I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone

by Stephanie Kuehnert

A raw, edgy, emotional novel about growing up punk and living to tell.

The Clash. Social Distortion. Dead Kennedys. Patti Smith. The Ramones. Punk rock is in Emily Black's blood. Her mother, Louisa, hit the road to follow the incendiary music scene when Emily was four months old and never came back. Now Emily's all grown up with a punk band of her own, determined to find the tune that will bring her mother home. Because if Louisa really is following the music, shouldn't it lead her right back to Emily?

Genres: Young Adult, Music, Fiction, Contemporary, Punk, Teen, Coming Of Age

352 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2008

About the author

STEPHANIE KUEHNERT got her start writing bad poetry about unrequited love and razor blades in eighth grade. In high school, she discovered punk rock and produced several D.I.Y. feminist 'zines. After short stints in Ohio and Wisconsin, Stephanie ultimately returned home and received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago. She currently resides in Forest Park, IL.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure whether to give this the highest or lowest rating because it should get props for being one of the worst things I've ever read, like a literary mix of the movies "Showgirls," "Crossroads" (Britney Spears, not Ralph Macchio), and "Prey for Rock n' Roll" (Gina Gershon in a rock band). The story is about a teenage girl in Nowhereseville, USA, and her dreams of making it big in her pop-punk trio. It reads as a checklist of plot points from a made-for-tv movie on the Lifetime network, featuring such obligatory cliches as: rape, miscarriage, abusive boyfriend, (short-lived) drug addiction, abandonment by mother, etc. There is a ton of awkward phrasing and attempts to use musical terms as metaphors that all made me really uncomfortable and I had to keep reading. Kuehnert has a minimal knowledge of rock music and equipment jargon which becomes painfully obvious whenever she attempts to use them, usually out of context, and anyone who knows what she is attempting to say will be embarrassed. I feel like at some point someone must have said to her, "This is a whammy bar," and she immediately thought she should compare it to an emotion and put it in her book. I bet if someone explained a Spanish soap opera to me it would turn out a lot like this book. Another thing that made me uncomfortable was the repetition of the phrases "rock god" and "my music." I'm shivering just remembering it. It felt like a YA book, and very well might have been mis-categorized in Borders, but that wouldn't make it ok.

[Allie Marini · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not since high school dating have I felt so tricked and empty. The main character combines the collective whining powers of Twilight's Bella and My So-Called Life's Angela.....and then proceeds to try and trick the reader into believing it's "punk", when really, it's a V.C. Andrews novel minus the incest.

I was suckered in by the Joey Ramone name drop, the Sleater-Kinney lyrical reference, the Doc Martens on the book cover. I admit it. I chose style over subatance, and I'm ashamed of it. LEARN FROM MY FAIL.

SPOILERS:
Oh plot, you ask? Only that a girl who's been abandoned by her mom in the middle of bumfuck, Midwest becomes part of the biggest "punk" band since Nirvana, gets on the cover of Rolling Stone, survives domestic abuse and drug addiction, discovers a ZOMG FUCKING DARK RAPE SECRET that means her mom didn't abandon her, she left to protect her! ......a cross-country motel search ensues. Naturally, she reunites with the long-lost mom who's been gone her whole life in the middle of Penn Station, BY COMPLETE COINCIDENCE. Because of course she does.

Did I mention her "punk band" is called "She Laughs"? Oh. Yeah. There was probably a reason I forgot to mention that.

Sample dialogue: (I would like to remind you that the author would like us to believe this is a street punk talking, by the way)
"His brilliant aquamarine mohawk...."

I will spare you the rest. Anyone who has ever in their life met an actual street punk knows that those words can't, don't, and *shouldn't* ever happen together like that.

Did I throw it down in frustrated anger? Many, many times. Did I finish it? Yes, I did. To see if she *actually* went there with the most unrealistic, unbelievable plot twists & resolution (spoiler: she did).

Fast-forward a few years. Did I *almost* fall for it again with the same author??? Reader, I did. Almost. Am I learning? Sort of. Or at least to remember the names of authors who trick me and do me wrong.

