Available:*
Library | Collection | Collection | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Corcoran Branch Library (Kings Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Young Adult Fiction Area | Y LACOUR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Orange Cove Branch (Fresno Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Teen Fiction Area | LACOUR NI Disench | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Tulare Public Library | Searching... Unknown | Young Adult Fiction | LaCour | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Colby and Bev have a long-standing pact: graduate, hit the road with Bev's band, and then spend the year wandering around Europe. But moments after the tour kicks off, Bev makes a shocking announcement: she's abandoning their plans - and Colby - to start college in the fall.
But the show must go on and The Disenchantments weave through the Pacific Northwest, playing in small towns and dingy venues, while roadie- Colby struggles to deal with Bev's already-growing distance and the most important question of all: what's next?
Morris Award-finalist Nina LaCour draws together the beauty and influences of music and art to brilliantly capture a group of friends on the brink of the rest of their lives.
Author Notes
Nina LaCour (www.ninalacour.com) is the author of the award-winning Hold Still and widely acclaimed The Disenchantments . Formerly a bookseller and high school English teacher, she now writes and parents full time. A San Francisco Bay Area native, Nina lives with her family in Oakland, California.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Enchanting in its depiction of the cusp of young disenchantment, this realistic novel will hit home with many thoughtful YAs. Just after high school graduation but before a long-awaited trip to Europe for Colby and his best friend, Bev, comes a mini-tour, a handful of oddball gigs between San Fran and Portland for Bev's impassioned but technically weak girl band, all in less than a week. No surprise that Colby has been in love with her for longer than he can remember. Big surprise that she has been keeping secret her plan to attend RISD in the fall, not tour Paris and Stockholm. Bev's bandmates, Meg and Alexa, bass and drums respectively, round out the passengers in Colby's Uncle Pete's turquoise vintage VW bus. Lies and life sometimes get in the way of the carefully planned shows and highways, but the people the teens meet and the richness of their experiences take them where they need to go. Colby's dad's old band, a mysterious tattoo linked to a recording's cover art, conversations had and left unspoken, and lots of art-these provide some of the "mountains and canyons" of the contemplative but spectacular narrative. Characters and scenes are created with the same care and attention to detail that Bev spends on her tiny sculptures that allow the people and places of Colby's road trip of passage to pop to life. Profundities will be found or echoed for many readers: we all feel pain, need love, overcome fear, crave beauty-and lose ourselves and gain strength in the elemental force of music.-Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
After Colby graduates from high school, his well-laid plans to spend a year traveling through Europe go up in smoke when his travel partner and best friend, Bev, reveals she's going to art school instead. Colby is angry and hurt, but he doesn't have time to do much brooding. He's committed himself to playing chauffeur for Bev's all-girl rock band, the Disenchantments, on their first (and probably last) summer tour. Chronicling the band's road trip up the West Coast, this insightful coming-of-age story expresses how a teen in limbo learns some profound lessons about disappointment, love, and the pursuit of dreams in some unexpected places. Between gigs, Colby meets unlikely kindred spirits-a tattoo artist, a semifamous graffiti artist, and a female farmer-whose outlooks influence his decisions about the future. LaCour (Hold Still) skillfully draws connections between art and life as she delves into the heart of her characters, revealing their fears and celebrating the creative forces that inspire them to reach for the stars. Ages 14-up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger Inc. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Colby has just graduated from high school, and everything seems possible. Hes going on tour with The Disenchantments ("they arent very good, butthey look amazing"), the three-member, all-girl band he helped his best friend, Bev, to found. After that, he and Bev plan to spend a year in Europe, forgoing college. Before the band gets to its first gig, however, Bev reveals that shes attending RISD in the fall, leaving Colby panicked about what hell do next. Colby struggles with her betrayal over the course of the week-long road trip; their adventure takes them from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon, and involves seedy motels, a dance party, hot tubs, an impulsive tattoo, graffiti, very little sleep, and fascinating people everywhere. When its over, Colby recognizes that "I always knew what I wanted to do, I just didnt know I could do it." LaCours characters are believably complex (though Colbys devotion to brooding, distant Bev is slightly puzzling), and their passion for art and life is contagious. Set to a retro, girl-power soundtrack of The Supremes, The Runaways, Heart, and Sleater-Kinney, this breathless novel celebrates the magic that results from spontaneity and the simple joy of an open road, a few good friends, and a limitless future. rachel l. smith (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
(Fiction. 14 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* LaCour's sophomore novel, following her Morris Award finalist Hold Still (2009), features coming-of-age themes truth, uncertainty, pain, passion which are as common as high-school graduates in June. Yet the novel also possesses an on-the-cusp-of-something soul as unique and memorable as new experiences are to every individual teen. The story tells of a group of creative friends who road trip from San Francisco to Portland so that the titular band, comprised of three hot girls, can play gigs (poorly), and the one guy can pine (unrequitedly) before going away to college . . . or not. The tattoo artists, bartenders, secrets, and lies the teens experience along the way are life changing, as they are destined to be; the feelings of betrayal, confusion, and wonder, and the words used to express them, such as love and f-bombs, are so authentic that introspective readers will feel that the characters understand them exactly. LaCour's skill and compassion make proclamations such as We all want to feel something, we want to be someone to one another seem more sincere than sappy and will entice readers to download the girl-band music. This is about the inside and outside of characters, the past and future of their lives and it is astonishing.--Medlar, Andrew Copyright 2010 Booklist