aaamusic | On 11, Mar 2012

What would you do if you could meet your favourite band and dig into their deepest secrets? Would you be afraid of changing the idea you have of them, or would you fall in love with one of the band’s surviving members?

Meet Alex, a ghost writer who won the job of her life: to meet Johnny Burns from Heartbreaker and write his official autobiography. But is she prepared to what she is about to discover? Is it really a good idea to meet your idol and spend time with him?

Whilst Alex meets Johnny and fulfills her teenagehood dream, she is forced to face her recent past and to reassess her friends and family ties, as well as trying to keep things running with Johnny Burns, who seems to take the whole autobiography business lightly. But is he just being lazy, or is he hiding something? And what really happened to his band mates Andy and Tom, who strangely died in absurd and unclear circumstances on the same day?

Julie Morrigan’s book explores probably the deepest desire of all music fans: spending time with your idol and getting to be their friends. It also explores the price to pay for fame and how prejudices and a touch of jealousy can twist even those you love the most. Morrigan’s writing is fluent, filled with twists and humanity. On a negative side, her sources of inspiration are too obvious (Led Zeppelin and John Lennon), but I’m sure you can forgive for this.

Recommended.

 

Alessia Matteoli