Customer Reviews

How to Kill a Rock Star

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The first book by this author, "God Shaped Hole", was a wonderfully touching story with plenty of sadness along the way. This one is no different, except for being even more so.

Eliza, our complicated and interesting main heroine, manages to meet and interview the famous Doug Blackman. Fed up with Cleveland and her go-nowhere job, she scores a great job and apartment in New York City and decides to start over. She has many insecurities and fears, mainly being of flying, because of the fact that her parents died on an airplane when she was young.

She settles into an apartment with her new roommate Paul, who happens to be: 1. Very attractive. 2. In the same band as her brother. 3. Someone who goes through women like water, but deep down wants one special woman to call his own. The two of them manage to get together after some time passes, and they fall deeply, deeply in love with each other. Around the same time, Paul's band gets "discovered". What more could they ask for? They are in love, they now have money from his new contract, and they trust each other.

But life as an up-and-coming rock star isn't easy. Paul has to go on tour, and Eliza doesn't know what to do. She will never get on a plane, as she has a very strong phobia about them. Yet she doesn't want to stay behind. Meanwhile there are other things happening, such as her growing friendship with Loring, Doug Blackman's son. Eliza's job is not going as well as she'd hoped, due to a jealous coworker who can't deal with Eliza's taking time off.

What happens next? Well, Eliza decides to take fate into her own hands. She makes a complete and utterly ridiculous mistake which in turn ignites a series of unfortunate events, culminating in a disaster and heartbreak. Although there are some interesting twists and turns...

Much as I loved the authors first book "God Shaped Hole", I just had a hard time getting into the whole tortured-love-conquers-all mindset this time around. We are also supposed to believe that Eliza is such a great and interesting person whom everyone falls in love with, but somehow she just never comes across as so. Eliza also makes such a ridiculous and idiotic mistake, and I was appalled that the second part of the novel was based on the events after she made her mistake. I had to suspend WAY too much disbelief for this novel.

On the other hand, the novel managed to evoke very strong feelings of sadness at one point. I do not in any way recommend that a depressed person read this book, because the author really manages to get you emotionally involved with the characters (despite being frustrated beyond belief with them). Once you are involved with them, they will take you for quite a hilly and tortured ride.

But don't get me wrong- I didn't hate this book. I have very opposing and conflicting feelings about it. The author's wonderful way with words and dialogue really comes through in this book as with the last, and I was impressed with the story line she concocted. Fresh, different, strange, sad, but will keep you reading.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to people who enjoyed Tiffanie Debartolo's first, and to anyone who likes a true-love-conquers-all type of story. But beware: have tissues on hand. You will cry.

...and seeing as it is not 6:30 in the morning, have decided that it's better to just forgo sleep.

i don't know how to explain this book. i don't think that i'm ever going to be able to read the whole thing ever again.

it was joyous and gut-wrenching and euphoric and terrible. it sounds corny but i cried and laughed and for the latter half of the book felt like my heart was going to break.

never have i looked at the last page of any other book i've read before (and i didn't read the whole last page, just glanced at it to spot any key words/names) but i couldn't control myself with this book. it was so emotionally demanding to the point where i felt the anguish the characters were feeling that i had to have some sort of clue of how it would end, just so i could be the reader again and not one of the characters themselves.

the editor's review says that the writing is inelegant... if it was i didn't notice. the meaning behind the words is what grabbed me. it wasn't dickens but it never pretends to be and would have failed if it did.

amazing.

i'm not even tired.

I gobbled up this book. I stole time to read it. I cared about the characters. Scenes that will seep into my regular life will definitely include: the part where Eliza has an orgasm on a vibrating crate from the wings of the stage, the 'Y' in Loring's sweatpants (a very sexy scene) and the dreaminess of the scene where Paul throws down scraps of papers from the roof. I like all the little touches like how Paul leaves Eliza the fan to use in her bedroom (chivalry is much appreciated). How the bartender gets to be the wise one. How the band's name "Bananafish" is probably a reference to J.D. Salinger's story and a relevant one. Thank you for a great read.

