Nick

I love me some Hailey Piper. I didn't love this book, but I'll still read anything she puts out. Something was missing for me plot-wise, but it's always a good time regardless.

The premise of this book is 12 different stories (stories/storeys, get it? heh heh) that take place in a single residential building with a 13th story tying everything together.

Not a bad premise for a book, right? Kind of like an anthology movie with a framing narrative like Creepshow/VHS/etc.

Unfortunately, for me, the stories fell flat. There wasn't a single one that I was interested in, and even a couple days later, I struggle to remember most of them. I do remember each one being different in tone and subgenre, so that was cool. Again, a lot of good ideas that aren't executed very strongly.

The quality of writing was very good, but the stories themselves did not do much. I found myself more excited for each chapter to end than not. By the last few, I was ready to find out what was going on in the 13th. However, that was a letdown as well. Maybe if each short story was fleshed out better, the ending would have hit harder but I felt like most of them were just filler.

So, in conclusion, great ideas with flimsy execution and meh payoff.

DNF at 8%. Truly truly awful.

What the book promises: the memoir of a punk/hardcore legend, chronicling his early days all the way through today. The synopsis leads the reader to believe this will be a comprehensive story of Cappo’s life including the trials and tribulations of being in a touring band and the story of what led him to Hinduism and becoming a Hare Krishna.

What the book delivers: well, yes, there are spats of personal stories and glimpses of life on a touring band, but they are put on the back burner to a full description of the Hare Krishna lifestyle. This is more of a new age-y holistic medicine and fable book than it is any sort of memoir. There are a few anecdotes thrown in that are supposed to be a bit of a frame, but they don’t really go anywhere.

This was a rough one. I did like the beginning wherein Cappo describes a culture shock moment as well as his intro to the punk scene and religion with some familiar faces.

However, very suddenly it becomes obvious that this is closer to a religious tract than it is any sort of insight into the “punk to monk” journey promised. For those wanting to learn more about Cappo’s music, let me put it this way: he describes bowel movements more than he does Youth of Today and semen more than BT1K. I could go on, but I’m sure you get the gist.

One thing that really bothered me is his constant infantalizing and fetishizing of Indian people. Every person in India he encounters is either too cute or extremely beautiful to a point of it being weird. And, for those interested in the audiobook, he does an Apu accent for every Indian person. Now, if they actually sound like that, whatever. But he’ll talk about how he barely understands their Hindi but then relay the message in a terrible Indian/English charicature voice. Not sure who signed off on that.

Highly recommend to stay away from this one.

On the surface, this is classic Steven King speculative fiction. Much deeper, this is an old man yelling at the clouds for 600 pages.

Everywhere I go, I see praise for this book: the reviews on here, Tik Tok, friends, Twitter, etc. Through the first 30-40% I could totally see that. I got the hype. I could not think about anything other than this book and its premise.

Let's go right to that. If you could change the past, would you? An acquaintance of protagonist Jake asks just that after trying so himself. Owner of the local diner, Al, after seeing Jake recently, realizes he doesn't have long to live and shows his little secret to his pal. A portal? In a diner? Yes, a portal that takes the traveler to an exact date and time in 1958. No matter how long they spend there, they come back with only 2 minutes having passed. Jake first wonders about changing the life of one of his adult GED students with a sad story. He does just so. When he comes back, he realizes that he has changed a lot of things for good and bad. However, Al "urges" Jake to go back and save Kennedy from Oswald and forever change the course of history.

At first, Jake (now going by George Amberson) focuses on changing the trajectory of his student's family's life. He then heads to Dallas to start trailing Oswald and this is where things went totally sideways for me.

The entire tone of the novel shifts. King takes Jake on a journey further away from changing the past and more on a nostalgic run that a guy in his late 30s should not have felt so at home in. There he meets the love of his life yadda yadda yadda. I'm apt to wonder if this wasn't the result of a single story idea but maybe multiple stories stitched together. Sure, Jake still wants to save Kennedy from assassination, but I feel like King's main directive was to wax nostalgic and to kind of rue his own life. In the afterword, he mentions his wife being his harshest critic, and I really would like to be a fly on the wall when she read all about this writer who's changing the past by talking shit about his ex-wife and explicitly fucking the lady he wish he had met in the late 50s. Was there any reason for that?

