Rockoholic by CJ Skuse

Jody loves Jackson Gatlin. At his only UK rock concert, she’s right at the front. But when she's caught in the crush and carried back stage she has more than concussion to contend with. Throw in a menacing manager, a super-wired super-star, and a curly-wurly, and she finds herself taking home more than just a poster. It’s the accidental kidnapping of the decade. But what happens if you’ve a rock-god in your garage who doesn’t want to leave? Jody’s stuck between a rock-idol and a hard place!



From the pen of C.J. Skuse, author of last year’s super cool debut Pretty Bad Things, comes a tale of rock star obsession gone nuts. Hilariously and sharply explores the fantasy and reality of celebrity obsession through a teenager’s eyes. C. J. Skuse has been billed as the new Nick Hornby for teens.

It really has taken me far too long to review this very excellent, deeply funny and oddly quirky and completely over the top book by CJ Scuse and I apologise.  I read it last year and got to meet the author at the Chickenhouse Breakfast this year.  Needless to say, I went a bit Jody at her.  But without the curly wurly.

Rockoholic's main character is Jody who is one of these girls so many of us would recognise.  Maybe because once upon a time we were like her or we knew someone who was.  Jody is what can be termed a super-fan.  She adores Jackson Gatlin.  It is safe to say, she is more than just a bit obsessed with him.  Everything he sings and does, he does for her alone.  She daydreams about him, she's raised him on a pedestal and he has literally become a god in Jody's eyes.  Jackson Gatlin is part of a very popular band and when she gets the chance to go and see him, she queues up the entire day.  But by the time she gets to do so, things go a bit awry and she is taken to the back of the stage, where the the first aiders go to work on those who have fainted or become ill during the concert.

When Jackson comes backstage, a bit zoned out from adrenalin, uppers/downers and who knows what else, Jody has her chance to talk to him.  But she fumbles and instead pushed a curly wurly (a toffee type sweet, for those of you who don't know) in a silver wrapper at him.  Jackson sees this, thinks it's a knife and lets Jody march him out of the first aid room, to the car where her very best friend Mac is waiting to drive her home.

And, following this "kidnapping" let's just say, high jinks ensue.  Jody is initially so bedazzled by Jackson's presence as she is deeply convinced he is going to see her and fall in love with her as his souldmate.  Instead what she gets is a  spoiled person who acts like a 3 year old.  He throws tantrums, he wees himself, he vomits, he shouts and screams.  It's not pleasant.  Jody is in for a massive wake-up call.  And it is Mac that keeps it all together, explaining to her that Jackson's going cold turkey from whatever drugs he's been on. 

Jody has a tough time consolidating her image that she has of Jackson with the reality, even when he's straightened out.  He is not the hero she expected him to be.  He's just a young man who has undergone a massive learning curve when his band made it big.  All he wants is somewhere to sit and write his songs.  Instead he's forced to perform and act in a certain way.  The band's manager seems half demonic and evil and does everything in his power to keep them toeing the line. I felt that the way she broke down Jody's hero into this fallable human was done with great skill and pathos because you could see the character's humanity shine through.

And of course, the world wants to know what has happened to Jackson.  There are newspaper articles and reporters and it becomes a bigger deal than either Jody or Mac anticipated.

A word here about Mac.  He's such a terrific character.  He's slightly flamboyant and has a very arty soul and wears guyliner.  Everyone including Jody thinks that he might be gay but what he really is is a terrific friend and Jody, through her own stupidity and blinkeredness, almost loses him as she runs after Jackson, failing to see what is right beneath her nose.

It is a great book with Jody being this impulsive and very funny character.   The things this girl gets up to makes you moan a bit in your soul because you seriously think that maybe she has no iota of self-preservation at all.  Thank heavens for Mac.  And for Jackson, in the end.

The story ends well, it made me dash away a tear and things are resolved in a very CJ Skuse way.  I am a big fan of Ms. Skuse, who also wrote the superb Pretty Bad Things. Give Rockoholic a whirl - it is incredibly funny. 

Find the author's website here.  Rockoholic is out now from ChickenHouse!

CJ Skuse - Pretty Bad Things - Interview

CJ in Vegas, casing the joint

Smug cannot begin to describe the fact that I managed to get an interview with debut novelist: C J Skuse, author of Pretty Bad Things. Having read her answers, I totally now get her characters even more.