TL;DR -- Author is good at titling books & picking great cover art, but what's in-between the covers doesn't match up. Pick this up & prepare to be disappointed.

[Sarah Kathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my god. It is so bad. This is one of the worst books I've ever read. It's probably second only to this book I read in ninth grade about the alleged Pope Joan. That one I stopped reading when a character set a table with forks, which hadn't been invented when the book took place. This one I stuck with, just to talk about HOW BAD it is. It reads like a fifteen year old's fan fiction. I kept expecting the main character to have sex with Draco Malfoy, which would have at least been a little bit more interesting.

The story is one that I could totally get behind, and I thought it was awesome that it was a real book by a local author. I wanted to like it. I really, really wanted to like it. I just couldn't. At all. The story is poorly thought out, the dialogue is stilted, the situations verge on the absurd, and the main character's band has the worst name ever. "She Laughs?" Yeah I laugh at it.

I feel like I should say SOMETHING nice about it though, because otherwise I just look horribly mean. So I guess I'll say that if I had read this when I was 14, I'm sure I would have liked it. Maybe because I didn't know any better then, but I mean, the post riot grrrl setting is one that I know well, understand, and was fully immersed in during the late 90s. So I probably would have really liked this book ten years ago. Sadly, though, I'm not ten years ago.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the heart of any novel about music and musicians is the question, Can music save your mortal soul? Stephanie Kuehnert’s wonderfully gritty novel "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" looks at that question from the perspective of Emily, an angry young female punk guitarist, and answers it with a resounding Yes! Or, is it a maybe?

Emily follows her heart and her music, hoping it will lead her to the mother who abandoned her for punk music when Emily was four months old. But Emily’s journey leads her to so much more, and not all of it is good. Her actions almost destroy her friendships with her two band mates and alienate the only family she has left--but her twin passions, finding the transcendent power of music and reuniting with her mother, drive her to the end.

"I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" reads with all the jarring attitude and truth of punk. Kuehnert’s love of music comes through on every page, but her understanding of the pain and angst of growing up in a band is what makes this novel sing. And who can resist a story about a girl with a guitar?

[Kate. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book in the Young Adult section, but I think I'll tell the librarian it should go in the Fantasy section -- as in, it is the author's own fantasy about the ideal punk upbringing. PLEASE NOTE: In punk culture, "ideal" involves lots of drug use, boring sex, abandonment issues, a plethora of faded band shirts, and an apparent total lack of self-consciousness or awkwardness in one's adolescence.

The characters of this book are an odd bunch, with oddly-colored hair (ex: plum and lavender), and oddly-colored eyes (ex: mint green and aluminum foil silver), and an odd penchant for throwing whiskey bottles and yelling "I can take care of myself" when all evidence points to the contrary. Here's how it goes: Emily Black's mom walked out on the family when she was an infant, and Emily's love of music and serendipitous luck in the record industry might just reunite the family. Here are some new plot elements I would recommend to this author if she and I were friends:
1) make Emily's mom turn gay or possibly get incarcerated -- being a stripper on the run is old hat;
2) make Emily's mom try to smother her to death in a post-partum rage before walking out on the family -- it would make her guilt more believable;
3) make at least one character in this book ugly or not witty -- because I've spent enough time in the punk underworld to know that it is populated by some ugly dudes;
4) make Emily's dad make a Creepy Dad pass at her best friend or maybe even her boyfriend;
5) lose at least one character to heroin or meth.

So what is punk, anyways? The ripped jeans aesthetic? The percussion-driven anthems? The DIY "Undermine the rockstar" attitude? I think it has to be something more authentic. It has to be something more than this book. It has to be something akin to that Wolf Parade lyric "You know our hearts beat time out very slowly / you know our hearts beat time / they are waiting for something that will never arrive."

[Corinne Horne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in 24 hours. Not because it was easy, or so I could get it over with, but because it was one of the best books I've read to-date. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the book. I associated with Emily, the way she loved music and the person she was.

