Take a photo of a barcode or cover
dark
mysterious
tense
Such a cool concept, I loved the mystery, the vibes, the grittiness, the structure.
I wish the first 25% gripped me quicker, the rest of the book felt more engaging after that point.
I wish the first 25% gripped me quicker, the rest of the book felt more engaging after that point.
4 ⭐️
As a diehard ML Rio fan, I was SO excited to receive this advanced copy of Hot Wax! Thank you Simon & Schuster who provided this ARC in exchange for and honest review.
Picture it: summer 1989. Suzanne is ten years old and is tagging along with her father’s hot rock band: Gil and the Kills. Only, he’s not quite famous yet. And every lick of stardom he gets drives him further to the edge of madness. Twenty nine years later, following the death of her father, Suzanne abruptly leaves her crumbling marriage to go and face the ghosts of her past, including certain memories from the dreaded tour from so many years ago.
It took me a few chapters to understand the premise of the story, but once I understood the flow of the story, I really enjoyed it!! I highly recommend checking it out when it comes out this September!!
As a diehard ML Rio fan, I was SO excited to receive this advanced copy of Hot Wax! Thank you Simon & Schuster who provided this ARC in exchange for and honest review.
Picture it: summer 1989. Suzanne is ten years old and is tagging along with her father’s hot rock band: Gil and the Kills. Only, he’s not quite famous yet. And every lick of stardom he gets drives him further to the edge of madness. Twenty nine years later, following the death of her father, Suzanne abruptly leaves her crumbling marriage to go and face the ghosts of her past, including certain memories from the dreaded tour from so many years ago.
It took me a few chapters to understand the premise of the story, but once I understood the flow of the story, I really enjoyed it!! I highly recommend checking it out when it comes out this September!!
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you so much Headline for the arc!
„They had ruined each other, in some unspeakable way, and no matter how many years they spent apart they were still shackled together by everything they couldn't change.“
🎶 childhood trauma
🎶 80s rockstar dad
🎶 life on the road
🎶 non-linear storyline
🎶 coming of age
What I liked:
The story was so slow-paced and character-driven that you really got to know the main character Suzanne and feel bad for her by the end. I wished I could speak to her - not to tell her story, but to encourage her to go to therapy. All the adults in the story let her down and she didn’t even notice. The story is a raw and honest portrait of relationships and neglect.
What I didn’t like:
It was too slow-paced, even for me. I even contemplated to stopping to read a couple of times. The story finally picked up pace around the 65% mark, but while I liked getting to know the characters, that was way to late for my liking.
„They had ruined each other, in some unspeakable way, and no matter how many years they spent apart they were still shackled together by everything they couldn't change.“
🎶 childhood trauma
🎶 80s rockstar dad
🎶 life on the road
🎶 non-linear storyline
🎶 coming of age
What I liked:
The story was so slow-paced and character-driven that you really got to know the main character Suzanne and feel bad for her by the end. I wished I could speak to her - not to tell her story, but to encourage her to go to therapy. All the adults in the story let her down and she didn’t even notice. The story is a raw and honest portrait of relationships and neglect.
What I didn’t like:
It was too slow-paced, even for me. I even contemplated to stopping to read a couple of times. The story finally picked up pace around the 65% mark, but while I liked getting to know the characters, that was way to late for my liking.
I loved If We Were Villians and was subsequently disappointed by Graveyard Shift. Despite my best efforts, I could not bring myself to even finish my ARC of Hot Wax. (Huge thanks to Simon & Schuster!).
I sense that I’m likely to be in the minority with this opinion, but I truly could not stand the overdone language. It looks the writing principle “show, don’t tell” in the face and laughs.
If that doesn’t bother you and you’re looking for a sweaty, grungy, multi-character contemporary fiction (because the vibe is on point, I’ll give it that), then you might like it.
What do I mean by verbose, unnecessary, overdone language? Two examples, to help you decide for yourself if it’s a dealbreaker:
“…Skittles. An old favorite with a sharp mnemonic aftertaste. She liked to crush them between her thumb and index finger, making flat crackled starbursts when the candy shell split.” - just eat the damn skittles, what is the point of this whole charade?
“Because there was Gil's handwriting in sticky black ballpoint. Suzanne, it said, the letters printed so carefully, like he was trying them out for the first time.” - I understand the emotional sentiment she’s trying to convey, but it’s a throwaway description; clearly he’s written letters before, probably even her name, and it reads as an asinine, unrealistic thought.
I sense that I’m likely to be in the minority with this opinion, but I truly could not stand the overdone language. It looks the writing principle “show, don’t tell” in the face and laughs.
If that doesn’t bother you and you’re looking for a sweaty, grungy, multi-character contemporary fiction (because the vibe is on point, I’ll give it that), then you might like it.
