Secret Rules To Being A Rockstar by Jessamyn Violet
Published by Three Rooms Press
THIS striking debut about an up-and-coming young musician feels reminiscent of the captivating fictional celebrity of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling Daisy Jones And The Six with its own lighthearted, YA sense of fun and wonder.
All of this and more is captured by Jessamyn Violet, one half of award-winning band Movie Club. She is the perfect person to write this bubbly and emotional love letter to music.
Set in 1990s Los Angeles, it feels just like growing up and being thrown into a whole new world of all that is wonderful and awful about adulthood. This feeling, that runs through every exhilarating page will undoubtably be relatable to teenagers learning who they want to be.
Kyla Bell wants to escape her family, a feeling made all the worse by how much she loves them. However, her mother hasn’t been the same since an accident and all her father wants from her is a stable path.
Unfortunately, hard as she tries in school, the one thing Kyla wants will never be stable, she knows she’s a talented pianist and songwriter but proving it is the issue.
When she’s discovered by a popular band at a local concert and asked to open for them, opportunities come hurtling towards her, forcing her to make the choice whether to take a scholarship to a college close to her small town or abandon it all in search of a dream.
When Kyla arrives in LA, she discovers it’s not just her talent that matters – that in order to join one of her favourite bands Glitter Tears as their new keyboardist and spend more time with dazzling front-woman Ruby Sky, she needs a whole new image.
As she is pulled into makeovers and parties more intense than she’s ever known, she has to resolve who she wants to become with what she feels she has to do to fit in.
Under the mentorship of the cynical Robert Jeffs and a growing forbidden and thrilling infatuation with her new bandmate Ruby, life in Los Angeles becomes more complicated. For all she loves about the city and being able to reinvent herself, she realises more and more that alongside all these new rules to being a rockstar she has to learn to establish and hold on to her own identity.
The twists of this journey are honest and complicated, building Kyla as a relatable character the reader can root for all the way.
It tells the story of more than simply discovering and accepting a queer identity at a young age but also all the other vital aspects of who Kyla is and how inextricably it’s tied to her music.
So many facets of Secret Rules To Being A Rockstar make it stand out as a sparkling debut that will become a favourite and comfort read of many – but for me it’s simply how fun it is to read. Violet’s stellar wit and pacing never allow for a dull moment, sweeping the reader up into a world of glamour, uncertain romance and rock stardom.
However, above all, this story speaks to a passion for creating and consuming art as a way to navigate coming of age in a way that shines through every word and cuts deep.