Here we go:

1. Can you introduce yourself to MFB’s readers?

My name is C.J. Skuse. I come from Weston-super-Mare, I’m 29 and I’ve been writing since I was 17. Pretty Bad Things is my first novel for young adults and is being released by Chicken House in March 2010.


2. Is Pretty Bad Things the first novel you’ve ever written?

No, I actually started writing my first novel when I was 17. I sent it out to fifty literary agents, one after the other, and got about fifty straight rejections back during the course of ten years. I wrote another one after that, but they didn’t want that one either, so then I got the hint that maybe my writing was a bit rubbish, so I enrolled at University and did two degrees in creative writing. It wasn’t until I’d graduated that people started to take me seriously. These courses, along with my two previous novel attempts, were the best learning curves, and I really couldn’t have written PBT without them.


3. What was your inspiration for Pretty Bad Things?

So many things inspired PBT! If you’re into movies, you can probably see the film references in there (Bonnie and Clyde, Thelma and Louise, Natural Born Killers, True Romance, in fact any Tarantino movie!) but it’s not compulsory to know these films to enjoy the book. Music was a huge inspiration too. I’m heavily influenced by rock music when I write, specifically New Jersey band My Chemical Romance (fyi this is the only reason the twins come from NJ) so listening to their music really helped draw certain scenes out of me. For Paisley’s more angry moments, I found Slipknot, Linkin Park and Foo Fighters particularly helpful.


4. Why write for teens?

I started writing when I was 16/17, so every time I go to write a character now, they are always around that age. I think I am emotionally stuck at 17. I still have the same hang ups, fears and rages I had then and a lot of unsolved angst from around that time too. Because I’m quite a passive person, I guess I invented a character like Paisley to kick ass on my behalf because I just don’t have the courage to, a bit like Beau!

5. Paisley is such a wild yet likeable character – how did you manage to keep her from becoming nasty enough to dislike?

I don’t know if I have kept her from being disliked. She’s one of those people for whom trust doesn’t come easy so her defences are always up, but when you know more about her and what she’s been through, you can understand why. I just hope readers will be able to laugh at the funny parts and relate to her total disregard for authority, and perhaps note those few places where her vulnerability comes through. She’s hard-edged because she’s had to be.


6. In complete contrast we have Beau – the quiet studious one, the voice of reason for most of the book. Was it a conscious decision to write Beau’s character this way?

Yes it was, because Paisley is so full on with everything she says and does, I think you need an antidote to that. Someone to point out that, in fact, what she sometimes says and does is downright ridiculous or just wrong. I’d write a Paisley chapter where she’d just be swearing and complaining and it would be one liner after one liner, and it would be a relief to get to a Beau chapter where I could change down a gear, be a bit more poetic, notice the surroundings a bit more etc. A whole book written in Paisley’s voice would be so frenetic I think it would be too much. Beau acts as the perfect balancer.


7. If money was no option and PBT was being made into a movie – who would play Paisley and who would play Beau?

Anyone I say would be way too old if it ever got made into a film but I’d absolutely love Dakota Fanning to play Paisley. Beau, for me, has always been Gerard Way (MCR lead singer) so the dream would be if Gerard Way lost fifteen years and played him because he’s written in his own image. Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) has always reminded me of Beau too. Failing that, Chris Colfer (Kurt in Glee) and Steven R. McQueen (The Vampire Diaries) both have Beau-like qualities about them.


8. Both Beau and Paisley come with a huge amount of back story. What came first – their back story or their current story?

Back story definitely. I had a lot of time to really research these characters and their home lives (down to the kitchen cabinets they had in their home in Jersey!) because I wasn’t really working to a tight deadline, so I could really build the foundations of who they were. If there is to be a sequel, more of that will come out.


9. Are you a big fan of Las Vegas? I ask as I had this impression whilst reading PBT that I was there, experiencing the noise, the glitz and the heat of the Strip.

I only went there for four days and I wasn’t really a fan until I left it. I found it pretty scary. It was like entering a board game. I gradually came to realise that when you’re there, you just have to play the game, have the experience, and try not to lose all your money.