I've been sick the last few days, so having just bought this book was a godsend! I couldn't put it down. Being a rock and roll fiend, I totally relate to the characters in the book, and I feel reassured that I'm not alone! The only bit I couldn't quite get was what was so great about Eliza that caused everybody to lose their $@!% over her? Maybe I was just jealous! Anyway, I do recommend this book - grittier than your usual love story, sexy characters, and I enjoyed being in their rockin' and lovin' world. Kudos!!!

As someone who loved Debartolo's book 'God-Shaped Hole', I am warning you...this book is not of the same caliber whatsoever. It's not horrible, but if you go in with high expectations I guarantee you'll be sorely disappointed. The supposed heroine, Eliza Caelum, is particularly tiresome. Get ready for 400+ pages with endless descriptions of how she lowers her chin and blinks her pretty eyes heavenward...

'how to kill a rock star' is the literary equivalent of a great rock and roll album. it's a redeeming must-read for any music lover, particularly one who's ever loved and lost a musician. this novel is sensitive, funny, sarcastic, biting, heartbreaking and finally jubilant and a hell of an addictive read to boot. if you've ever walked in the heroine eliza's shoes (and even if you haven't) the end of this book will bring you to tears. this is one of those rare books that will actually remind you what it felt like in your soul to hear your very favorite band for the very first time. buy this book and play loud rock and roll while you read it!!!

I will be reading this book over and over again, I'm sure.

At first glance, it's a story much like "Don't Sleep With Your Drummer" by Jen Sincero; a rocker chick story with pulsing romanctic undertones... But then, a couple pages deeper into the book and it's more of a love story. It's a romance between the "average" girl with a deep possession of deerlike eyes and a skrawny rock star wannabe with a voice that can drop girls' panties quicker than Brad Pitt's naked behind in "Meet Joe Black".

Eliza is a reporter with a tragic history that she carries around with her, in a deep fear of airplanes. She is a tragic girl, who still looks at life with such optimism that things will turn out the way that they should. However, at a breaking point, she sacrifices her own happiness in order to push the one she loves into the life that she thinks he needs to be a part of. She hurts herself to save him. While this is a very romantic, vampire-ish way to do things, it is also a bit selfish and undesearving. I wish people would just communicate, already!

Paul (or otherwise known by different names) is the rockstar wannabe who gets a "big" break after struggling for decades. He has a voice like silk and the intensity in his lyrics and music is claimed to be the biggest things since The Beatles (but more in the rock side, not the hippie dippy songs). He is pushed to become the "pop" rock that sells, instead of the indie rock that he actually is. Tired of being pulled in different directions, but trying to settle his nerves and go on anyway due to the support that Eliza gives him, they both trip into a deep relationship without either of them really realizing it.

Reporting projects and her fear of flying get mixed up in their relationship, and suddenly they've hit turmoil. In comes competition on more than one front.

"How to Kill a Rock Star" was a great read. I finished it within hours and didn't mind missing my dinner over it. (ha ha) It has happy, funny, sad, heartbreaking, angering, etc. emotions rolling through it. Sometimes a bit far-fetched, but otherwise really good stuff!

(I knew the ending- I just KNEW it!)

As a music lover and a romantic, I could not put this book down. I fell in love with the characters; I felt their emotions right along with them. I wanted to stop reading after part one because never before had I read such a perfect love story and I didn't want it to end. Despite the fact that several parts of the book were unrealistic, the emotions evoked by Debartolo were incredible. I went on an emotional rollercoaster throughout this book and I wouldn't have had it any other way. In a word, incredible.

This book was well-written, funny, with a clever twist at the end. The love between the two main characters - Paul and Eliza -is palpable - beginning, middle and end. I'm still sad it's over. I want to read it again.

Tiffanie DeBartolo has an amazing gift of desribing the very real, very strong emotions that can occur between two people. She has either had this kind of love in her life, or she just has an amazing talent at portraying it. Everyone should find someone the way Eliza and Paul found each other. Wonderful, wonderful, read...just as her first novel "God-Shaped Hole."