The book itself is so well-written that after digesting the whole thing, I felt my jaw go slack in awe of the beauty of it. Stephanie's talent, love of music, and experience exude from this book with such ease that you'd think it was an autobiography. I had to keep reminding myself that it was fiction; I had to stop myself from looking up the band She Laughs to hear what made everyone love them so much.

I felt every emotion the characters felt. If I wasn't in college, I know I'd be just like Emily.

To have read this book in less than 24 hours - with morning classes and heaps of homework - is a miracle. Even 'Please Kill Me' took longer for me to read than this book, even with my being engrossed with it as I was, and at the time I wasn't in college yet.

I wonder how I hadn't found this book before, I wonder if Stephanie is going to write more. If she does, I'll be there to shell out the bucks to buy it.

This book, to sum it up, is worth every last penny I paid for it.

[Tuck · Rating 1 out of 5]

not good. poor joey.

[Greta is Erikasbuddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know that I'm probably getting old with the way I do reviews on here.. but I just can't help it. This book deserves a soundtrack too :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p3oTf...

(Moms that are reading this --- don't play that with your little ones in the room lolz.)

Good grief my lovely girlies!! I can't tell you how long I have searched for this book. I mean... it's been over a decade!!

A couple years back I was talking to my best bud, and I told her that I wanted to write a book. I told her that I wanted to tell our generation's story. Where was it? Where was the sex, drugs, and rock and roll? Where were the mosh pits, the struggling bands, the teenage girls dropping acid, the Chuck mingled with Vans, and the boys in leather jackets with their heroin eyes?

I searched for this book. I hungered for that tale. I was determined to write it if I couldn't find it. I knew it had to be out there.

I'm almost 32 years old. I am a child of the 90s. I was born in the late 70s, watched Saturday Morning cartoons in the 80s, and dreamed of getting out my hell hole town and become a big rock star when the 90s approached. I lived in Art Class, sang a Smashing Pumpkins song at my High School talent show, and saw my first concert with my Dad as I dreamed of stage diving and throwing myself into the pit. I lived... but I didn't get to live enough. I was too far from bright lights and busy streets. I know I don't have as much experience as someone who was near a bigger city, but I did the best I could with as little as I did... and I would never give those days up :) Music was our lives back then. It was our reason for living :)

This book is freaking fabulous!! It's based in the 80s - 90s during the rise of American Punk and Grunge.

It's all about a girl named Emily and her mother Lucinda and their journey in life. Lucinda ran from her family back when Emily was a baby... telling her husband that she needed to follow the music. Michael raised their daughter to see the music, to live, eat, and breathe the music. Emily did just that.

Told in 2 different POVS you get to hear Emily's side of starting a punk band, wanting to use boys, watching her best friend leave her behind for love, and looking for her Mom when she thought she needed her the most.

In Lucinda's story you hear how and why she left her family and why she can't stop to take in the view that is behind her.


With references to Nirvana, Subpop, The Pixies, The Ramones, Patty Smith and whole bunch others -- I totally recommend this book if you want to remember your youth.



Totally awesome book!! I can't wait to read more from this author!! I'm so happy that my generation is finally sharing our stories :)




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-XUiI...

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in a really interesting way. At my school a couple of my students have a volunteer job at the San Diego book project. Down in this sketchy basement there is pallets and dumpsters filled with used books that are destined to for libraries in smaller communities and various non-profits. The people who run the book project are clear they want people to take books and enjoy them if they find ones they like. I have found several cool retro science fiction books, including Ace doubles.

One day I was sifting through the pile and I saw this book. I was never a big Ramones fan so I almost chucked it but I read the back. It was a coming of age punk rock novel set in the midwest. As the author of a published coming of age novel about punk rock in the midwest myself I was intrigued. Granted my novel has skinheads and werewolves but they are both about small town punks moving to Chicago.

I had to read it. I am glad I did. I know now this is a debut novel and I can say it has all the benefits of a first novel in terms of passion and story dedication. It has none of the negatives of a first novel, it is confidently written in fact.

The story is strongly plotted and the characters are vivid. The setting from the small town punk scene to the large scale tours are fully realized worlds. You often hear the term world building being used in large scale fantasy and science fiction novel but the author did a wonderful job building this world.

