Took me a bit to get into the story but the characters draw so much sympathy from their readers, it all becomes very believable. I like their slang, their culture, their anger and sadness. (Without being too weepy.) It's a wild tale but I could dig it.

ARC Goodreads winner. ( )

An impressive debut. Realistic, compelling story. I wonder if Eddie Vedder will read it. ( )

From the first few pages, I thought I would have to force myself to get through this book. I hated those pages and wanted nothing to do with the story following. I would summarize them thus: Boy depressed by the passing of brother gets drunk with friends. Boy pees over the edge of a ledge twenty feet up. Boy vomits epically and descriptively. Boy falls, mostly non-accidentally, off of the ledge and into the puke. This is, in my opinion, not an excellent start to a book or anything I am particularly in to reading. Having continued though, I was rewarded for my perseverance.

This is not to say that this book is one that I will keep in my personal collection or probably ever read again. But it definitely had its moments and had a few fantastic quotes. More than that though, it had heart and passion. The descriptions of poetry, of the writing process and of music are unbeatable. Wesselhoeft really makes the reader feel the creative juices flowing and get really into those moments. The best parts of this book, the most engaging, are the scenes where very little is actually happening, the moments of contemplation and quiet, frenzied creation.

For all rock music fans and poets, Adios, Nirvana is definitely worth reading. It comes out tomorrow, so go give it a try! ( )

Jonathon used to be a twin. I say used to be because his brother died less than a year ago. Jonathon is drifting and confused. His life is slipping away from him. The only escape he can find is in his poetry and his guitar, but they just aren't enough. As his life spirals further and further away down hill, he finds himself attached to the strangest people. People that show him that just because it hurts now, doesn't mean it always will.

Jonathon is an amazing character. He's a "typical" teen, caught in a loop of rebellion and finding himself. His group of friends are everything that a person could ever want. They are there to pick him up when he falls, help him out when the going gets tough, and push him forward when he needs a shove.

4/5 ( )

Musicians, especially guitarists, will probably love this book. There’s a lot about passion and technique that probably resonates with musicians. I got the whole passion thing, but the stuff about technique really slowed the pace for me. The whole beginning, in fact, felt just a hair too slow for me. It seemed as though there was so much setting up the story that it took too long for the story to really get rolling.
Once Jonathan meets David and decides to help him write his life story, all the plot threads hit their stride and move right along. The hesitant friendship Jonathan forms with David allows him to work through his grief over his brother’s death. I have to say that, although I didn’t totally understand what exactly it was that got through to Jonathan – maybe it was just knowing that David knew grief, too – I was glad to see him finally get a good night’s sleep. Jonathan’s attraction to Katie, a girl he meets through his connection to David, allowed me to see how he had really started to move beyond Telly’s death in bigger ways. I will say, though, that I found the “romance” angle of that story to be extremely underdeveloped for the way the story ended.
A great thing about Wesselhoeft’s writing is the way that he weaves in Jonathan’s poetry. His poet’s observations were great insight into his mind and gave a fresh view of common occurrences that are often overlooked. I am decidedly not a poet, but I’ve always admired the way poets view the world around them.
At times I felt there wasn’t enough to the story, and other times it seemed there was maybe too much. But at its heart is a story that kept me engaged and wanting to see the changes it would bring about in Jonathan. ( )