Rockoholic by C.J. Skuse

Author: C.J. Skuse
Publication: November 1, 2012
By: Scholastic
4 Stars!

"Don't Dream it. Be It."

She's got it bad, and he ain't good -- he's in her garage?

"I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me..."

Gonna have to face it: Jody's addicted to Jackson Gatlin, frontman of The Regulators, and after her best bud Mac scores tickets, she's front and center at his sold-out concert. But when she gets mashed in the moshpit and bodysurfs backstage, she's got more than a mild concussion to deal with. By the next morning, the strung-out rock star is coming down in her garage. Jody -- oops -- kind of kidnapped him. By accident. With a Curly Wurly candy bar. And now he doesn't want to leave.

It's a rock-star abduction worthy of an MTV reality series...but who got punk'd?!

Thank you Netgalley and Scholastic for this ARC.  When I opened this book and saw that it starts off with lyrics from Pearl Jam's Black, one of my favorite songs of all time, I knew I was going to enjoy it!  Once I started, I couldn't put this book down and spent the better part of the first 100 pages, laughing out loud (literally) until I cried.  

At first, Jody's obsession with Jackson seems a bit over the top and her concert experience extreme, but in all honesty, if you swapped out me for her and Joey McEntire from N.K.O.T.B. for Jackson and The Regs, then you get an idea of what my own teenage obsession looked like. (Fainting spells and all.)  

But when Jody finally gets Jackson where she wants him, she quickly realizes that often times the dream is better (and a lot nicer) than the reality.  Now she's stuck with a rockstar whose going through some kind of withdrawal not just from pills but from life itself and she isn't prepared to handle it on her own.  Her BFF Mac (who I adored) has always been there to clean up her messes but even he can't get her out of this one.  Besides, Mac's got enough to worry about with his own life which includes helping to care for his 2 year old sister, Cree and fending off rumors about his sexuality.

Then there's Jackson...he is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  One minute he's calm and semi-rational and the next he's worse than Cree when she's missed her nap.  Speaking of Cree, there's a scene involving her, Jackson, and a cat door that had me laughing until my stomach hurt.  

Like most things, the situation goes from bad to worse and before it all ends, they'll all learn some hard lessons about love, friendship and what's really important in life.  The truth hurts sometimes but it can also be the one thing that sets us free to live the life we really want too.