I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone Stephanie Kuehnert

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert. I finished this book the other day at a cafe. I had to turn my chair to face a window I was crying so much. This is Kuehnert's debut novel but you couldn't tell from the writing. It's a beautiful story, I loved it. It has many layers, I can't do it justice but I'll do my best. I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone tells the stories of Louisa and Emily Black, mother and daughter. When Emily was four months old her mother left. Emily grew up hearing her mother left to follow the music. As a girl this story was Emily's strength. The majority of chapters are Emily's, though Lousia is not neglected. The novel is set during the punk rock movement. Kuehnert follows her own timeline moving between the 80's and 90's without missing a beat. All the transition are smooth unexpected and well done.

Music is in Emily's blood, her father taught her to play guitar before she could walk. Emily grew up in the same small town has her parents, Carlisle, Wisconsin. With a small town comes small talk. The Black family are hot topic, especially Emily, as people wonder will she turn out like her mother. Emily's best friend Regan is the daughter of her mothers best friend. Regan is a hot topic as well. Emily and Regan are sisters minus the DNA. Tired of worshiping fake rock Gods the two form a band. "She Laughs" Their sound is original allowing them to call the shots. The success is a gradual filled with the usual rock band hardships.
One of the things that makes this book so good are the relationships. Kuehnert does a wonderful job of overlapping the stories of mother and daughter.
This book is about so many things including- music, family, love, home, friendship, forgiveness and demons.

Time to share, Emily's first encounter with a rock god,

I thought Sam would touch me with the raw power he used to play the guitar. I thought he would kiss me and leave bruises on my skin as black and blue as dangerous as his voice. And I thought he would be able to satify the burn between my legs that surged every time I heard a distorted guitar. I slept with him because we worshipped the same altars, because he oozed frenzied, furied rock energy, because I knew I could absorb it, make it mine. He thought I loved him for his inevitable future rock-god glory, but I had no interest in watching from backstage or vibing to the records he made, gleaming with gratitude that I was his muse. I thought that if we fused together, the world would screech like an amp so charged it caught. But it wasn't anywhere near that good.

I highly recommand I Wanna be Your Joey Ramone and look forward to reading more from this author.