The story of Emily Black a young small town punk rocker who was raised by her father after her mother left them to chase punk rock dreams. While Emily works to realize those dreams her mother lives a nightmare. The question becomes will they ever find each other.

I enjoyed every page of this book. It was the punk rock coming of age promised on the cover. One of the reasons I started writing punk fiction myself was it is rare to find fiction set in this world that is authentic. This is a case where I closed the book feeling like the author and I went to alot of the same shows, watched the same bands and felt much the same ways about the scene. This is punk fiction done very well.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Altars. Saviors. Rock'n'roll. I braved my fear of spiders, dust plumes as thick as L.A. smog, and the stench of dog piss that the last owner of the house had let permeate the basement to tirelessly search my father's record collection for my next holy grail.

I liked this one. It was well written. Stephanie Kuehnert has a way with words, and she can spin a good story. No doubt about it. For those that love music--particularly punk--and angst will find much to delight them in I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone. Emily, our heroine, is a girl rocker with a band. Emily's choices aren't always wise. Often they're just the opposite. And she has to learn things the hard way. But through it all, I found myself liking her...flaws and all.

Emily has abandonment issues and justly so. Her mother abandoned her and her dad when she was just a few months old. Her parents had notoriously left Carlisle, Wisconsin, in 1974. But after she left, he decides to return--much to the dismay and delight of some of the residents. Emily's best friend is the daughter of her mother's best friend. Regan and Emily are inseparable. (Regan's part of the band as well.)

We get Emily's story, but we also get snippets of her mother's story. Both share certain similarities. Emily's story is sad and bittersweet in a way. As Emily chooses time and time again not to respect herself and her body. Her choices when it come to what men she lets in...are often all too regrettable.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone is an ambitious novel covering a great span of years--some of her childhood, all of her teen years, and even a little beyond when she's an adult. The plot revolves around her growing up and growing wise. Of course before she can do that, she has to hit rock bottom. She has to make all the wrong choices before she can start making the right ones. But even when Emily is down on her luck and spiraling out of control, you can't help but like her and want her to find happiness.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a star review from one of my all-time faves, Mr. Irvine Welsh himself, I expected waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more from this one. My two biggest complaints: I would've liked more direct references to actual punk rock (instead of, say, Nirvana), and I wish home-girl would've figured out when enough was enough and just ended the damn book. It was fine, but I'm certainly not recommending it to any o' MY teen readers...

[Rachel Adams · Rating 1 out of 5]

fucking book club...

[dangerous at every speed · Rating 1 out of 5]

YIKES. What a complete and utter disaster. If I were still my 14 year old punk-wannabe self, I probably would've half-dug this - but I still would've been left wanting something more.

So many problems it's difficult to know when to start, however:

- There was a semblance of a discernible plot - Emily and her band rising to fame - but good god did it not require 340 pages. About 250 pages were random, unnecessary and simply confusing. I repeat. A good 75% of it was completely unnecessary.
- Emily is such a poorly written and characterised character. Why not take every punk/rock'n'roll cliché and melt them into one person? Because that would make a fantastic protagonist who is completely believable.
- Emily's behaviour and actions made me want to gag. She was so stupid, and a certifiably terrible protagonist. She wasn't even morally grey - she was just badly written.
- The cringe factor (as much as I hate the term) was AWFUL. Nearly every second paragraph had something I couldn't help but roll my eyes at.
- The dialogue! This was horrendous the entire way through. Cringey is about the only word for it.
- Emily's mother, Louisa, and her random POV chapters... sigh. They were meant to create empathy and make readers go 'oh, man, what a hard life she's lived' but really? She was just selfish, whiney, annoying and could not take responsibility for any of her actions.
- How IN ANY UNIVERSE was Johnny supposed to be a love interest? He is a grade A abuser, who is manipulative, gas-lighting and, oh, physically violent, as well as obsessive with stalker-behaviour, and coerces Emily into sex?
- Oh yeah. Most of her 'love interests' are manipulative dickheads who are textbook abusers, "I thought he would kiss me and leave bruises on my skin as black-and-blue and dangerous as his voice.".
- Emily's promiscuity was so convenient - it was only brought up occasionally and only to make her seem like the clichéd rock-star. She said - quite a number of times - that she didn't want to be the rock'n'roll cliché, but went and did clichéd things. Kuehnert, what are you trying to say here?
- Same with her alcoholism and drug use. Boring, repetitive, derivative, uninventive and not at all unique.
- Absolutely no character development. If there was, it was just them drinking or using more drugs.
- Emily's monologue of 'not wanting to be like her mother' and pretty much hating her mother, then following in her footsteps by abandoning her friends and father, and becoming a wandering drug addict? Huh?
- Couple fat shaming comments, "But here you are now, fat and old, and my mother is still as thin and pretty as she was back then.". Great joke, Kuehnert.
- Also a pretty racist comment, "My daughter is not going to a ghetto school." So, there's that.

