Scan barcode
A review by emjrasmussen
Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert
One of the things I love about books is the way they can transport readers to another place and time, putting them in strange settings with new people that eventually become more familiar than aspects of the reader’s real life. Sometimes one may venture to a fantastical fantasy land or a barren post-apocalyptic world. But sometimes a contemporary book can take a person to another side of real life, tossing him or her into a different existence that could have been the individual’s reality. Ballads of Suburbia does just that, and after the first page alone, it sucked me into a whirlwind of events I have never dreamed of experiencing but easily could be.
The teenagers in this book lead lives full of drugs, drinks, divorce, and death, none of which has really touched me. However, the engrossing writing through which these issues come alive is so visually descriptive that the removed fascination I expected myself to exhibit while reading this book moved aside to make room for an engaged empathy toward the characters and an inexplicable understanding of their ordeals. Perhaps it is the way Kuehnert fills the space between the lines of the basic plot with lyrics, backstories of supporting characters, and bittersweet themes, or perhaps it is the way her characters’ blunt telling contrasts with her cinematic showing, but this book make me feel like a part of its section of suburbia more than my more vagrant classmates’ true tales about weekend misadventures ever have.
My ability to relate to the plot also results from the way Kara and her friends choose to repress their emotions, an action to which all readers can relate. Obviously, people who have been in similar positions to hers and dealt with problems the same way can understand the characters. My emotional connection, though, found strength in the characters’ subconscious desires to stay innocent, even though they had passed the point at which they never could. At heart, these teenagers are vulnerable and sad, tired and tested, and watching the ways they both hide and show these feelings hits readers with bittersweet and heartbreaking pangs.
All of this is so true and unapologetic that it becomes hard to remember Ballads of Suburbia is fiction. At times, I felt as if I was reading an autobiography and had to remind myself that this book is realistic but not real, which creates a strange but enriching reading experience. Kuehnert’s realistic writing makes her book emotionally jarring, and it may end up being the thing readers remember above all else.
Ballads of Suburbia tells a different story to everyone. For me, it is immersing and eye-opening, a book that made me understand its characters and showed me we are more similar than expected. For everyone, though, it is a gritty exposé about what we choose to do with the things the world hands us and a book that readers must ponder and relate to their own lives to truly understand.
This review originally appeared at www.litup-review.com.
The teenagers in this book lead lives full of drugs, drinks, divorce, and death, none of which has really touched me. However, the engrossing writing through which these issues come alive is so visually descriptive that the removed fascination I expected myself to exhibit while reading this book moved aside to make room for an engaged empathy toward the characters and an inexplicable understanding of their ordeals. Perhaps it is the way Kuehnert fills the space between the lines of the basic plot with lyrics, backstories of supporting characters, and bittersweet themes, or perhaps it is the way her characters’ blunt telling contrasts with her cinematic showing, but this book make me feel like a part of its section of suburbia more than my more vagrant classmates’ true tales about weekend misadventures ever have.
My ability to relate to the plot also results from the way Kara and her friends choose to repress their emotions, an action to which all readers can relate. Obviously, people who have been in similar positions to hers and dealt with problems the same way can understand the characters. My emotional connection, though, found strength in the characters’ subconscious desires to stay innocent, even though they had passed the point at which they never could. At heart, these teenagers are vulnerable and sad, tired and tested, and watching the ways they both hide and show these feelings hits readers with bittersweet and heartbreaking pangs.
All of this is so true and unapologetic that it becomes hard to remember Ballads of Suburbia is fiction. At times, I felt as if I was reading an autobiography and had to remind myself that this book is realistic but not real, which creates a strange but enriching reading experience. Kuehnert’s realistic writing makes her book emotionally jarring, and it may end up being the thing readers remember above all else.
Ballads of Suburbia tells a different story to everyone. For me, it is immersing and eye-opening, a book that made me understand its characters and showed me we are more similar than expected. For everyone, though, it is a gritty exposé about what we choose to do with the things the world hands us and a book that readers must ponder and relate to their own lives to truly understand.
This review originally appeared at www.litup-review.com.