Beige

Meaning not sugary but friendly; with a fresh POV: Punk bands as seen and heard by the teenaged daughter of one of the musicians; one who prefers boy bands when she likes to listen to music at all. By the end of the book I immediately began wondering whether there was a sequel, I'd come to love the characters and wanted to know what else happens to them. I don't know how you judge if a book is any good or not, but that's a big red neon sign for me. I really enjoyed reading this, even though I'm probably more than 20 years out of the book's age range...

Katy's summer vacation is not exactly what she had in mind. When her mother goes to Peru for an archaeological dig, Katy is exiled from her beloved home of Montreal to crazy Los Angeles with her stranger-than-strange father, who she hasn't seen since she was seven years old. The last time he visited her and her mom, he was caught trying to bring drugs into Canada. Now he's banned from that country for life. Both Katy's parents are recovering addicts who met in the world of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. Beau Ratner (aka "The Rat") was the drummer for the infamous band, Suck. When her mother (who was a groupie) got pregnant, she moved to Montreal and got clean. It took years for The Rat to give up drugs, and his only real relationship with his daughter has been through emails, phone calls and letters. Katy feels like a fish out of water in L.A. She is a nice, polite girl who smiles even when she's unhappy. She doesn't like music and would rather spend her time reading books from the library. When she first sees her dad's band perform at a party, she feels sick. "They yell beside me and around me while I shrink to the smallest size I ever was. Small like a child. Like a frightened mouse." The Rat's best friend and bandmate, Sam Suck, has a teenage daughter, Lake, who gets bribed with gift certificates to Guitar Center to spend time with Katy. Lake Suck is into music, has her own band and writes manifestos on her rehearsal space's wall. As a commentary on Katy's very unpunkrock style, Lake nicknames her "Beige." And in L.A. that is exactly how Katy feels. Very, very beige. As her summer unfurls, however, Katy encounters many surprises. She learns more about her family history and her father, but also realizes that she doesn't have to be that polite, smiling, beige girl all the time. Maybe it's okay to live the punk rock lifestyle every once in a while and let things out. BEIGE is a quirky, fun read with characters that burst off the page. The plight of Katy is sad yet funny, and will grip readers from start to finish. The multitalented Cecil Castellucci is a musician herself who clearly knows the music-related material well, which makes the story truly realistic. Teens will enjoy the mix-CD-type chapter heads that list names of artists and songs. Also, there is a bit of punk rock history scattered throughout the book. --- Reviewed by Kristi Olson

When Katy is shipped off to Los Angeles to live with her father for the summer, she is less than pleased. Why couldn't she stay in Canada, or go with her sensible mother on her trip? After all, her father is Beau Ratner, the aging punk rocker known by his fans as "The Rat." Katy is not a punk rock kind of girl. She's not even a music kind of girl. Katy's a good girl. Even if that means keeping it all inside. Even if that means hating everything to do with music--everything that, all those years ago, made her mother run off, do drugs, sleep with "The Rat," and get pregnant with Katy. BEIGE is a fantastic novel, and Cecil Castellucci is a very talented writer. Her characters are wonderfully real and fresh. Her story is absorbing enough to be read all in one sitting (so start this one on an empty Saturday!). BEIGE is an honest, real, intelligent, and very well-written book for music lovers and those of us who can't tell the difference between the great and the popular alike! It's a good music story, sure, but, more than that, it's a wonderful and amazingly good life story. BEIGE is one of my top picks for 2007 so far, and I'm definitely moving Cecil Castellucci's other two teen novels (Boy Proof and The Queen of Cool) up on my to-read list. Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

Beige/Katy is dumped into the Punk rock scene with her father in L.A. and is a fish out of water. But she figures it out. That was the fun part. The really great stuff, though, is the characters and their relationships with each other. I fell in love with Rat, despite his weird hair and inability to dress himself. I liked Lake Suck in the end, which is a trick because at the beginning she is very unlikeable. Cecil is so good at this, making you love characters you think you must hate. She did the same thing in Queen of Cool. Buy this book! You'll be glad you did.