Sorta Like a Rock Star a Perfect Vacation Read

I read Sorta Like a Rock Star this summer when I was on vacation. I had already received my books from Barnes & Noble and thought I might get ahead on my reading due to my course load this year. I looked for something that looked intriguing and light-hearted (I was going to New York City to visit a friend and then to beach and didn’t want to have to think too hard about what I was reading). I settled on Matthew Quick’s Sorta Like a Rock Star and got something, yes, light-hearted and interesting but also something I didn’t expect. I was surprised that this book touched on such deep and meaningful issues as in-group versus out-group dynamics, shattered soldiers, religion, addiction, poverty, as well as the path we choose to lead in our lives as being a “hope spreader” like Amber Appleton, a recluse like the Private, or a pessimistic cynic who walks around with a chip on their shoulder like Amber does for a brief period of time in the novel.

I liked this book and found it thought provoking but not in a way that would over stimulate my vacation-mode mind. It was the perfect time and the perfect setting for me to read this book because I was allowed the time and freedom from other homework to give the issues brought to light in this book some serious thought. As I wrote in my reflection paper, this book inspired me to have a better, more positive attitude and perspective on my life and having one bad day and be more like Amber Appleton, to be a hope spreader. I for too long in the last couple years was the pessimistic cynic with a chip on my shoulder and a horrible disposition (I didn’t even want to be around me) and I realized that being happy, having a positive outlook on my life, and putting a smile on my face when crawling in a dark corner and curling up for the next few years sounded great is so much better than carrying that chip along with me everywhere I went. People like to be around others who aren’t doom and gloom all the time and can have fun with. Having such a personality draws people to us as if we were magnets when we smile, when we laugh, when we lend an ear or a positive spin to a truly crappy situation and that’s what I think Sorta Like a Rock Star is all about. It’s about taking those truly crappy situations we find ourselves in and looking beyond that and ourselves to something better and helping someone else whose truly crappy situation is even crappier than ours.


Kaylin

Nikki Bland's Take on Sorta Like a Rock Star

I just finished reading Matthew Quick’s Sorta Like a Rock Star in 12 hours (7 of which were spent sleeping or in class), which is a pretty huge feat for me, considering I am the queen of procrastination. Upon reading the first chapter, I felt a huge connection with the protagonist, Amber Appleton, based on her unfaltering optimism and her love for animals. I ended up staying awake until nearly 4am reading, and I only put the book down because I had to be in class in four hours. This book impacted me pretty greatly. As a future teacher, it has made me realize the importance of investigating student’s home lives. One can only wonder what would have happened differently had Amber’s teachers inquired about where she was living or why she did not own a winter coat. As future teachers, do you think that the teachers at her school were in the wrong by not asking about her situation? Do you plan on being “nosy” when it comes to your students? When should the line be drawn in terms of a teacher over-stepping their boundaries into their students’ personal lives? What do you all think?

The kiss never came.

I was dreading the kiss but the kiss never came. That is why I like this book.

Somehow Amber’s friend Ty began to stand out from the other members of The Five and it seemed inevitable that Amber and Ty would end up together by the time Matthew Quick finished writing page 353 of Sorta Like a Rock Star. But the kiss never came and its absence is what earned my respect for this novel.

It threw me off when Ty started showing his feelings for Amber because it seemed as though she had tried to be her own person, a solitary hope spreader, and in the end she could only get herself back together with the help of a man. That is why I am glad the kiss did not happen. The kiss always happens and it always sends the message that people need to have a significant other to be happy, that they can’t just be happy on their own. This book was different though, because it didn’t resolve the relationship between Amber and Ty. We know there is some interest there, but it never develops. I can’t decide if the inclusion of the Amber-Ty relationship makes the novel stronger or weaker. I feel like it detracts from the storyline by adding extra tidbits that don’t need to be there, but at the same time it almost adds to the message by pointing out that Amber gets back on her feet not because she has some significant other to fall back on, but because she has her friends’ love for her and her love for everyone she meets. She is not like her mother who needs to rely on one boyfriend or another; she can be strong and support herself with the help of her friends.

Hilary Korabik

"Sassy Girl" Books

I read two books this week that encompass that fit a remarkably similar mold: Sorta Like a Rock Star and Big Fat Manifesto. I liked them both, a lot actually but the formulas went a little something like this: there is a sassy girl protagonist, she is loud, confronts social expectations but is having a crisis within herself that she does not reveal. Then something bad happens which causes “sassy girl” to question who she is. The rest of the book is devoted to finding and accepting oneself, and the girl returning to her sassy ways with a better sense of herself.
I do not want to devalue what these books actually accomplish. They both have strong female characters that would make good role models for young girls. They both, despite following similar formulas, explore painful and complex issues. Big Fat Manifesto centers around Jamie, an extremely overweight teen who writes a column entitled "Fat Girl". Jamie struggles to find her identity in the world, as do all teens, but she often relies on her image of "Fat Girl" in order to have an identity. This book was so relatable because I think just about every girl and woman has felt defined by the image of her body. Like Big Fat Manifesto I think everyone can identify with losing someone like Amber does, or feeling left out at school. Amber struggles to define herself we she can no longer be the “hope spreader” during her crisis. So what is wrong with fitting into this mold? Sassy girls are real girls trying to find themselves in the world just like everybody in that world.

Meaghan Myers