10. What do you do when you’re not writing?

I re-write. Or I read. And I go to the odd rock concert. That’s pretty much all I’ve ever wanted my life to be until I can afford my dream smallholding in the Lake District. Of late I’ve been Googling Robert Pattinson quite a bit too which takes up a fair bit of time.


11. What are your favourite TV shows?

At the moment, Glee and Being Human are my appointments-to-view. Anything else I can take or leave. I get sucked in to things like X Factor, I’m a Celebrity…and all of that, because it’s total light relief. I love sitcoms from the 70s onwards too so I’ll always watch an episode if anything’s on, regardless of how many times I’ve seen it before. I also find Robson Green’s Extreme Fishing strangely watchable.


12. Did you have a soundtrack for writing PBT?

Big time! The soundtracks and the movie posters to my books are always worked out before the books are even finished! MCR, Paramore, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, Kings of Leon etc etc. Music is a huge inspiration for my writing and I could go on for days listing bands and songs that have helped me write particular scenes, but they’re the main ones.


13. Can you hint to us about the follow-up novel to PBT or is it Top Secret at the moment?

I’m working on about three different books at the moment, most namely my second book for Chicken House which is due for release in 2011. I’m always a little hesitant to say too much about it too early in case a sneak steals my idea, but I’ll happily tell you more nearer to publication! I’m also working on a very tentative sequel to PBT, though depending on how well PBT is received, it may never see the light of day. And I’ve also gone back to the book I was writing before PBT to see if I can patch it up, more because it’s just something I need to finish for myself.


14. What are you reading / what do you enjoy reading when you’re not head down writing?

I like YA books. I can relate more to teenage characters than I can to adult ones. I loved the Twilight books and I’ve just finished reading all the Harry Potters straight through, which I thought were incredible. I like Christopher Moore, Kevin Brooks, J.D Salinger, Stephen King, those kind of geniuses. I read graphic novels and comics as well. My New Year’s resolution was to read more classic novels, so I’ve started with the Narnia books and To Kill a Mockingbird. I’m gearing myself up for Charles Dickens too.


15. Any advice for young aspiring authors?

There’s no point doggedly sending your work out to agents and publishers if it’s not as good as it can possibly be, so I would recommend anyone truly serious about getting published (if they can afford it) to do a creative writing degree and preferably an MA in Creative Writing. Your writing will improve ten times over I guarantee it and you’ll meet some incredible people and make good contacts too. It’s the best thing I ever did and I would definitely not be published now without it.

*** Competition News***

So, as a superfast competition, one lucky person gets the opportunity to win my finished (and unread) copy of Pretty Bad Things before it's release in March 2010. I'm letting this run until Sunday, 28th Feb. I'll announce the winner AND post the book out to said winner on Monday, 1st March.

Tell MFB who would be your perfect partner in crime (famous or non-famous) and why. The winning comment will be twittered and you'll receive the tidy copy of PBD to read at your leisure. The competition is open to UK peeps only as I'm paying postage. Random.org will choose the winner!

Pretty Bad Things by CJ Skuse

Synopsis

When they were six, twins Paisley and Beau Argent made the headlines. They were the “wonder twins”, found alive in woods after three days missing– spent looking for their dad. But now at sixteen, life’s not so wonderful. Lied to by their money-grabbing grandmother they’re still clueless about their dad’s whereabouts. Until they find an old letter. That’s when they decide to hit the road – and make headlines again. Holding up candy stores in Las Vegas might be extreme but if they can get on the news, and tell their dad they need him, they might get the reunion they never thought could happen.

**please note, there are some slight spoilers further below in this review, but none should detract from the awesomeness of this book**

I read Pretty Bad Things in maybe four hours, maybe a bit less. Not because it’s lightweight. To the contrary: PBT is a wild ride and the story has these chunky boots that climb into your head, with its hang-ups, attitude, sass and all.

At the age of six Paisley and her brother Beau became famous overnight. They survived for three days, on their own in the forest, eating a packet of sweets Paisley had in her pocket. Their mother had just died from an overdose of drink and drugs and there’s still no sign of their dad. Well, it turns out that good old dad did something really silly: he decided to try and rob a well known establishment and got nicked for it, sent to jail.

So the twins got to grow up with their ruthless and grasping grandmother who toured them around tv shows and radio stations, letting them tell their stories over and over again. Meanwhile the money came rolling in to secure their future.