What do I mean by verbose, unnecessary, overdone language? Two examples, to help you decide for yourself if it’s a dealbreaker:
“…Skittles. An old favorite with a sharp mnemonic aftertaste. She liked to crush them between her thumb and index finger, making flat crackled starbursts when the candy shell split.” - just eat the damn skittles, what is the point of this whole charade?
“Because there was Gil's handwriting in sticky black ballpoint. Suzanne, it said, the letters printed so carefully, like he was trying them out for the first time.” - I understand the emotional sentiment she’s trying to convey, but it’s a throwaway description; clearly he’s written letters before, probably even her name, and it reads as an asinine, unrealistic thought.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, Alcohol
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Sexual assault
Minor: Homophobia, Vomit
I found while reading this I really wanted a playlist by M.L. Rio…but of course couldn’t find one. M.L. Rio transports the reader in Hot Wax into a time where rock and roll reigns supreme. There was a time in my life that I was going to be a music teacher. I listened to a lot of music, even more classic rock. In this we have an interesting chapter structures. This is divided into 5 parts. We do have snapshots where it will give us a time and a place. After tha we do have time jumps where we see past time periods where they are labeled as “A side”: for those chapters and “B side” for the present.
We go from the time where Suzanne is on the road with her father, Gil and his rock band. To the present where she is on the road again but this time Gil has now died and she is on the run from her husband. I found the story overall to be very well crafted. This is my first M.L. Rio book. I do own Graveyard Shift and If We Were Villians and now I am going to have to go on and read them. I liked the pacing of this. I really like how the story was developed and executed. This does contain some subject matter that some may find disturbing so I reccomend checking out and authors notes or content warning as always.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster for the complimentary copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
We go from the time where Suzanne is on the road with her father, Gil and his rock band. To the present where she is on the road again but this time Gil has now died and she is on the run from her husband. I found the story overall to be very well crafted. This is my first M.L. Rio book. I do own Graveyard Shift and If We Were Villians and now I am going to have to go on and read them. I liked the pacing of this. I really like how the story was developed and executed. This does contain some subject matter that some may find disturbing so I reccomend checking out and authors notes or content warning as always.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster for the complimentary copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
At ten years old, Suzanne hit the road with her father's band, Gil and the Kills, as they set out on a cross-country tour. As the band's popularity began to rise, tension starts to build between band members. This tension eventually comes to a peak as a crime brings about the end of the band, but not the infamy that will follow them for decades. Nearly 30 years later, Suzanne has left that life far behind and settled down with her husband in the suburbs. But when she learns of her father's sudden death, she leaves her carefully built life behind to go find answers.
This book is a completely different beast than If We Were Villains, but it shares the same compelling storytelling, haunting prose, and incredible character work. The pace is pretty slow, but there's a tension going throughout the whole book that really makes you want to keep going. I was hooked from the start. The writing felt incredibly atmospheric too. You could smell the cigarettes and feel the sticky floors of the concert venues. The world of this rock band and their life on the road felt so alluring, like you were under the same spell Suzanne was under.
This book is written in two timelines, alternating between Suzanne's life on the road with her father, and her life now as an adult. In a lot of ways, the timelines mirror each other. There's a focus on cycles of abuse and breaking free of expectations.
I just thought this was so well done.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC!
This book is a completely different beast than If We Were Villains, but it shares the same compelling storytelling, haunting prose, and incredible character work. The pace is pretty slow, but there's a tension going throughout the whole book that really makes you want to keep going. I was hooked from the start. The writing felt incredibly atmospheric too. You could smell the cigarettes and feel the sticky floors of the concert venues. The world of this rock band and their life on the road felt so alluring, like you were under the same spell Suzanne was under.
This book is written in two timelines, alternating between Suzanne's life on the road with her father, and her life now as an adult. In a lot of ways, the timelines mirror each other. There's a focus on cycles of abuse and breaking free of expectations.
I just thought this was so well done.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC!
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Maybe I should just finally read If We Were Villains and give up on M.L. Rio's new releases, because so far I'm really not vibing with them. To be fair, Hot Wax is an ill match for my personal reading taste in the first place, because the book has multiple plot points that I don't like to read about (music, fame, road trips) and the dual timeline format is not my favorite either. I can't really blame the author for that, but just imagine my disappointment when I found out that a book titled Hot Wax was about rock stars in the 80s and not about creepy wax figures or my favorite wax-winged boy Icarus.
