As a person who has always been a huge music fan, and one who is the same age as the main character Jane, I was super excited to dive into this book. It did not disappoint! I think Marissa Stapley did a great job in setting the scene of the music world in the early 90s, and she really hit it all - the good, the bad, and the ugly. The characters were well-developed, and my favorite kinds: not perfect. They struggled with their flaws, and with each other. Jane's struggles especially, as a woman in a world determined to demean and hate her, really resonated.

My only complaint is that the ending felt a little rushed. It was satisfying, and a good twist, and I like where Jane ended, but I wished we had a little longer to get there, and more time with Hen. That said, I loved the build of the story, and the switch between past and present time for Jane. I just wanted to spend a little more time in the world, with the characters, and with the plot.

The Lightning Bottles follows the courtship and rise to superstardom of Elijah and Jane. Everyone loves Elijah and his voice. His powerful voice and Jane’s lyrics propel their debut album. Even though they are married, that doesn’t rub off on Jane. She is socially awkward and has trouble dealing with fame. From the beginning, she is hated by Elijah’s friends and bandmates. When he leaves them to form the Lightning Bottles with Jane, it sets off a rivalry that weaves throughout the book.

The action follows two timelines—one following the couple's rise and the other five years after Elijah goes missing off the coast of Iceland. His disappearance completely isolates Jane. Officials declare him dead after some of his things wash up on shore.

Five years later, Jane buys a house in Germany next door to Henrietta or Hen. Ironically, Hen is a Lightning Bottles mega-fan who was at their final concert. She also believes that Elijah didn’t die and is sending messages through public art. Now, the hunt is on to figure out if it is possible that Elijah is still alive.

I thought the characters were diverse and interesting, although there really weren’t many to root for. Most of the musicians needed a good kick in their grungy pants. I liked Hen, she really had a ‘never give up’ attitude.

The story was moving, and the mystery intriguing. I enjoy character development in a book, and after a long, toxic ride, each one seemed to grow.

The resolve and ending were satisfying also. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

I really loved this book. How the music scene seemed like a mystery waiting to be solved and the love, obsession. and passion that fueled the era of musicians. A great story and I will look forward to more of this author.

As Taylor Jenkins Reid gave it a great review, I knew I had to read this. I previously enjoyed the author's work 'Lucky' so I was thrilled to have an advanced reading copy of this. Dare i say, I enjoyed this MORE than Lucky! The Seattle music scene is one that always fascinated me and I loved having an insider look from Seattle to stardom, and the downfalls that come with the rise to success. Layer in a bit of a mystery and I'm sold. Thanks netgalley & the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is the story of Jane and Elijah, their dreams of being famous musicians during the 90’s Seattle grunge band era. It’s a heart wrenching romantic journey to fame and the consequences of getting what you want. The settings are everywhere from Seattle, LA, Berlin, Paris, Iceland, and Canada. The timeline also alternated between chapters. Music lovers and romantics alike will fall in love with the novel. It will bring back personal memories of your own first concert, the first time you heard that favorite song or fell in love with the guitarist. It’s raw, gritty, gloriously exciting and depressingly sorrowful. You will love and hate the path Jane and Elijah take towards their inevitable end. I thought it was deeply moving and unfortunately too accurate describing the music industry. For me some of the scenarios were unlikely or implausible, thus the four star rating. I expect this to be top of the charts for a generation younger than me.
I received an Advance Reader Copy of “The Lightening Bottles’ by Marissa Stapley, published by Simon & Schuster, publication 09/24/2024, via NetGalley. These are all my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation
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This might be one of my favorite VH1 where are they now type of books. I of course, loved the dual storyline. It was the completely unrealistic yet whimsical scavenger hunt. Hen is an awesome side character who helped move the story along.
I would definitely recommend this book to the readers in my life.

Loved, loved, loved The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley. I loved what I felt was an inside look at how life must be like as a famous musician. Love, obessesion, addiction, and so much more! I read this one straight through and did not want it to end! As a former groupie myself to a bad boy bass player, it especially hit home. This is my first novel by Marissa Stapley but I will defintely searching out more.

Before I get too deep into this review, this is NOT, I repeat NOT like Diasy Jones. That is fluff, that is a beach read. Someone also said this is more YA. 100% disagree, there is heavy drug use and references that any teen/YA would very likely not understand.