But it doesn’t end there. In fact, it’s just the start of an amazing story that had me alternatively sobbing / shouting with joy, into a tissue on the 73 bus.

Paisley is the girl most of us wish we could have been at school. The wild child. The destructive one. The one you were a little bit afraid of but admired nonetheless. She’s got an awful relationship with her grandmother (affectionately known as the Skankmother) and has been sent to be educated at a variety of boarding schools after it transpired that she could not be controlled. She got herself tossed out of four or five different schools for a variety of reasons. She is on her way to the loony bin if she doesn’t watch her step.

From the above description you may think “why the hell would I care about such a monstrous child?” and the honest answer is: Paisley’s voice. You can easily appreciate exactly where she comes from. As the more dominant one of the twins, she’s the one who took care of them in the forest when they got lost. She’s the one that stood up to her mother when her mother beat her and Beau and put them in the basement or locked them in cupboards whilst going on a drinking binge. Paisley and Beau have not had pretty lives.

Paisley managed to escape to a certain extent, with her grandmother paying for her to be educated elsewhere, where she would be less inclined to influence Beau. It’s hard on the twins. Beau acts as the voice of reason in their relationship. He’s steady but scared of his grandmother and would rather do her bidding than rock the boat.

When Beau discovers an entire box full of letters from his father which had been hidden from them, he sits down to read them all; ten years worth of letters. The most recent letter is a revelation. Their father is just up the road in Las Vegas! Beau sends Paisley a letter which completely takes the wind from Paisley’s sails: her father is alive, out of jail and he is living in Las Vegas.

She beats up another girl in school to secure her expulsion and flies to California where she rescues Beau from her grandmother’s house and together they embark on an adventure the likes of which America’s not seen since Bonnie and Clyde/Thelma and Louise.

After fruitlessly searching Las Vegas, with no sign of their dad, Paisley comes up with this idea to steal sweets from various sweet and candy shops dotted all around Las Vegas. The reasoning is: their exploits would no doubt go up on the large external tv screens that line the streets and this would mean that their dad would know that they were around and try to find them.

It’s an insane plan and one that works, eventually, and then stunningly well. With each robbery their fame grows. Different factions form – those who are Team Paisley and Team Beau – and they garner a huge following online. Their most dedicated fans realise there is definitely something behind them holding up these candy shops. The media goes mad, they can’t believe that America’s sweethearts from ten years ago have turned into villains – robbing shops and creating all kinds of chaos. They search for the twins’ grandmother who runs around giving various heartbreaking interviews about how she’s tried to control them but all they ever did was break her heart, steal her things and burn down her house.

Most poignant for me was when the twins had the opportunity to go online and check out these forums that had been set up on their behalf. How people and kids identified with them, what they were doing (even if it was a bit villainous) and how they rooted for them because it would mean that if Paisley and Beau could get their dream fulfilled of being reunited with their dad, anything could happen for anyone else. Beau and Paisley were living the lives many kids were too scared to live for themselves. They identified with the twins and it meant that their fanbase just keeps growing and growing. And it’s not just kids. It’s adults too. Soon the twins are almost too famous to pull off any robberies. They become victims of their own fame.

Beau and Paisley become true anti-heroes. Their actions become wilder and wilder. Yet they aren’t purposefully malicious. Just clever and desperate to find their dad and they are prepared to do almost anything to realise their dream. Add to that their psychotic grandmother who has machinations of her own and a will as stubborn as Paisley’s and you just know you’re heading for a disaster of some sort.

Pretty Bad Things will raise several eyebrows once it’s released. Some people are bound to be upset by the language, the way Beau and Paisley go about trying to find their dad, the blatant references to sex and drugs (and rock n roll) but for those who can take this in their stride, and see past the brazenness of the characters, you’ll be swept off your feet, rooting for these two amazingly real and honest characters.

I can’t recommend Pretty Bad Things enough – it is definitely for a slightly older audience, fifteen upwards or for younger mature readers who won’t be cowed by the characters or their actions. And to be honest, I’m pretty sure that a lot of adults / older readers, will easily be able to identify with the characters and appreciate the breathless quality of the writing as they rocket around Las Vegas on their quest.

This is CJ Skuse’s first novel and it’s being published by ChickenHouse. Find the Facebook page for Pretty Bad Things here.