It’s a schematic setup — strait-laced suburbanites versus groovy artists — but this book works because it’s got a great protagonist ... If this is a coming-of-age story, it is also a story of self-possession and common sense. ... Bighearted and retro in its setting and music, this novel has the bouncy rhythm of classic television ... Blau is a deft hand with comic juxtaposition and domestic fantasy. She keeps it light, she keeps it moving and she’s got terrific visuals ... There are moments when the plot feels farfetched ... Some of the primary-colored characters could use a little shading ... The end of the book is not quite as strong as the beginning, perhaps because Mary Jane starts spelling out what she learns...All this goes without saying! Still, Blau’s story is so clear and bright that you can watch the movie in your mind. Lady Gaga as Sheba? I’m already casting it.
... a playful romp of a novel ... While this story is written for adults, it would not be surprising if it becomes a popular YA novel. Kudos to Blau. Let’s hope she has more arrows like this in her quiver.
... marred by some hard-to-believe plotting but rescued by genuine love and a wonderful sense of its mid-seventies era ... the contrast between counterculture-equals-good, versus conventional-equals-bad, teeters on the cartoonish. And Mary Jane’s parents aren’t merely stuck-in-the-mud caricatures; they are outright racists and anti-Semites ... What saves the novel are the sweet hints of genuine love between Mary Jane and her mother ... As beach reads go, this one isn’t bad. (Hopefully, the audio version could include a soundtrack of Jimmy’s songs.)
Blau paints an overly rosy picture of Mary Jane’s coming-of-age: Though the book nominally engages with weighty topics including addiction, adultery, and racism, it fails to seriously reckon with them or with the complex and often ugly history of America in the 1970s. The novel’s countercultural setting is, regrettably, mere window dressing. Though Mary Jane’s desire to escape her parents’ oppressive home is understandable, Blau never critically interrogates the Cones’ extreme openness, particularly about sex, which is also inappropriate given the fact that Mary Jane is only 14. With the exception of some clunky dialogue, Blau’s novel is readable and modestly entertaining, and readers nostalgic for the rock-and-roll scene of the '70s will likely enjoy its depiction of a wayward star, but it never dares to ask difficult questions ... A frustratingly sentimental depiction of adolescence and American counterculture.
... sweet if simplistic ... Mary Jane’s narration can be cloying, and the narrative arc, though shaped by Mary Jane’s eye-opening exposure to the realities of adulthood, is not particularly sophisticated. Still, this might please readers looking to indulge their ’70s nostalgia.
