this one.
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