HOT WAX
An electric, rock and roll fuelled story of one band's rise to stardom and one women's quest for answers
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
'Sensory and visceral from page one . . . M. L. Rio is a force to be reckoned with' JENNIFER EGAN
'The sleaze of the Stooges, the energy of the Ramones and the glamour of the Cramps - Hot Wax is a pure foot-on-the-monitors, amps-up-to-ten rock 'n' roll classic' MAT OSMAN
A vivid and immersive tale of one woman's reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is.
Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father's forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills' wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning - one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.
The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father's sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers.
Hitching her fate and Gil's beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she'd lost forever: desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country - and drives her to a desperation all her own.
Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back - where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rio (If We Were Villains) captures the joy and danger of rock 'n' roll in her raucous latest. Photographer Suzanne, 41, is adrift in Florida, having left her straightlaced and possessive husband, Rob. Her car, a 1968 Ford Ranchero that belonged to her recently deceased father, Gil, is on its last legs. Despite her years apart from Gil, a Cuban immigrant and rock band frontman, he loomed large in her imagination: "the world felt deadly empty now that he was gone." Suzanne is not just grieving her dad, but a childhood of innocence lost too early. Flashbacks to 1989 reveal Suzanne as an independent 10-year-old, waiting for her rockstar father to return home from tour. When her mom remarries and leaves for her honeymoon, she gets a dream come true: life on the road with Gil & the Kills for a summer. On tour, she witnesses an act of violence that she's still trying to understand as an adult. In the present day, Suzanne gets help with the Ranchero from 20-something bohemian couple Simon and Phoebe, in return for towing their Airstream trailer. As Suzanne hits the road with Simon and Phoebe, the pair helps her move on from Rob and reckon with the truth of what happened three decades earlier. Rio keeps the reader guessing—and turning the pages—while shining a light on Suzanne's emotional scars. This electrifies.
