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mariakazantzi's review against another edition
4.0
My Favorite Band does not exist is one of the strangest books I've ever read. Actually, there are three main characters- Idea, Reacher, and the hero of the book they both read, Fireskull. And even though in the beginning it seems that the lives of those three characters aren't connected, the writer with tremendous skill manages not only to unite them but also to surprise the readers with the outcome.
The writer's idea to include in his book extracts from the book that his heroes read is innovative and gives a pleasant touch in the plot- it is like taking a break and reading a sort story. And of course the extracts from Fireskull's Revenant are equally interesting and enjoyable and we are waiting anxiously for the end of this book too- or, more specific for the Chapter 64!
When I finished the book I found myself admiring the writing style and imagination of the author, and I plan to read more books from Robert T. Jeschonek.
If you are tired of reading the same books and want to read something weirder and unusual then My favorite Band Does Not Exist is what you need!
The writer's idea to include in his book extracts from the book that his heroes read is innovative and gives a pleasant touch in the plot- it is like taking a break and reading a sort story. And of course the extracts from Fireskull's Revenant are equally interesting and enjoyable and we are waiting anxiously for the end of this book too- or, more specific for the Chapter 64!
When I finished the book I found myself admiring the writing style and imagination of the author, and I plan to read more books from Robert T. Jeschonek.
If you are tired of reading the same books and want to read something weirder and unusual then My favorite Band Does Not Exist is what you need!
xterminal's review against another edition
4.0
Robert T. Jeschonek, My Favorite Band Does Not Exist (Clarion Books, 2011)
Finally, someone wrote the ultimate hipster book!
No, no, I kid. My Favorite Band Does Not Exist is way, way better than anything that would use the phrase “I only liked them before they signed to a major label.” It's a fantasy novel of the most ridiculous stripe, playing out simultaneously in our world, an alternate version of our world, and the pages of a mystical fantasy novel beloved of the protagonists of both of the other storylines that begins eerily echoing the real-world events. In other words, there's a whole lot going on here. Because of this, it's possible Jeschonek may have missed his target demographic, judging by the decidedly mixed reviews the book has gotten (it's a rarity on Amazon, a book with an almost-perfect bell curve in the Customer Reviews box). I am not entirely sure, however, that this is a bad thing.
Plot: Idea Deity (you see where we're going here?), the protagonist of the real-world storyline, is sixteen years old, socially awkward, and has just met the most beautiful girl he's ever seen. Until she turns around. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but Eunice Truant, the young lady in question, has a second face tattooed on the back of her head. (This becomes very important later.) Idea is on the run from his parents, as well as a pair of trenchcoated guys they've hired to track him down. Eunice helps him outwit them, and while they're on the run, Idea reveals to her that he believes someone else, more shadowy and more powerful, is also after him, and that that person was somehow involved with the creation of the novel Fireskull's Revenant—and that he predicted Idea's death, which will happen in Chapter Sixty-Four. Idea is also the perpetrator of the Internet's greatest hoax, Youforia, a band that doesn't actually exist... except in the alternate-universe portion of the storyline, where Reacher Mirage, the frontman for Youforia, is trying to figure out who the hell keeps leaking news of the band's supposedly-secret gigs on the Internet, and why the characters in his favorite book, Fireskull's Revenant, remind him so much of his eternally-bickering bandmates.
Here's the problem as I see it, judging by the reviews I've read: My Favorite Band Does Not Exist is not a book for beginners, in the same way Akira is not anime for beginners (though it always seems to be presented that way). I think you'll get a lot more out of this book if you've got a solid grounding in high fantasy of the swords-and-sorcery stripe, as well as some form of science fiction that hits the same buttons this does (time travel stuff would work as well as alternate-universe stuff, methinks). Jeschonek is not going to dumb down his themes, nor will he take pauses to explain things, and while this is a very good thing for the novel's readability factor, I've read more than a few reviews that imply the book is off-putting for this reason. Your mileage may vary; mine certainly did. But then, I am also pretty well outside the age range to which the book is marketed to (I have a daughter in said age range), and have a great deal more reading experience under my belt to draw on and reference. So, I have to heavily qualify my recommendation for this book. Which is unfortunate, because I flat-out loved it and would prefer to give it the highest of regards. However, its seeming vertical-market-ness demands a bit of reserve. (But still, for the love of Fireskull, read this. Now.) ****
Finally, someone wrote the ultimate hipster book!
