Bloss, Josie. Band Geeked Out. Flux! April 2009. ISBN: 978-0-7387-1469-1. Gr 7-12.
-- School Library Journal, 4/15/2009
This story isn’t a fairytale story about how wonderful high school is—the characters have legitimate problems, nothing works out according to plan, and some relationships don’t work out. In other words, it’s like real life, and that’s a perfect reason to read it.I would recommend it to all of my girlfriends, even if they weren't band geeks. It's a very realistic depiction of the college search process, parental pressures, and dating issues. I found it very easy to relate to Ellie and the struggles she was going through. Her thoughts, ideas, interactions, and reactions to situations were all very realistic, making her even more likeable and drawing me more into the book.
The characters were the most compelling part of the book. Bloss has a definite knack for characterization, creating a group of teenagers that seem too life-like to be fake and a realistic pair of parents. I loved reading the interactions between Ellie and her mom because they felt so real. Kirsten's reactions to Ellie and her admissions that she might change schools also seemed very real. I thought Alex was a fantastic character, and Ellie’s feelings for her were also very true to life. There are a lot of people who have felt like that about a person, and it's cool to see that represented in literature.
I thought that the book would be a little more lighthearted after reading Band Geek Love, and I was surprised to find so much depth and substance in this novel. This isn't a bad thing, it's merely unexpected.
The cover did a great job of reflecting the contents of the book. The single image of a girl looking really freaked out was perfect, and the colored bar across her eyes made it instantly recognizable as the sequel to Band Geek Love. Seeing that made me want to read the book, because I wanted to know what happened to Ellie.
The ending was great, although slightly unhappy. It's great that Ellie and Connor didn't stay together (although I wanted them to!), because in a real-life situation, they probably wouldn't have stayed together. The amount of reality in this novel is refreshing, and it's something that there needs to be more of in the teen market today.—Sara M., age 15
This review is from a member of the Teens Know "Best" YA Galley Group of the St. Paul Public Library and the Metropolitan State University Library and Learning Center (MN), a part of YALSA's Young Adult Galley/Teen Top Ten Project which uses 15 public libraries and school library media centers from across the country to provide feedback to publishers of young adult books.