Overall, not even 14 year old punk me could've enjoyed this. I know even she would've been like, ??? How was this a published book? There seen fan-fiction being mocked that was better than this.

[Laurel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was interested in reading this novel as the author lives nearby and is getting some good local publicity so when I found it at the library I grabbed it. I'm not sure if this is considered an adult novel or a young adult novel (what in the world is a young adult novel anyway...a book you read between the ages of 18-22??...makes no sense) all I know is that I would have been into it when I was a 13-16 year-old kid starved for signs of cool life outside my small boring city. But now, since I'm OLD and lived through the heady days of grunge as a music loving young adult...not so into it. The characters were really one dimensional, too many chunks of time were just glossed over, too many adjectives describing people's looks, no actual feeling of place outside River's Edge (could not stop the mental comparison to the movie of the same title), etc. But it did bring back those girlhood memories of reading books like "Forever" and "Sooner or Later"...books your mom might not want you to be reading cause oh my gosh, sex, drugs and rock and roll. So that was kinda fun.

[Sonia Reppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars because I couldn't put this book down, but not five because the sections in Louisa's point of view were soapy and melodramatic. The Louisa sections kept my interest, but her characterization wasn't as in-depth as Emily, the protagonist whom the book follows. This character, Emily, drives the story. Emily is passionate about music, and talented. She becomes something of a rock star. This is believable because her music is written about in a believable way. The author either has a knowledge of music or did her homework. And I loved her relationship with her dad. Emily kept messing up but she kept learning from her mistakes, and she stayed loyal to/returned to the good things in her life: her dad, her music, her best friend.
This book has great momentum, and I had sympathy for Emily from the beginning since she was momless, but I really became endeared to her when she and her friend dressed up like Rizzo and Frenchy for Halloween. That scene was so cute.

[Marci · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I would have LOVED this book in High School, but something happened to me when I either turned 40 or had a baby (because they happened at the same time, so I dont know which one is the cause.)

When Emily began having sexual conquests at such a young age, I was about to stop reading the book, but then she realized how it made her look and she stopped. Then when she went off in search of her mother and became a drug user, I was ready to stop again, but once again she realized how stupid she was being and changed.

All through the book I looked for the fairy tale ending..as did Emily, but the final chapter wasnt a fairy tale, but moving and hopeful nonetheless. I found myself a little irritated at the reasons Emily's mom gave for leaving and for not returning. They didnt seem valid to me.

[KAOS · Rating 1 out of 5]

terrible. rang completely untrue and cliche. i wanted to like it - i grew up in a shitty little wisconsin town close to the illinois border and went to punk shows in rural vfw halls and crap run-down buildings, just like the main character, but i really didn't see anything authentic, realistic or even very likable about this book. really bad writing. so thinly-veiled (i love the diatribe about why the main character is living in the burbs, all defensive and "but the train is so close!" - and then you read in the author's extensive bio that she lives in the chicago suburbs, too! you don't say). the thank-you chapter is so barfily self-congratulatory. makes me angry that i didn't go get an MFA, because apparently you can get published through connections alone.

