What We’re Reading

Born to Rock | Gordon Korman

Rating:

Leo Caraway considers himself to be at a slight disadvantage. You see, he has a genetic hijacker in his bloodstream–and how can he be held responsible? He knows nothing about the man who contributed half of his DNA, other than his name, which he really only stumbled onto by chance. Until he reads his best friend’s English Term Paper, that is.

After years of unanswered questions from his mother, Leo learns one simple internet search would have given him all he wanted to know. McMurphy, the genetic hijacker, just so happens to be the front man for one of Punk Rock’s all-time beloved bands–Purge. And as fate would have it, right on top of this discovery comes the news that Purge is reuniting for a tour. With his scholarship to Harvard lost to him (and unfairly at that), Leo concludes the only thing to do is find and confront this King Maggot and try to get the money from him.

In an unlikely turn of events, Leo goes from Young Republican (which was actually an unlikely event in itself) to Roadie, landing a summer job with Purge. With his mother in denial, his father having confronted the King to ensure his safety on the trip, and his best friend no longer speaking to him, off he goes.

Along the way, he learns quite a bit, though not all that much about being a Roadie. Nothing turns out at all how he’d imagined, but in the end, it’s actually all for the better.

Very quick and funny read, from the first sentence to the last.

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The Born to Rock | Gordon Korman by Jaemi, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 18th, 2006 at 11:12 am by Jaemi and is filed under Book Review. Find similar posts by selecting and of the following tags: bands, fathers and sons, music, punk rock, ya fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.