A light-hearted romp(although with a darker theme featuring a couple of young gun toting robbers) taking in the demise of record stores, the rise of downloading culture, music blogs and young love.Allie our young protagonist is a likeable record store clerk navigating her parent's divorce and both parents' new partners while struggling to embark upon her own journey into the unknown romantic environs of Telegraph Road in San Francisco.2 stars may be somewhat harsh as it's enjoyable enough escapism with some known markers along the road but feels a little dated already and a touch shallow at times. I really don't mean to offend anyone, but this book was so annoyingly hipster, I can almost feel the black, thick-framed glasses forming on my face and the venti pumpkin spice latte with white mocha from Starbucks materializing in my hand. I mean, I love music. I really do. But I don't own a vinyl or a turntable or even a cassette tape and I DO download my music ON my iPod, and this book just came of as snobbish and elitist for me. Just because Allie owns 8434534 vinyls and all that shit, it doesn't mean that she's better than anyone else, and that's EXACTLY how she came out to me. Allie was a freaking self-righteous pompous ass, with her "lol-you-download-music-you-are-the-scum-of-the-world" complex going on. I liked nothing about her. It's surprising that I actually finished reading the book. (probably just the music history)I kind of feel like I was reading a sermon about my music-purchasing choices, and hell, my music taste in general. Especially during the part where when Allie's dad joined that band with Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and AFI as their inspiration, and Allie said that they were "punk-ass kids", and just - EXCUSE ME? I, ugh. I don't really know how to phrase out my thoughts anymore, I'm terrible at writing anything more than three sentences. But I'm leaving with this - I absolutely hated the snobbery in this book, and everything was just way too forced, and hell, what was the main plot, anyway? Her blog thing? Her love life? (ugh)Her work in general? Oh, and I just realized: The entire book could have just gone off as smoothly (as it can be, ugh) without the robbery crap part. I mean, what was the point of THAT?(I will probably edit this and say things more clearly when I get the time. But for now, I'm off to go plug in my earphones and listen to my downloaded music on my *GASP* iPod)
What do You think about Princesse Vinyle (2012)?
3.5 stars. Nice YA coming of age with, not surprisingly, serious focus on music. Nicely written.
—Kris
It was really cute but it could have a little more of something.
—chibuike
