07/18/2016
Told from the perspective of Lili Garcia looking back at her teenage years, this romantic coming-of-age novel chronicles the early days of London’s underground punk movement as bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash were forming. When classmate Curtis Ray asks gifted pianist Lili to join his band, Naked, as bass guitarist, she jumps at the opportunity to distance herself from her manic-depressive mother. Soon Lili is dating Curtis and enmeshed in the punk world. After she meets William Bonney, a virtuoso musician whose talent transforms the band into a headlining act, she falls for him instantly. As William confides in Lili about his IRA connections and Curtis falls further into drug and alcohol addiction, Lili is increasingly torn between William and the band. A shift to Lili’s present creates a certain emotional distance at the end of the novel after readers have spent so much time amid the dizzying energy of her youth. Regardless, Brooks (The Bunker Diary) delivers an exhilarating love song to the British punk revolution and spotlights the challenges faced by female musicians within the movement. Ages 14–up. (Sept.)
"Bearing a closer resemblance to Candy (2005) than The Bunker Diary (Booklist Top of the List, 2015), Brooks' newest offering plunges into the burgeoning 1970s London punk scene. Everything changes for 16-year-old Lili Garcia the day Curtis invites her to become the new bassist for his band, Naked. Despite having never touched a bass, she agrees and soon finds herself immersed in an intense summer of music, violence, and a tumultuous romance with Curtis. Lili's complicated home life is interwoven with her stint as a punk, giving her depth and a layer of interest beyond that label. Brooks creates a palpable atmosphere throughout the novel that throbs with social and political tensions and the raw drive of punk music. Naked rubs elbows with the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Ramones, and Souxsie Sioux—all whose ferocity on stage is electrifying. As Curtis pitches headlong into the scene's drugs and alcohol, Lili grows closer to their newest bandmate, William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid. A transplant from Northern Ireland, William's taciturn disposition lends him an air of mystery that Lili eventually learns is connected to the IRA's violent political campaign, which is making its way to London. Readers will be swept up in Brooks' adrenaline-fueled story of music and rebellion, wherein acts against authority are grounded in more familiar teenage experiences."—starred, Booklist
07/01/2016
Gr 10 Up—Brooks, author of the controversial The Bunker Diary, here offers the story of a teenage girl who becomes involved in the fledgling punk rock scene in mid-1970s London. Lili Garcia, a talented musician, falls in with Curtis, an aspiring punk rocker. Curtis is extraordinarily talented himself and is passionate about his music. He is also driven, self-centered, and occasionally cruel. Lili joins his band and enters into a sexual relationship with him, even as she recognizes his flaws. A mysterious young man with an Irish accent also joins the band. He calls himself William Bonney, and Curtis immediately dubs him "Billy the Kid." Curtis taunts William but is clearly intimidated by the self-possessed Irishman. Lili becomes fascinated with William and begins a relationship with him, ending the one with Curtis. Despite the tensions this creates within the band, they achieve recognition, sign a record contract, and seem destined for success. William's involvement with radical politics leads to tragedy, however. Iconic figures and events of the punk rock movement are integrated into the narrative in a seamless manner; William's involvement in the IRA is somewhat less so. The author clearly has a deep appreciation of punk music, and in Lili he has created an engaging and sympathetic narrator. It seems questionable, however, whether teens will have sufficient interest in the development of this musical genre to make it to the end of this 400-page novel. VERDICT A beautifully written and genuinely moving work for avid fans of musical YA fiction, historical fiction, and the author.—Richard Luzer, formerly at Fair Haven Union High School, VT
2016-06-28
Playing bass for Naked, Lili, 16, witnesses punk rock’s rise from counterculture obscurity to center stage in London’s music scene and comes face to face with the Troubles, Northern Ireland’s bitter, violent guerilla conflict.Abandoned by her Mexican, film-director father, Rafael Garcia, left on her own by her Welsh, mentally ill, ex–fashion model mother, Lili’s mostly raised herself. Flattered, she’s compliant when charismatic white boy Curtis Ray taps her for Naked and then to be his girlfriend. She shares his passion for music—his appetite for drugs, not so much. Between gigs and partying with the Sex Pistols and the Clash, Lili finds herself drawn to Naked’s new rhythm guitarist, William “Billy the Kid” Bonney from Belfast, brimming with talent. But William has secret priorities that outrank Lili and Naked; he misses a gig that could have led to a record contract. First published in Great Britain in 2011, the novel is culture- and time-specific, referencing British realities likely unfamiliar to U.S. readers (punk minutiae, skinhead vs. punk animosity, NME, squats, and skips). A more serious impediment is Lili herself, narrating the story 35 years later. She serves as readers’ eyes, but Lili’s strictly an onlooker. Her choices neither drive the unfolding plot nor influence crucial decisions made by others. She remains a passive receptacle to the end. Recommended for fans of punk rock and 1970s British counterculture. (Historical fiction. 13-16)
