Falling is Like This - Kate Rockland

Whew! My apologies for the total lack of post-age lately. Moving has been quite the chore, and I've been SUPER busy. I have, however, been doing tons of reading - per usual. Voila, new post :0)


As much as I love punk rock, I’ll admit – I missed its heyday. I’ve never been to CBGB (although I do know where it once was), and grew up in a small town that didn’t breed the greatest of local acts. I’ve always been jealous of my dear boyfriend, who grew up in the suburbs right outside of NYC, and got to experience many small, local shows. I give dear boyfriend lots of credit for exposing me to some of my now-favorite artists, and fully rescuing me from a life of top-40 music (quelle horror!). With that said, I felt I really connected with protagonist Harper Rostov in “Falling Is Like This”. I picked this book up based on my patented “cute cover” system, and was intrigued to see a blurb from Courtney Love (She reads? Huh.). Our girl Harper is a budding journalist/punk-rock girl living in the East Village, who finds herself caught up in a whirlwind romance with the guitar player of her favorite local band. Basically, she’s living the life I desire, minus the part about her being from Jersey – the only state whose residence always declare “But I’m from the NICE part.” If you’re into the punk and rock scene, you’ll notice a plethora (I revel in every excuse to bust that word out) of reference made to bands and locations throughout the novel. Now, on to the good stuff!

• It’s chick lit – plain and simple. There’s little in terms of sophisticated writing here, and the book is just screaming to be made into movie starting Miley Cyrus, or whoever the reigning teen queen is at the time. This isn’t negative necessarily; I love to turn my brain off while reading at times and be immersed in the story: more of an observation. 
• The multitude of music and location references: I did feel the book gave a nice picture of the quirky East Village, the down-trodden, once-was-great Coney Island, and even the sights and sounds of riding the subway. However, there were a few things that bugged me: Gwen Stefani had pink hair during Return to Saturn, not Tragic Kingdom. I mean really, people. Tragic Kingdom was the platinum blonde, red-lipped Gwen we all know and love. Must I keep track of everything! Also, I haven’t decided if the author really did her research regarding current bands within the scene, or just picked up the latest issue of Alternative Press. It could go either way, really.
• Character development: I wish it was a bit stronger, if only because I wanted to know more about them. This clearly isn’t an epic 800 page Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows novel (Speaking of...*squee* new movie, and *double squee* Harry Potter Wizarding World! What’s that? I’m 24? Silence), and I suppose wanting to learn more would be a sign of connecting with the characters, yes? For me, I did see a lot of myself in Harper, and vice versa. Obviously others reading experience will differ, but I think this might be one big reason I fully enjoyed this book.

I’m still puzzled as to why a book based around the punk rock scene gathers it’s title from an Ani DiFranco song, but that doesn’t detract from how much I enjoyed this read. Check it out, and rock on!