Review Detail

Emily Black never knew her mother, Louisa. She left when Emily was an infant, apparently to follow the newest sounds in punk rock. Emily was raised by her dad, Michael, a musician turned factory worker, in the small town of Carlisle, Wisconsin. Louisa was always a rebel. She met Michael at Rivers Edge, the barn turned concert stage when Michael was playing with his band. Two years later Louisa left Carlisle on the back of Michaels motorcycle, throwing her stiletto heels at store windows. That certainly got the neighbors talking. Shes been roaming ever since, sporadically keeping in touch with her childhood best friend, Molly.

Now Emily seems to be facing the same childhood. Dressing punk rockish, she has few friends. Mollys daughter Regan and Emily have started a band, Shes Laughing, named after a bad incident with a boy. Along with Tom, Regan and Emily try to make the best punk rock music available, trying to dispel the girl band label. As they gain a following, they begin touring and becoming, sad to say, the stereotypical punk band, involved in sex, drugs, and alcohol. But, unknown even to herself, Emily is searching for something more&the truth about Louisas departure and the mother she never knew.

In I Wanna be Your Joey Ramone, Stephanie Kuehnert has created interesting, edgy, caring and unique characters. Emily is forever the rebel, following in her mothers footsteps. Regan and Tom, who become a couple, are the former rebels who become stable grownups. Michael is the always caring father and husband who loves his daughter regardless of what she does and loves his wife regardless of how long shes been away. And Louisa is the waylaid woman searching for the unobtainable, away too long to go home.

The first person narrative tells Emilys story but not in a vulgar, tell-all way; the music, the sex, the booze, the stalker, leaving nothing out. The third person narrative describes Louisas travels, the friendships she makes, the fear she has of never seeing her daughter again but afraid to show up at her door, the search for something she most probably will never have. Kuehnerts writing is descriptive, crisp, addictive. Her characters are real. The locales, such as Rivers Edge are tangible, you can see them. There are scary moments, wrenching moments, heart warming moments. Anyone who likes a good story and anyone who likes to read about rock stars will like this book.