Struts and Frets is a new book by author Jon Skovron. Amazon.com's description of Skovron says "Jon Skovron a writer of magical fiction and technical manuals. He abhors sweets, only has nine fingers, and has highly prized blood. His first novel, Struts & Frets, will be published by Abrams Amulet in the November of 2009. He is at work on another YA novel right now.
He was born in Columbus, OH, and now lives, with his wife and two sons, outside Washington, DC by way of Pittsburgh, PA, Phoenix, AZ, London, UK, Brooklyn, NY, and Seattle, WA. He swears he is staying put for awhile."
Okay, nine fingers... well... that's something I didn't know until now, ha, ha. The highly prized blood can certainly come in handy if he's luring in vampire-wannabes in his new novel, but let's hope that he isn't. The Twilight craze has gone so far that people are now writing vampire novels to catch the attention of hordes of teenage girls (Some my age. This just upsets me).
Being the reader that I am, yes, I have read Twilight and all its sequels, though I would like to point out that I read the dreaded romance novel in 2006, and its sequels soon after, my last purchase being Breaking Dawn when it was released in (was it) 2008. I've only watched the movies to compare it to the books, but honestly, the craze is just too much. So I'm no screaming 'Twihard'. I'm just a fan of the books, though I haven't purchased anything by Stephenie Meyer since my purchase of Breaking Dawn.
Back to Struts & Frets! Lost track for a moment there...
So in this novel, Sammy, who is seventeen as I remember, is having trouble with his band, Tragedy of Wisdom (He wanted it as Tragedy of Reason, but the band's singer, Joe, is not someone to mess with. What he says goes.), and he's thinking about whether to enter them in a Battle of the Bands competition that a local radio station is hosting. The winner will get a song recorded and played on the radio station it seems, which would make it great for the publicity of Tragedy of Wisdom. Joe forces Sammy into it when he's still skeptical, and his other band-mates Rick (crappy bass player) and TJ (brilliant drummer) have nothing to do except to follow Joe.
Sammy (guitarist and lyricist) is upset over this, and also for other conflicts, which include his best friend Jen5 having a crush on him, and his grandfather, who seems to be getting mentally ill.
Sammy and Jen5 (getting her name because there were five other Jennifer's in her class and they all chose names like 'Jenny', 'Jen', etc., that the last possible nickname would've been something like 'Niffer', so the last Jennifer chose Jen5) are also being pushed around by their parents about what they'll do when they grow older-- Jen5's mother isn't supportive of her decision to be an artist, and Sammy's mother doesn't want him to become a musician.
This book is funny, often sexual in language, and adventurous. It's a great coming-of-age book, and for people who love music, well, this is for you.
The music backdrop for this book is mostly Indie rock, and a song list is even at the end of the book, noting such bands as Modest Mouse, The Pixies, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Death Cab for Cutie. The book is stated as "art based", and that is how the cover and chapter pages look, making it look like it was made just for teens.
Read the book, see how you like it, and argue with me if you must. I thought it was quite awesome.
You can find Jon Skovron here.
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