No, no, I kid. My Favorite Band Does Not Exist is way, way better than anything that would use the phrase “I only liked them before they signed to a major label.” It's a fantasy novel of the most ridiculous stripe, playing out simultaneously in our world, an alternate version of our world, and the pages of a mystical fantasy novel beloved of the protagonists of both of the other storylines that begins eerily echoing the real-world events. In other words, there's a whole lot going on here. Because of this, it's possible Jeschonek may have missed his target demographic, judging by the decidedly mixed reviews the book has gotten (it's a rarity on Amazon, a book with an almost-perfect bell curve in the Customer Reviews box). I am not entirely sure, however, that this is a bad thing.
Plot: Idea Deity (you see where we're going here?), the protagonist of the real-world storyline, is sixteen years old, socially awkward, and has just met the most beautiful girl he's ever seen. Until she turns around. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but Eunice Truant, the young lady in question, has a second face tattooed on the back of her head. (This becomes very important later.) Idea is on the run from his parents, as well as a pair of trenchcoated guys they've hired to track him down. Eunice helps him outwit them, and while they're on the run, Idea reveals to her that he believes someone else, more shadowy and more powerful, is also after him, and that that person was somehow involved with the creation of the novel Fireskull's Revenant—and that he predicted Idea's death, which will happen in Chapter Sixty-Four. Idea is also the perpetrator of the Internet's greatest hoax, Youforia, a band that doesn't actually exist... except in the alternate-universe portion of the storyline, where Reacher Mirage, the frontman for Youforia, is trying to figure out who the hell keeps leaking news of the band's supposedly-secret gigs on the Internet, and why the characters in his favorite book, Fireskull's Revenant, remind him so much of his eternally-bickering bandmates.
Here's the problem as I see it, judging by the reviews I've read: My Favorite Band Does Not Exist is not a book for beginners, in the same way Akira is not anime for beginners (though it always seems to be presented that way). I think you'll get a lot more out of this book if you've got a solid grounding in high fantasy of the swords-and-sorcery stripe, as well as some form of science fiction that hits the same buttons this does (time travel stuff would work as well as alternate-universe stuff, methinks). Jeschonek is not going to dumb down his themes, nor will he take pauses to explain things, and while this is a very good thing for the novel's readability factor, I've read more than a few reviews that imply the book is off-putting for this reason. Your mileage may vary; mine certainly did. But then, I am also pretty well outside the age range to which the book is marketed to (I have a daughter in said age range), and have a great deal more reading experience under my belt to draw on and reference. So, I have to heavily qualify my recommendation for this book. Which is unfortunate, because I flat-out loved it and would prefer to give it the highest of regards. However, its seeming vertical-market-ness demands a bit of reserve. (But still, for the love of Fireskull, read this. Now.) ****
kat2112's review against another edition
2.0
Reviewer's note: a digital ARC was provided by the publisher for this review.
My first word of warning to anybody who is interesting in buying the eBook version of My Favorite Band Does Not Exist: there are numerous instances where the book shifts to a "book within a book" that is presented in semi-graphic form with dog-eared pages and fancy fonts. Clicking through these sections of the eBook seems to slow loading something fierce, to the point you might think there's something wrong with your reader or the eBook file. I opened the file in two separate eReaders and encountered the same issue, and I have to admit that waiting for pages to load proved irritating. I promise, though, the following review doesn't take that into account - I just note it here for the reader to be warned should anyone decide to buy e.
My Favorite Band Does Not Exist seeks to convey an adventurous spirit that takes readers on, literally, a whirlwind tour - imagine the Beatles' bubblegum tour bus and its passengers compressed into a paranoid teenager and his flight companion, then hold a mirror to the result for a parallel story. Idea Deity is on a mission to save his parents from going through with a public suicide pact to preserve and promote the cult movement they have founded. While Vengeful and Loving Deity (and these are perhaps the tamest of the names bestowed upon this book's characters) are measuring potions or knife lengths on the other side of the country, Idea has hooked up with the bubbly Eunice who assists in keeping him hidden from the Deitys' toughs. Slipping under their radar might be easier to do if Idea weren't already preoccupied with the plan he's set in place to upstage media attention the suicide might receive: he's fabricated a rock group with a viral following for which Lady Gaga would give up her meat bra, and Youforia has left Bic lighters aglow from sea to sea. This is despite having never cut an album, played live, or existing.
Cut to Reacher Mirage, who would argue the point of Youforia's existence. His band rehearses in secret, travels incognito, and deflects pressure placed upon him by management and band mates to do something besides nothing. It's when Reacher gets wind of website updates made without his knowledge and songs leaked through "YoFace" and other aptly named social media sites that he suspects something he's apt to fear more than playing in public.