Somewhere around this point is when I realized I felt like I should have been about 95% done but was only at about 50%. The next like 450 pages or so were completely filled with all of this weird utopian bullshit that made me want to puke. I probably would have DNF'ed if it wasn't for the Oswald stuff still being mentioned. After all, that was the driving force behind the book, right? The climax was well done.

And then it went on and on and on some more...

I'm going to skip a bunch of stuff so I don't spoil, but in the most Kingian fashion ever, a super flimsy explanation is given for how time travel is possible. And then the book goes on and on and on some more... The ending? Oof. If this was the ending his son recommended, I'd hate to read what he'd originally envisioned.

Unfortunately, I am now meandering as much as King did. So, let me finish with this: If the first 1/3 of this book was a nice, fresh glass of ginger ale, the last 2/3 of the book would be the 3 remaining bubbles of a flat soda.

This very short story packs a punch. In just a short amount of time, Laurel Hightower gives the reader a crash course in grief and the lengths a parent would go through to bring back a lost child. There are some real spooky happenings, but it's essentially a mix between the monkey's paw and any ghost story. Ending didn't do much for me, but overall, I'd recommend.

So, I'm going to rant a little bit. This book is like 146 pages or something like that. The price tag new for the paperback version is $9.99. If that seems like a stretch for as mass market edition of a 146 page story, please consider that this is edited like an 8th grader's 3 page essay. There's a loooooot of blank paper, let's say. The margins are ridiculously big, the font is a tad larger than King's short story collections, there are illustrations, the whole gamut. If this went by word count there would be 5 extra pages of whited out words. It's glaringly obvious that this book was only released as a cash grab. I can't imagine King needs the money, so I'm assuming this was done by the publisher.

Having said all of that, this "novella" (short story is what it really is) should have been released in a collection. It isn't strong by any means. In fact, it's pretty weak. As others have said, it's just such a Boomer story. Ugh. If anyone wants to read an exceptional story with a similar vibe, please do yourself a favor and check out King's son Joe Hill's story "Pop Art."

This was a really short, quick read but it was fun. It started off really strong and then ending was pretty good. The middle really didn't make much sense to me. I dunno, the Lovecraftian stuff was just...eh. Cool concept though.

I liked this book. I didn't love it like others, but that's OK.

First and foremost: Dan Ozzi is an incredible writer. I recommend reading anything the guy touches.

For some, this book chronicles a small blip in music history. For others like myself, this book is life. Ozzi starts this book where they all start off: Green Day. From there, he hits up all the classics from the poppy and moody Jawbreaker and Jimmy Eat World to harder rocking The Distillers and Rise Against and concluding with Against Me and many more in between. There are 11 chapters in total and 11 bands.

So, what is the book about? For those in the know, the word "sellout" comes with a negative connotation that might be hard to explain to an outsider. Ozzi does it well here by chronicling each band's early years and growth from large independent stars and their stories of jumping to major labels. With many from the punk scene shunning the idea of moving from a small, independent music label to a corporate-run label, the bands all struggle with the crossroads they've encountered. Do they stick to their ideals and do everything themselves but limit exposure, or do they compromise a little (or a lot sometimes) and ask for help?

What's amazing with these stories is that every band's story is so different but so similar. Some bands cared more about their punk credentials than others. Some bands wanted to take over the world and others just maybe wanted to pay rent. Some bands exploded into mega stars while others imploded. The overall arc is clear though. Each one of these bands had to build their own following and major labels wanted to make money off of that. As opposed to manufactured vocalists and pop groups, these bands all had to work their asses off to get where they got. They had to make a choice: do they stay stagnant or do they see how far they can go?

Obviously, Ozzi couldn't fit every single band here but he does mention quite a few bands who fit the bill such as Bad Religion, The Offspring, Anti-Flag, The Muffs, and others. I would personally love to see a part 2.

What a fucking shitty book. I’m not even going to bother writing a review.