[Jo Besser · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would give this a half star if Goodreads gave me that option. I read this because I thought I could relate, to it because I was this girl. I've been a music whore who's loved Punk Rock since I was 15. There was one paragraph out of the entire book that I could relate to.

This fell into every god damn YA trope, the parents that don't get it, the love triangle, oh and the Mary Sue main character. I had to go to Urban Dictionary for the definition of a "Punk Sue" Dear Stephanie Kuehnert, you don't know punk rock for shit.

Punk!Sue: Also called Noncomformist!Sue or Goth!Sue, the Punk!Sue is usually written by female beginners in the 11-15 age group. The Punk!Sue is loud, obnoxious, annoying and generally the type of person who you'd want to send off to boot camp for six months. The Punk!Sue almost always has angst coming out of her ears and isn't really a bad person, she's just oh!-so-angry at whatever tragic past the author has chosen to give her. The Punk!Sue is based on what the 11-15 year old author thinks is "cool" and wishes she could be. This includes Evil!Sues.

She thinks Punk rock is all about getting drunk and the drugs. It's so much more than that, it's about sticking it to the man and fighting for the under dog and the little people. But I guess this is because I'm an old school Punk...Or I've grown up with it.

What drove me nuts is the book is called "I want to be you Joey Ramone" I thought there were going to be more Ramones references. Nope, there were more references to Nirvana. Last time I checked Nirvana was all about grunge and not punk. The punk references were shit. I don't think the author knew anything.

And another thing. The author NAME DROPPED only the biggest names of venues. The closest she got to an indie one was the Metro and maybe Fireside Bowl where the punk acts started (here in Chicago). She name dropped the Whiskey A Go Go in LA...Girl, do you even know the history of the Whiskey? I doubt it the REAL ROCK GODS (not the "rock gods" the main character fucks at 12) got their start there. If you wanted to be "punk rock" you should have checked out The Bottom Lounge, The Cobra Lounge, Another Hole in the Wall etc. The Bottom Lounge is the place for the punk scene.

Mentioning Q101 and Twisted Christmas did nothing for you. If you wanted to know how artists got their start. You would have realized that most of the Punk Bands got their start on the Warped Tour. That's how Blink 182 and Dropkick Murphys and Floggin Molly got their start. But I guess I know the roots of punk better than the author.

If you listened and attended real punk shows, you would know that their influences come from everywhere. This includes classic rock, not just Blues and Rhythm and Blues. Emily mentioned one artists and "how they changed their life." That may have been true. But if you read anything about other bands, you would see their influence ranged more than just that.

Not only that, your Emily reminds me of Avril Lavigine. Trying so hard to be punk rock and edgy and knowing music. She honestly doesn't know a damn thing. Not only the fact that she shows up sleeping in a Cheap Trick tee-shirt is offensive since they started out as a little band in Rockford Illinois. But if you knew you're music history you would know that.

I doubt I would have enjoyed this book as a fifteen year old. Fifteen year old Jo and 30 year old Jo have had the same taste in music and has known who they were since then. My last message, I'm more punk rock and hardcore than Emily will ever be. I've raised myself on it since I was 15 and I understand the history of punk. You should have done your research. Now I'm calling you out for the poser you are.

[Adele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been wanting to read this novel for what seems like forever. Thanks goodness for Alexa. I was suffering a severe case of hype-fear as I began reading but then realised 1) IWBYJR wasn't at all like I expected and 2) I loved Emily.

Emily Black is "dark and twisty" (to quote a show I have long given up on). I was expecting something fast paced, brutally honest and kinda warped (all which I got) but I didn't expect a sweeping family saga. I am not someone who lives through a character, I usually empathise but never walk in their footsteps. This was different. Emily and I are night and day. In fact, I am pretty sure that Emily would make fun of me and that I would have been scared of her. Yet, I travelled as her through the twists and turns, months and years, successes and monumental failures.

