Once Upon a Twilight!: Blog Tour: Screaming Divas | Suzanne Kamata | Review

Welcome to our stop on SCREAMING DIVAS tour for Suzanne Kamata. This tour is hosted by Book Nerd Tours. Today we share our 3.5 star review and much more.

Screaming Divas
Author: Suzanne Kamata
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Released: May 18th 2014
Review Source: Blog Tour | Merit Press

At sixteen, Trudy Baxter is tired of her debutante mom, her deadbeat dad, and her standing reservation at the juvenile detention center. Changing her name to Trudy Sin, she cranks up her major chops as a singer and starts a band, gathering around other girls ill at ease in their own lives. Cassie Haywood, would-have-been beauty queen, was scarred in an accident in which her alcoholic mom was killed. But she can still sing and play her guitar, even though she seeks way too much relief from the pain in her body and her heart through drugs, and way too much relief from loneliness through casual sex. Still, it's Cassie who hears former child prodigy Harumi Yokoyama playing in a punk band at a party, and enlists her, outraging Harumi's overbearing first-generation Japanese parents. The fourth member is Esther Shealy, who joins as a drummer in order to be close to Cassie--the long-time object of her unrequited love--and Harumi, her estranged childhood friend. Together, they are Screaming Divas, and they're quickly swept up as a local sensation. Then, just as they are about to achieve their rock-girl dreams, a tragedy strikes.ough her feelings for the Wyatt brothers—and find her friend—before she loses them all?

One, two, one, two, three four! I figured I could start this review just like a band starts a show. Screaming Divas are four girls who get together to form an all-girl rock band. We follow the lives of Trudy, Harumi, Esther, and Cassie, all girls completely different but all find the passion in music with each other.

Screaming Diva’s focuses on all of the girl’s lives before the band and during, the girls together and girls separate. This may be a shorter book but you learn a lot about each one of them and are able to see them grow tremendously, good and bad in just a limited amount of pages.

When we first meet Trudy Baxter she’s already getting in trouble, getting arrested for shop lifting, her mother then sends her off to jail where she sits until her father whom she hasn’t seen in years picks her up. People seem to leave Trudy as soon as trouble ensues; they just give up on her when she truly needs them the most. Trudy moves out and decides to start a band, become someone.

Harumi Yokoyama is destined to become a violin prodigy until her audition for Julliard changes everything her family has mapped out for her. Harumi didn’t get in trouble, she didn’t date, and she didn’t do anything but practice and master her violin. But when people are under a constant cloud of pressure they can crack, and that just so happened with Harumi, she cracked at her audition, she didn’t want the path her parents have paved for her. Instead she picks up a bass and joins a band, paves her own path.

Then we meet Cassie Haywood, beautiful pageant child, Cassie. When we’re first introduced to Cassie she is covering a huge scar that runs down her face, a scar she got when her and her mother got into accident. Cassie’s mother found out her husband was cheating, she was already drinking, she took Cassie and left, the accident took her mother’s life and gave Cassie a scar on her face and her heart. While Cassie’s dad is busy with his new trophy wife Cassie stumbles upon a flyer to join an all-girl band.

And then lastly, but not any less important we’re introduced to Esther Shealy. The first thing we learn about Esther is that she harbors secret feelings for Cassie and she used to be good friends with Harumi. Esther spends a lot of time under the influence of others expectations that it takes her awhile to truly come out of her shell. Everyone around her truly taught her a lesson about herself.

I completely enjoyed the amount of time we got with each of the girls; they became each other’s crutches, and became true sisters. As expected though having girls around each other all the time there is guaranteed drama and Screaming Divas have their fair share of drama, as well as love, hate, exploration and a kick ass time playing together.

If you love the true sisterhood type stories, Screaming Divas is for you. Rock and Roll has its ups and downs and you definitely get that with Trudy, Harumi, Cassie, and Esther. Being together changed them, being the Screaming Divas changed them.

Back in the day, Suzanne Kamata spent a lot of time hanging out in a club in Columbia, South Carolina, much like the one in Screaming Divas. (The beat goes on . . .) She later wrote about musicians for The State newspaper, The Japan Times, and other publications. Now, she mostly writes novels. In her free time, she enjoys searching for the perfect fake fur leopard-print coat and listening to the Japanese all-girl band Chatmonchy.