One Hit Wonder (edition 2010)

Surprisingly, this book was a little more involved than I thought it was going to be. It's the story of a man who wrote a song for a girl in high school and became a One Hit Wonder. However, his fame is long gone and he's forced to go back to his home town and live with his parents. My favorite interaction in the book was not surrounding the main character and his career, but his relationship with Lynn and her family. Lynn was not the stereotypical girl next door- she had a tough life and has a certain sadness to her that made their relationship appealing to me. I liked it overall. ( )

Sigh - another Early Reviewer book that I can't even stand to finish. The book started off trite and unappealing with the introduction of Mickey Defalco, a self-centered has-been. My main objection to the 50 pages I forced myself to read was how utterly unbelievable it was. Heartbroken teen pens a love song, just happens to play it at school, where the son of a music producer just happens to hear him and sell him to daddy dearest. Unlikely? Consider that Mickey, a dorky teenage boy meets Lynn a beautiful girl, spontaneously asks her out, she immediately says yes, they instantly connect, strolling through art museums and sharing pizzas. Sorry - high school just doesn't operate like that! Normally I can suspend belief for a good cheesey love story, but this one just required didn't cut it for me. I leave i unrated since I never finished it.

Blurb: Back in the Eighties, Mickey DeFalco was America's teenage heartthrob with spiky gelled hair, slanted sideburns, and a number-one hit single -- "Sweet Days" -- a sappy love song he wrote after his high school sweetheart, Lynn Mahoney, broke his heart. Now approaching middle age, Mickey is lucky to land a singing gig at a bar mitzvah. So the one-hit wonder-boy is making a different kind of comeback -- returning to his old stomping grounds in Queens, living with his parents, and sleeping in his childhood bed. Just like in high school. And speaking of blasts from the past, Lynn is also back in town -- as beautiful, beguiling, and baffling as ever...
Sometimes life can feel like a broken record. But even a one-hit wonder deserves a second chance.

What Stephanie Thought: Oh, be still, my beating heart. Want to be swept away with charm, the kind we haven't seen since recluses like J.D. Salinger or S.E. Hinton? Want to laugh until your lungs ache, or giggle like a schoolgirl? Then read One Hit Wonder. Funny, poignant, and unforgettable, One Hit Wonder joins the leagues of my "favorites" shelf. And not only because Mickey DeFalco is my newest character crush either.
Charlie Carillo writes in easy prose that doesn't take too much effort to enjoy. But rather than his writing style that is made prominent in this novel, it's the characters he creates that really shine. Even the supporting characters, even the antagonists -- the "villains" -- are made likable. Not in a way where I wish the attention is taken away from Mickey, but in a way that I want to meet ALL of them in real life.
No one can describe heartbreak better than a heartbroken man. And Mickey DeFalco was heartbroken twenty years ago; he still hasn't let go of the girl, though. Lynn Mahoney didn't just leave him -- she disappeared. Everything had been going fine between her and Mickey, but she just vanished. Thus Mickey composed a song, a song only a girl like Lynn could appreciate, one that was heard by the wrong pair of ears and instantly made a #1 hit in the country. Mickey never asked for that kind of success, but with the numbness in his heart, he really couldn't tell the difference between fame and happiness.
Twenty years later, his song is all but forgotten, but he's a broke man who's just lost his pool-cleaning job. The solution? To go live with his parents in his hometown -- the town where he lost Lynn Mahoney. I thought it was really interesting to really see what a one-hit wonder does after his success simmers. We all know of the ones from the eighties, and of the ones that are more recent. They're legends, but where are the physical people? One Hit Wonder gives a glimpse in the life of a former one-hit wonder, displaying how shockingly normal and uneventful it is.
To Mickey's dear fright, Lynn Mahoney is back in Queens after all those years too -- finally. He attempts to rekindle the innocent childhood relationship they had, but she's more than reluctant, and Mickey's determined to find out why.
Personal tragedy, loss, and misconception are all illustrated penetratingly in Carillo's novel, with plenty of wit and humor to spare. I think anyone will enjoy living the life of a celebrity who was once on top, then very abruptly fell to rock bottom.
The only reason I'm not giving One Hit Wonder ten hearts is because some of it seems unrealistic. There are about fifteen random women Mickey describes having sex with throughout his lifetime. At first, it's pretty amusing, but I got weary of it quickly because his "game" got stale after the first five times he described it.
Other than that, Carillo's One Hit Wonder is one of those books you'll start reading immediately after you finish it -- yes, it's that good.

Stephanie Loves: "I played ["Sweet Days"] twice a day -- once at the early show, then again at the later one. The rest of my repertoire included songs my the Carpenters, Captain & Tennille, The Commodores...love songs, nothing but love songs, one more dreadful than the next.
It was what was known in the business as an Insulin Set. You needed an injection of the stuff at the end of the night to prevent a diabetic coma from all those sugary sounds."

Where Stephanie Got It: LibraryThing for review.

Radical Rating: 9 hearts- One of my all-time favorites! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ( )

This book was pretty awful. The writing was formulaic and not that funny, and the plot "twist" was not a surprise. I had no sympathy for the hero, who was immature and prejudiced.

Exhibit A, p.266:
"...and the kid in the green apron was sweeping up the butts and ashes with the world's faggiest little broom-and-shovel set."

Who among you, dear readers, thought this sentence was amusing and/or inoffensive?

Exhibit B, p.254:
"You look clean to me. Are you clean?"
"As far as I know."
"All right, then. I'm clean, too. Let's trust each other on that."

Do adults seriously have these kinds of sexual health conversations? Here in a nutshell you have a reason why HIV is spreading fastest among heterosexual women. ( )

All of us wonder what it's like to be a musician with a top song. At one time or another we've sat around and thought whatever happened to such and such who sang that song? This book is one take on the life of a singer with one hit. As a reader you get to know Mickey as a singer and as a person. He's always got a story for some present day memory. The author captures small town life well and in a way makes the town Mickey's from another character in the book.

I do feel the stereotypical pop star was possibly exploited a bit within the book, but overall the book is written well. Definitely some plot twists I didn't see coming. Any kid from a small town tries to move on to bigger and better things. Not everyone is able to and eventually has no choice but to come home and hope life in a small town isn't too bad. This book highlights how coming back home can help with closure and possibly open up new opportunities. ( )