The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour

I first heard about this book from John Green, so I figured it would be good. Then I was lucky enough to get an ARC of the novel which kind of made me squeal in delight. Then I started the book and thought...er....But FEAR NOT!! I ended up loving it in the end! The beginning of this one felt a little forced and stereotyped, which I'll talk about more in a little bit, but I think it may have been the author finding their way with the novel. Because when it started to work, it REALLY worked. The title of the book refers to a band formed by three girls; Meg and Alexa, two sisters and Bev. It's an all girl band formed under the influences of Sleater Kinney and Diana Ross with some Heart thrown in later. Thing is, they're the worst band ever. Yet people still love them. There music doesn't make any sense and is noisy, but not in that good My Bloody Valentine kind of way. But people still love them because of the love the girls have for their music and because their personalities shine when they play. However, it's neither of these three girls who are the narrator of this novel, it's Colby, a boy who just graduated college who is sort of their groupie...and sort of in love with Bev who's also his best friend. School has ended and Bev and Colby have plans that they've made for years to tour Europe together. But before doing that, the band is traveling in a Volkswagen Mini Bus from San Francisco to Portland and playing gigs one last time. And eventually dropping Meg off for College in Portland. But the journey ends up becoming much more than just a physical one as Bev reveals she's not going with Colby anymore to Europe and the group is saying it's goodbyes. From basements to clubs to bathrooms in diners, this is a story of four teens learning who they are, where they belong in the world, and what they mean to each other. And it's just wonderful. I had a complaint at the beginning of this review. I felt like the book TRIED too hard at first. Girls with bright pink hair saying pseudo intellectual things, being rebels, all that jazz. But it quickly became real and the characters became so much more than their stereotypes which was SUCH a relief for me. And in the end this was just an awesome book with a sort of hazy summer feel to it and a bit of melancholy. The book comes out February 16th and I HIGHLY recommend that you preorder this one or ask your libraries to order it because it's going to be one you'll want to read. I can see this becoming quite the popular book. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!