Hopepunk
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Following the disappearance of her sister, Hope Cassidy rebels against a life that once controlled her, as she learns about forgiveness and redemption—and how hope is the ultimate act of rebellion—in this heartfelt and funny novel.
Growing up in a conservative Christian household isn’t easy for rock-obsessed Hope Cassidy. She's spent her whole life being told that the devil speaks through Led Zeppelin, but it’s even worse for her sister, Faith, who feels like she can’t be honest about dating the record shop cashier, Mavis. That is, until their youngest sister hears word of their "sinful" utopia and outs Faith to their parents. Now there’s nowhere for Faith to go but the Change Through Grace conversion center…or running away.
Following Faith’s disappearance, their family is suddenly broken. Hope feels a need to rebel. She gets a tattoo and tries singing through the hurt with her Janis Joplin-style voice. But when her long-time crush Danny comes out and is subsequently kicked out of his house, Hope can’t stand by and let history repeat itself. Now living in Faith’s room, Danny and Hope strike up a friendship...and a band. And their music just might be the answer to dethroning Alt-Rite, Danny’s twin brother's new hate-fueled band.
With a hilarious voice and an open heart, Hopepunk is a novel about forgiveness, redemption, and finding your home, and about how hope is the ultimate act of rebellion.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sisters Faith and Hope Cassidy, both white, are best friends, but when science fiction enthusiast Faith, 17, is outed as gay by devout younger sister Charity, and their conservative Christian mother decides to send her to conversion therapy, Faith disappears. To cope, Hope, 15, who has recently discovered a passion for punk rock, begins singing. After classmate and fellow musician Danny, also white, is kicked out of his own home for being gay, the grieving, newly reformed Cassidy family takes him in. He and Hope join forces with Angus, who is Black and gay, and Vietnamese American Astrid Nguyen to form Hope Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, a band dedicated to hope, progressive disruption, and taking on the bigoted band Alt-Rite in their Wyoming school's annual Battle of the Bands. Flimsy characterizations, unresolved side plots, and a lack of clear motivation behind ideological shifts undercut the book's believability and political message. What it lacks in nuance, though, Norton's (Where I End and You Begin) novel of political engagement makes up for in sharp humor, an infectious love of music, and an encouraging message: with hope, change is always possible. Ages 14–up.