Meanwhile, Idea can't understand why people are scalping tickets and making money off a band that exists only in his mind, crammed in his conscious along with the belief that he is a literal Truman Show - a character in a book set to die in Chapter 64. Certainly it's not the same book he's carried around on his quest: Fireskull's Reverent, a hefty tome that also has Reacher turning pages. Suddenly any determination to save his parents is forgotten as Idea and Eunice detour to track down those profiting from Youforia's, er, presence.
When realities and fiction collide, one would think things start to make sense, yet in reading My Favorite Band Does Not Exist I find the narrative off-putting and at times frustrating. Whether the saturation of odd character names (Wicked Livenbladder comes to mind) are there as some satirical commentary on goofy names dreamed up in typical YA fantasy I can not say, but having to take it all in - while juggling three parallel universes within the book - left me weary. There is a good germ of a story here, but one may end up re-reading chapters and passages to make it come together. I would dare suggest having too much of the novel within the novel made it difficult for me to follow the complete story - it's like David Lynch remade A Hard Day's Night.
As an adult reading this book, I may also concede a younger reader - the target audience of this book - will have little problem getting through the story and enjoy the irreverent humor and moments of slapstick. My Favorite Band reads like an acid trip Saturday morning cartoon, and though I don't consider a book like this my cup of tea I wouldn't mind mixing some that drug in with it.
My first word of warning to anybody who is interesting in buying the eBook version of My Favorite Band Does Not Exist: there are numerous instances where the book shifts to a "book within a book" that is presented in semi-graphic form with dog-eared pages and fancy fonts. Clicking through these sections of the eBook seems to slow loading something fierce, to the point you might think there's something wrong with your reader or the eBook file. I opened the file in two separate eReaders and encountered the same issue, and I have to admit that waiting for pages to load proved irritating. I promise, though, the following review doesn't take that into account - I just note it here for the reader to be warned should anyone decide to buy e.
My Favorite Band Does Not Exist seeks to convey an adventurous spirit that takes readers on, literally, a whirlwind tour - imagine the Beatles' bubblegum tour bus and its passengers compressed into a paranoid teenager and his flight companion, then hold a mirror to the result for a parallel story. Idea Deity is on a mission to save his parents from going through with a public suicide pact to preserve and promote the cult movement they have founded. While Vengeful and Loving Deity (and these are perhaps the tamest of the names bestowed upon this book's characters) are measuring potions or knife lengths on the other side of the country, Idea has hooked up with the bubbly Eunice who assists in keeping him hidden from the Deitys' toughs. Slipping under their radar might be easier to do if Idea weren't already preoccupied with the plan he's set in place to upstage media attention the suicide might receive: he's fabricated a rock group with a viral following for which Lady Gaga would give up her meat bra, and Youforia has left Bic lighters aglow from sea to sea. This is despite having never cut an album, played live, or existing.
Cut to Reacher Mirage, who would argue the point of Youforia's existence. His band rehearses in secret, travels incognito, and deflects pressure placed upon him by management and band mates to do something besides nothing. It's when Reacher gets wind of website updates made without his knowledge and songs leaked through "YoFace" and other aptly named social media sites that he suspects something he's apt to fear more than playing in public.
Meanwhile, Idea can't understand why people are scalping tickets and making money off a band that exists only in his mind, crammed in his conscious along with the belief that he is a literal Truman Show - a character in a book set to die in Chapter 64. Certainly it's not the same book he's carried around on his quest: Fireskull's Reverent, a hefty tome that also has Reacher turning pages. Suddenly any determination to save his parents is forgotten as Idea and Eunice detour to track down those profiting from Youforia's, er, presence.
When realities and fiction collide, one would think things start to make sense, yet in reading My Favorite Band Does Not Exist I find the narrative off-putting and at times frustrating. Whether the saturation of odd character names (Wicked Livenbladder comes to mind) are there as some satirical commentary on goofy names dreamed up in typical YA fantasy I can not say, but having to take it all in - while juggling three parallel universes within the book - left me weary. There is a good germ of a story here, but one may end up re-reading chapters and passages to make it come together. I would dare suggest having too much of the novel within the novel made it difficult for me to follow the complete story - it's like David Lynch remade A Hard Day's Night.
As an adult reading this book, I may also concede a younger reader - the target audience of this book - will have little problem getting through the story and enjoy the irreverent humor and moments of slapstick. My Favorite Band reads like an acid trip Saturday morning cartoon, and though I don't consider a book like this my cup of tea I wouldn't mind mixing some that drug in with it.
mutantreptile's review against another edition
3.0
Loved the concept of the book. The execution, not so much.
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