It's 1994. The music industry is mourning Kurt Cobain, Right Said Fred have re-emerged as an 'ironic' pop act and John Major is the country's prime minister. Nothing is as it should be.
Emma, a working-class rock music fan from Hull, with a penchant for a flaming Drambuie and a line of coke with her best mate Dave down The Angel, is troubled.
Trev, her beloved whippet, has doggy IBS, and her job ordering bathroom supplies at the local caravan company is far from challenging. So, when her dad, Tel, informs her that Kurt Cobain has killed himself aged 27, Emma is consumed with anxiety.
Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix...why have so many rock musicians died aged 27? And will Emma be next to join The Twenty Seven Club?
The Twenty Seven Club is a nostalgic, often humorous, drug and booze-infused tale of friendship, discovery and anxiety as Emma tries, for once, to focus on life, rather than death.
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'Kurt Cobain found dead' screamed unapologetically from every black-inked front page landing on doormats or in front gardens around the world. PROLOGUE, APRIL 8 1994, THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED
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(Lark Books, 3 March 2021, 231 pages, ebook, #ARC from the author via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 13 February via @RandomTTours)
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I really enjoyed this book. It's very different from the stuff I usually read and was exactly what I was looking for. It's set in 1994 when I was teenager, so I was familiar with the world in the book; the cultural references and setting. Some people will really love this book if they were into the music and bands featured. I wasn't so all of the references didn't mean much to me. I didn't enjoy this aspect as much as I could have. However, I really enjoyed the other aspects of the book such as the way the author explores friendship, love and mental illness. I can relate to being obsessed with a band or singer and how the death of an idol can highlight your own mortality. This is a very enjoyable read.