I understand her better than I understand myself. I love that she adores her father, smokes like a chimney, plays like a pro and wails like a banshee. I love her, flaws and all and believe me that there are plenty of flaws. Emily has a through line that she never deviates from, it's all about the music, which in turn is all about her mother. Even when she convinces herself it's not about the music...it is. I loved this and even more, Kuehnert has made a music genre that I have never "gotten" much more accessible. (I have even been downloading some essentials.)

Every character is amazingly stretched out through the novel. I say stretch because they each have their stories as well. Reagan, Michael, Louisa, Tom, even the noxious Johnny, and the book is richer because of it. Not because we got to know the characters but because we got to know these character through the Emily lens - grimy, loud and with ugly precision.

"Hitting him felt like I had wanted sex to feel". Everything written in this book, even when written with a light touch has a savagery about it that is compelling, entertaining and very different to what I normally read. I lapped it up.

This is an unbelievably affecting debut effort and I feel lucky to have read Kuehnert's words. She's got a long career ahead of her and I know I will be ordering her sophomore effort as soon as amazon will let me

[Rob · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just finished reading this "empowering, feminist YA novel," and the first question that popped into my head is whether or not Stephanie Kuehnert has ever listened--really listened--to punk. Emily Black, the protagonist, is a teenage version of Nancy Botwin from Showtime's Weeds, who grows into a twentysomething substance abuser. Her father is an emotional cripple who cannot advocate for his own needs and is easily emotionally manipulated by his daughter. This is painted as punk. This is painted as feminism.

Eww.

It is obvious from the outset that Kuehnert graduated from an MFA program, acknowledging a litany of professors and never name dropping any authentic punks with whom she might have gathered research. The juxtaposition of heavily Latinated language with the Hot Topic assistant manager dialogue that is meant to be that of a rural Wisconsin punk girl is as pretentious as an army of coffeehouse intellectuals. The back-and-forth POV between Emily and Louisa, dissolving into a third person omniscience before the novel's rough ending, is not at all confusing; it's just a bad stylistic choice. Kids, there were a lot of punks that drank their livers out and sniffed glue and shot up. A lot of bands came from communities surrounding larger cities with stars in their eyes. Even back in the day. In the 90s, REAL punks didn't have tons of respect for the record deal-craving bubble gum punk antics of early Green Day, Blink 182, Sum 41, or their ilk. Real punks often regarded these people as poseurs, who abandoned DIY ethos, zine interviews, and a resistance to oppressive hierarchies TO SERVE those same institutions. Emily Black is such a poseur.

There are a lot of reviews on here of this book calling the ending abrupt. I did not find it abrupt but found all of the coincidences that set it up to be lazy writing. I hope Stephanie Kuehnert has a more authentic and believable voice now. I'm not going to seek out her writing to give her another shot. In fact, my copy of this book is going to the Goodwill on Michigan and 86th in Indianapolis in case any of you want a mediocre read.

[Isamlq · Rating 2 out of 5]

I iz disappoint.

I loved loved loved the angsty “ballads” she had for each of her characters in Ballads of Suburbia, where each person had a depressing/angst-y/dramatic story to share. The angst in this one though just came from one person, so it’s the same thing that had me feeling overloaded. So, if in BALLADS, the angsty/depressing stories were spread out (thus manageable for me,) this one really felt over the top.

The title "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" had me expecting Emily Black to be mostly music less drama. It had me thinking punk girl, maybe strong, maybe independent. One going her own way. As it stands, it’s mostly about a scared girl who’s dissatisfied with where she’s at (a Podunk town as it is repeatedly referred to) despite having an awesome dad and a sometimes awesome best friend.

This Emily Black that I got, I didn’t like. The only time her story truly gelled with me was when she was deciding to do something instead of being swept along by her emotions/hormones. Although I also liked it when she talked about her music, clearly there’s a passion there. It’s her dedication to her “art” when I felt I could like her. Off stage was another matter completely: I simply didn’t like her. She had most things going for her after all. It was one questionable decision after another that mucked things up. Well, that and her pining for someone not there.

Then if we layer on the drama added by her mother’s point of view, well = Drama overload. I must confess though I bought more of Louisa’s drama than her daughter’s. Louisa’s recurring nightmare in particular, then her eventual choice to settle down after being so alone all rang much more truthful too me.

