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Ballads of Suburbia
by Stephanie Kuehnert
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$13.00 |
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Paperback
Publisher: MTV
ISBN13: 9781439102824
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Kara hasn't been back to Oak Park since the end of junior year, when a heroin overdose nearly killed her and sirens heralded her exit. Four years later, she returns to face the music. Her life changed forever back in high school: her family disintegrated, she ran around with a whole new crowd of friends, she partied a little too hard, and she fell in love with gorgeous bad-boy Adrian, who left her to die that day in Scoville Park....Amid the music, the booze, the drugs, and the drama, her friends filled a notebook with heartbreakingly honest confessions of the moments that defined and shattered their young lives. Now, finally, Kara is ready to write her own.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| A MUST READ |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Wow, Stephanie Kuehnert doesn't hold back a thing with Ballads of Suburbia! It hits you hard, not letting you forget. Even after I finished reading, the stories and the characters kept playing through my head. Every event that took place, I felt like I was there. And though I've never had the same experiences at Kara, I felt like I was there with her experiencing it all the same. It takes a truly talented writer to do that.
The characters and their stories were all so real, all the characters had some sort of hardship which really had you feeling for them. Stephanie Kuehnert shares the hardships each character has through their own "ballad" where they have the chance to share their story, and how it influenced them and ties into their present lives. Ballads of Suburbia told the truth no one seems to tell. While the characters are fictional, everything that happens to them has probably happened to someone in the real world.
Ballads has definately made its way into my favorite books. I honestly don't know exactly the words to right describe it and do it justice. Hours later I'm still thinking about the story, and throughout the whole book I felt for all the characters as they journeyed through life, dealing with hardships.
I absolutely love the cover! The park is so to central to the story, it would only make sense for it to be on the cover.
I cannot wait to see what great story Stephanie Kuehnert has for us next!
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| A Must Read for all teens... |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Kara hasn't been back to Oak Park, since the end of her junior year. She overdosed on heroin and nearly died. Four years later, she returns to face the music. In high school, her life changed forever. Her family was torn apart and she found a new group of friends. She partied a bit too hard and she fell in love with a gorgeous bad-boy, who left her to die that day in Scoville Park...
Amid the music, the booze, the drugs, and the drama, her friends filled a notebook with heartbreakingly honest confessions of the moments that defined and shattered their young lives. Now, finally, Kara is ready to write her own ballad of sex, drugs, punk rock, loss, death, running away, and trying to figure out who the hell you are.
Kara McNaughton reminds me so much of my older sister. She had a rough patch like Kara, and I was the only one in my family to know what what was really going on. This book had an array of characters and I love their flaws and their gifts. Kuehnert captures the many emotions of being a teen. I was wow-ed by this book. I have been around family members with addictions my whole life and I have seen the effects of drugs on people, since I was about ten. In high school, some of my closest friends were/are cutters. I have seen the pain that goes into that. I think that Kuehnert did an amazing job capturing it. The ballads also gave me the insights of the characters and what was at the very core of them. Why some of them made questionable decisions that I wouldn't consider. I was crying at the end of this book, because I felt so connected to the characters. Kuehnert is an amazing writer. Ballads of Suburbia is one of those books that you just can't put down and I recommend that you go read it right now.
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| Brilliantly Written |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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So usually I get new books according to what other bloggers read and liked. Stephanie's book Ballads of Suburbia was everywhere in the bloggerverse so I decided to take a look at it. Well this book is mainly told in Kara's point of view. Okie before I even get started with that, let me talk about how the book is organized (which I thought was extremely bad ass). Okie so this book is organized like a song, each different era was labeled as a Verse or Chorus, which I'm guessing is to give the illustration of it being Kara's song because a ballad is a song telling a story. Anyway, after every Verse or Chorus, the chapters start over in numbering which was just totally awesome. Anyway continuing on... it's told from Kara's point of view, with occasional shifts in point of view from her friends in a ballad.
Occasionally we see a song lyric from the oh so awesome Johnny Cash! Gah! He's one of my favorite artist evar! She also had stuff from Nirvana and about Kurt Cobain. The voices she gave her characters were just abs amazing. I really felt like I could connect which each and every individual. Like at the beginning I went into the book hating Adrian but as it went on, my view kind of shifted. The ballads gave the characters a voice that I could easily identify with. We've all had to deal with a backstabbing friend or maybe a sibling rivalry. To be perfectly honest, there were two instances that hit very close to home. One was when Kara's brother talked about her, and how he viewed her as a hero. As I read that part all I could think about was my own siblings and how big of an impact I might have on them and I might not even really see it or notice it. Okie the other one was about divorce, and I'm going to share a paragraph from the novel.
"There are so many ballads about divorce. Achy-breaky country songs about the cheaters. Mournful pop songs about the heartbroken. Then there's the rare punk song that tells it from the view of the kids. Feelings aren't laid bare in those particular ballads. There's no crying and moaning. Divorce is shrugged off like it's no big deal, just a messy par of so many kids' life stories" page 100.
It's so true though. You rarely hear a good song talking about it from the view of the kids. As soon as I read that I immediately thought of Blink 182's Stay together for the kids. My friends and just people who know me know that I listen to songs based on what they say. What kind of story is told within the few verses and lines. So as soon as I finished this novel it was as if I've read a good lyrical song. It told a good and meaningful story that I will continue to think about for as long as I breathe. Great writing, amazing storyline, unforgettable characters, this novel is definitely a good one. It deserves the 5 out of 5 paws.
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| Harmony Book Reviews |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Up until I read Ballads, I didn't think it was possible for a book to effect me so much. Sure, I've cried while reading books and thought about them afterwards but no book has EVER had such an impact on me as Ballads of Suburbia did.
The first chapter (which is really an Epilogue) left me a little confused...what was the point of the story now that we knew the ending? But after the actual Chapter One, I left any thoughts of the "why" behind because I was completely sucked in the book. I think I put it down...three times? once I started to either get tissues or use the bathroom because I'd been reading for so long.
One thing about Ballads you should know is that it's either going to mirror your life or be completely foreign territory. For me, it was foreign territory and I'm sure that's the way it will be for many readers. I couldn't relate to ANYTHING that the characters did. At all. Kara and her friends are 100% different from me. But Stephanie writes in a way that will pull you in no matter what. It's crazy.
My favorite thing about the book was the ballads spread throughout the book. They were so honest and heartbreaking and gave you an insight on why the characters acted the way they did.
As I said before, this book affected me in major ways. I won't list them all here but let's just say that by the time I finished, I was bawling my eyes out. It was all I could think about that night, I had DREAMS about it when I went to bed, and it was the first thing that popped into my mind the next morning. Even now, weeks after I've read it, the book is still fresh in my mind.
The characters, the plot, the prose, EVERYTHING about Ballads is perfect. There's not a single thing I would change about it and I think that EVERYONE should read it. It will open your eyes in a way no other book can.
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| another great! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This book is really interesting the whole way through. Kudos to Stephanie for another very entertaining book!
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