How to Kill a Rock Star

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JUL 25, 2005

DeBartolo looks into the love affair between an aspiring rock journalist and a "spirited maverick" musician in her clunky, earnest sophomore outing (after God-Shaped Hole). When Eliza moves from Ohio to New York to work for a music magazine, she finds herself rooming with Paul, the lead singer in her brother Michael's band. Paul and Eliza hit it off immediately: both love the same singer/songwriter (who says things like "rock 'n' roll music is a dying man.... t's a man being crucified"), both are orphans, and both think the other is hot stuff. It could be a decent romantic comedy, but DeBartolo aims for drama, and serves up uninspired prose and a skimpy plot. Paul and Eliza fall in love; he writes a song about her ("She is a virgin. She is a whore. She gives it all and I beg for more"); her fear of flying (her parents were killed in a plane crash) gets worse after September 11; Paul, on the brink of megastardom, refuses to tour unless she comes along; she sacrifices their relationship for the sake of his art. Complications (note the title) ensue. This is best read by younger adults, who might be more forgiving of the inelegant writing and the characters' classic concerns of waning adolescence.