The story is following Suzanne at two different points in her life. One storyline is about her at eleven years old as she accompanies her rock star father on tour in the late 1980s. A second storyline is set in present day with the now 40-year-old Suzanne not having her life together, to say the least. Even though I don't care about music-centered stories, I was pretty invested in the chapters about her past. I don't have any 80s nostalgia, but it was still such a vibe. I liked to read about her falling in love with music and her very unique perspective of a child amongst sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Suzanne loves her father and this life on the road, but the whole situation is unsettling for the reader, because it's ultimately no place for a child. She's always around many people but still neglected in multiple ways, and she also has to witness intense violence more than one time. Something happened on tour that still has Suzanne traumatized in the present-day storyline, 29 years later. At first I thought that the dual timeline could be an interesting way of showing how Suzanne reflects her past and how she finally starts coping, but she barely ever did so. The present-day storyline reads like a midlife crisis while also being so very boring. Suzanne leaves her husband and goes on a road trip with two strangers where they do the most random stuff without any direction. I understand that this reflects her character and her mental state, but actually reading about it was such a chore. Then there are also chapters from her husband's POV, and they were even worse. He's looking for his wife and he's always one step behind her, making his POV repetitive and unnecessary. I really wondered what the point of his chapters was, but later his character was antagonized entirely, so I had my answer. I would never excuse his behavior in any way, but Suzanne turned his life upside down without ever answering a single question, so I at least understand his motivation. Suzanne on the other hand was completely unlikable in the present-day chapters. I felt sorry for her as a child, but her being a fully grown adult without any sense of responsibility was so annoying. The present-day side characters gave absolutely nothing either, but at least the band and crew members in the past chapters were interesting. Some of their scenes were absolute mayhem and really intense to the point where I had a hard time understanding what was actually happening. Overall, I just can't say that I enjoyed a book when I only liked one of two storylines. The plot was jumping around in time constantly, and I was always dreading the return to the present-day chapters. In addition to that there are also so-called snapshots that are set at different times once again. Some were straight up unnecessary, like the first meeting of Suzanne's parents, but some were interesting, like the flashback to Suzanne's late teens or to her wedding. I still didn't get a complete picture of Suzanne's life with the way this book was structured. There are too many holes in her story that are just not filled when we mostly get the perspective of her as an eleven-year-old and her as a forty-year-old. So yeah, at first I was turned off by the overall themes of this book and when I started to actually like something after all, it left me unsatisfied in the end.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Headline / Wildfire for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
The story is following Suzanne at two different points in her life. One storyline is about her at eleven years old as she accompanies her rock star father on tour in the late 1980s. A second storyline is set in present day with the now 40-year-old Suzanne not having her life together, to say the least. Even though I don't care about music-centered stories, I was pretty invested in the chapters about her past. I don't have any 80s nostalgia, but it was still such a vibe. I liked to read about her falling in love with music and her very unique perspective of a child amongst sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Suzanne loves her father and this life on the road, but the whole situation is unsettling for the reader, because it's ultimately no place for a child. She's always around many people but still neglected in multiple ways, and she also has to witness intense violence more than one time. Something happened on tour that still has Suzanne traumatized in the present-day storyline, 29 years later. At first I thought that the dual timeline could be an interesting way of showing how Suzanne reflects her past and how she finally starts coping, but she barely ever did so. The present-day storyline reads like a midlife crisis while also being so very boring. Suzanne leaves her husband and goes on a road trip with two strangers where they do the most random stuff without any direction. I understand that this reflects her character and her mental state, but actually reading about it was such a chore. Then there are also chapters from her husband's POV, and they were even worse. He's looking for his wife and he's always one step behind her, making his POV repetitive and unnecessary. I really wondered what the point of his chapters was, but later his character was antagonized entirely, so I had my answer. I would never excuse his behavior in any way, but Suzanne turned his life upside down without ever answering a single question, so I at least understand his motivation. Suzanne on the other hand was completely unlikable in the present-day chapters. I felt sorry for her as a child, but her being a fully grown adult without any sense of responsibility was so annoying. The present-day side characters gave absolutely nothing either, but at least the band and crew members in the past chapters were interesting. Some of their scenes were absolute mayhem and really intense to the point where I had a hard time understanding what was actually happening. Overall, I just can't say that I enjoyed a book when I only liked one of two storylines. The plot was jumping around in time constantly, and I was always dreading the return to the present-day chapters. In addition to that there are also so-called snapshots that are set at different times once again. Some were straight up unnecessary, like the first meeting of Suzanne's parents, but some were interesting, like the flashback to Suzanne's late teens or to her wedding. I still didn't get a complete picture of Suzanne's life with the way this book was structured. There are too many holes in her story that are just not filled when we mostly get the perspective of her as an eleven-year-old and her as a forty-year-old. So yeah, at first I was turned off by the overall themes of this book and when I started to actually like something after all, it left me unsatisfied in the end.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Headline / Wildfire for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.