Zev’s Comments (group member since Feb 26, 2019)

Zev’s comments from the What's the Name of That Book??? group.

Could it be "Black and blue" by Anna Quindlen?

Long story short, I found out I could have actually read this book in 2016 at the latest. I edited the header to reflect that.

Long story short, I found out last night that I could have actually read this in 2016 at the latest. I edited the header to reflect that.

It is NOT "immortal blood" by Barbara Hambly.

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In case it hasn't been mentioned: "We have always lived in the Castle" by Shirley Jackson.

It is NOT "now and then" by William Corlett.

Yes, this is it! The dialogue is on page 234. Thank you so much!

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Yes! Thank you!

TW: suicide; depression; poverty; implied domestic violence.

I read this between 2000-2012. I don't remember who the author was, but I think it was a man. The book cover may have had white or gray on it. It was a paperback and I checked it out from the library. It was a standalone.

The story takes place in London and its suburbs. MC is English, but his best friend is Irish and there's anti-Irish sentiment in the book. The MC is a teenager who is navigating his parents' recent divorce. His dad is dating a singer named Abigail. His dad is super attracted to her and also thinks by dating her, he will get his own fame. She is much younger than him, and MC is creeped out by this. Near the end of the book, the dad joyously points to the newspaper and says something like "I'm in it! I am in it as her boyfriend." "It says 'Abigail and friend'. You're barely in the photo," MC points out. "We all know what 'friend' really means for celebrities," the dad argues. I remember Abigail as kind of an airhead and wondering why she'd date someone so much older.

MC and friends are trying to start their own rock band. Songs they perform include "Zombie Kids" (fake song for the novel) and three others. The songs are about being poor and living in bad parts of London. Matt, MC's best friend, wrote "Zombie Kids" and two other songs the band performs. MC has no idea that it's Matt's way of telling him he's depressed. MC's mother is depressed due to the divorce and he is left to take care of himself.

Matt, MC's friend, has a ten-year-old sister, Natalie. She sings on a few of the songs they send off to producers. The producers think it's funny because she's irreverent. On one of the tracks, Matt's mom barges in and screams at them to shut up. This is left in the recording. The producers think that adds well to the song. MC and friends do not get signed, but perform for free and for fun.

MC may have had a crush on his teacher or been dating an older student. At one point, MC and friends find a man's wallet in a gas station and steal the cash but leave the cards. They use the cash to buy groceries, especially bacon. They teach Natalie that "pig" is also a term for cops, but is the animal bacon comes from. They return the wallet to the man and he's so grateful. Then he looks at the bags of groceries they're carrying and realizes they stole his cash but he can't say anything. Matt makes a song out of this. It may have had "plastic" in the title, referring to credit cards.

Matt threatens suicide a few times. Near the end of the book, he climbs over his apartment balcony and dangles there, talking to MC and friends. Friends rush to find an adult while MC tries to talk Matt down. Matt's mom is inside and doesn't care. She doesn't like her children and regrets having them, and lets them know. A friend of a friend, Vernon? runs over and is trying to placate Matt, who is waxing poetic about music. "I have a guitar," he offers, terrified, and rushes to get it. He may have been drunk. He comes back with the guitar, trying to talk Matt into coming back inside the apartment so Matt can play it. Matt demurs, lets go of the balcony and falls to his death. Natalie sees this too.

MC and friends are devastated. Matt's mom yells at them for making noise. She has no idea what happened. "I have a guitar--oh wait," the drunk guy says. He's really freaked out, but just drunk. MC doesn't tell his dad what happened. Weeks later, "I still can't call Matt by his name. I just call him the Pancake Man." and something about teeth and blood being everywhere.

Abigail books a singing gig and invites MC and friends to open for her. They're stunned, and dedicate their performance to Matt, and perform his songs. "I looked out into the audiences of twelve-year-old teeny-boppers who screamed, 'Abigail,' and my dad, the groupie, in the front row."

The book ends on a realistic note of the MC thinking that he's going to have to go through life with a dad he doesn't respect, a mom he can't connect to, and a best friend he watched die. He's cynical through the whole book.
I'll comment if I remember anything else.

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