The same things that I loved in her Ballads of Suburbia were present in this one except I didn’t love it as much. Too much angst. Too much immaturity. Too many questionable decisions by most parties involved.

2/5

[Chessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily Black lives in small-town Wisconsin, brought up by her music-loving father and the legends of her rebellious mother Louisa who left when she was an infant to follow the punk music scene. This book is about Emily's own journey on the path of music, the boys that distract her from it, and her search for answers about her legendary - and absent - mother. Also told from the perspective of Louisa, this book weaves an amazing and emotional narrative of punk rock and the emotions we run from. Highly, highly recommended!

The only slight disappointment I had was how quickly it ended. There was a pretty emotional scene at the very end, and then boom, you're done. I kind of wish there had been a little bit more of the story, just a tiny bit of what happened next. It just goes to show you that I wasn't ready to let go of these characters. I wish I could hang out with Emily Black. ;)

[Meagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard about this book a couple years back when I was finishing Supergirl Mixtapes, and, from the title alone, it sounded like a book I wanted to read. Then, I read a review, and I thought, "oh no, this sounds like the plot of the book I'm writing right now!" Cut to now: SM is done, and I finally picked up IWBYJR, breath held, hands over eyes in horror-movie fashion. And I'm relieved to report that, though Stephanie and I both wear our rocknroll hearts on our sleeves, we are two totally different writers and mine and hers are two totally different books. But, yeah, even though Supergirl Mixtapes is done and well on its way to the printing presses, and I didn't read IWBYJR until just this past week, people will still probably accuse me of being the Keith Richards to Stephanie's Chuck Berry. And, you know what? I'm totally fine with that.

[Gary Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world needs more good rock-n-roll novels. The last one I read was Tom Perotta’s The Wishbones. Stephanie Kuehnert’s I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone is another good one. (Please! If you have more recommendations, let me know.)

The rock spirit of this novel cannot be faulted. It has guitars and drums and microphones and concerts and clubs and kids and attitude. Stephanie Kuehnert nails her rock settings in Chicago, rural Wisconsin, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone has some first-novel flaws, but all is forgiven because in this book Stephanie Kuehnert successfully answers the question posed by her main character Emily: “How’d you capture the essence of music without the sound?”

[Brandon Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very flawed mother and a young punk girl long for each other, but are kept apart by tragedy and tragic stubornness. Young Emily Black finds comfort and communion in music, inhaling genres and artists all throughout her childhood, sharing that love with her single dad. She was always told that her mother left her bacuase she had to follow the music scene. As Emily comes of age she forms a band that manages to take off, and puts her music out there, hoping her mother will follow the music back to her.

[Charlie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dear God this book was horrifying. Really terrible writing, atrocious characters I didn't give a damn about (and the deleted bits from her website made me cringe even more), and little interesting development.

This novel is one enormous cliche, but the author doesn't own up to it. I wrote a review on my (only read by my friend's) blog, and she found it. And commented on it.

And 'her Seattle' as she put it made me laugh. so. hard. As someone who has lived there her entire life, I think I would know a bit more about it than her.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not think this book stood a chance with me since it is based on a mother leaving a daughter and husband behind. I usuallly get too mad that someone could do that to want to read anything about it but this book was very entertaining and I loved the story it tells. I read it in a matter of hours and fell in love with Emily Black.

[John Marr · Rating 2 out of 5]

A not bad, but far from believable novel of vindication via punk rock. The younger characters are not bad, but Ms. K has zippo insight into folks over the age of 35 or so and not much of a grasp of pre-Nirvana punk culture/history.

My search for the great, or even a good punk rock novel continues....

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is the first from my good friend from high school, Stephanie Kuehnert, and will be published by MTV books spring/summer 2008. There are many references from my own HS experience, and I'm utterly psyched to read it!

Pre-book it at Amazon. com

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew I had to read this after reading some of Kuehnerts' Rookie articles. I love her articles more, but I really liked this book. I especially liked how the female relationships were written. The part set during Halloween was my favourite.