What Marissa Stapley has written with The Lightning Bottles is a love letter to the 90s. The nostalgia that poured through this book was thick. Jane Pyre and Elliot Hart were the golden couple in the early 90s. Their story was one of legend, they met as teens, during the early days of the internet. These two sensitive and talented teens fall in love through hand-written letters, recorded cassette tapes, and phone calls from two different areas of North America. After Jane leaves Canada for Seattle, the two are attached and will be until 1994, when Elliot took a rowboat to the sea in Iceland, never to return.

Now, it's the verge of the Millennium, and Jane move to Germany. She wants to be alone. She's sober and trying to at least attempt to move on with her life. She buys a remote farmhouse, and is disappointed to find her neighbor is much closer than she would like. That neighbor is a 17 year old fan of The Lightening Bottles and she holds a special secret that she MUST tell Jane.

The two women go on a quest, following graffiti in Germany, Denmark and France, until Jane knows she has to finish the trip on her own.
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I wanted to stretch out reading this book because it brought me back to a certain time and place. The story of Jane and Elliot could easily have been Kurt and Courtney. Elliot could be Jeff Buckley. Jane could be Shirley Manson/PJ Harvey/Liz Phair. It's people that I'm familiar with because this was my teenage years. I remember where I was when I heard Kurt was dead. This book wants to test what would happen if someone of the talent of Buckey/Cobain just...disappeared, rather than their actual fate.

Stapley has captured that part of time, pre-mass internet boom, pre-Y2K. The sweaty clubs, the power of a handwritten letter, the lyrics of songs that cut deep. This is a story of what if? It's a music story, a historical fiction (ugh...I'm old), a love story.

I loved this. I loved every single word. Love live The Lightning Bottles!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

A great next read for fans of Daisy Jones & the Six, Songs in Ursa Major, and Mary Jane. The Lightning Bottles is a fun and thought provoking account of life in the music industry, showing the behind-the-scenes cost of fame. The set up is interesting, and the plot takes just enough creative and unexpected turns to keep pages turning. A great addition to the growing list of compelling novels about life in the music industry.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book for review.

THE LIGHTNING BOTTLES ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. I loved this one! Jane and Elijah were quickly catapulted into fame. As rising rock stars in the early 90s they became an overnight sensation. When Elijah goes missing and is presumed dead, 5 years later Jane is trying to put the puzzle pieces together with one of their biggest fans. I LOVED this one. As a Seattle born and raised girl, who loves the alternative/grunge scene of the 80s/90s it’s like this book was made for me! I absolutely loved it, this book was a story of addiction, love, insecurities, adoration. As a woman, it was such an honest book about the blame and pressure women had and still have, on their shoulders. I need a signed copy for my shelf! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

3.5 stars - If you enjoyed "Daisy Jones & the Six" then this title might be right up your alley. It's the 90's grunge this time though, as we search for one half of a once-famous duo with the other half, Jane and an obsessed fan girl. It was not really what I expected from this author, whose "Lucky" I really enjoyed and I found it hard to connect with the story and characters. I know as a boomer, that I am not the intended audience though and likely older Millennials will enjoy this one. My thanks to Net Galley & the publisher for my advance review copy, I appreciate it!

The Lightning Bottles is a love story about rockstars Jane Pyre and Elijah Hart, depicting their meteoric rise to fame and their role in ushering in a new era of music in the 90s. This book is gritty, nostalgic, angsty, and perfectly captures the culture surrounding Seattle sound and grunge music.

This reminded me a lot of “Daisy Jones and The Six” with its glimpses into the music industry and how artists pour themselves into the songwriting process. I appreciate how it showcases musicians’ struggles with substance abuse, fame, and especially in Jane's case, misogyny.

I also liked how the chapters went back and forth in time to reveal more of their past before focusing on Jane and Hen decoding Elijah’s messages in the present day. However, I couldn't really get into this book, and I think it may be due to Hen's character. While I understand the importance of Hen as a an outsider to ground the story and provide a different perspective, I couldn't really connect with her as a character and see past her motivation to unravel and get close to rockstars she has worshipped for years.

I’m not musically inclined and I haven’t felt such adoration towards artists before, so perhaps this book wasn't the right fit for me, but I wanted to see more of Jane and Elijah. Regardless, I’m glad they found their way back to each other at the end.

I have mixed feelings about The Lightning Bottles. I loved the depiction of the music and rock n roll world of the 1990s. I sympathized with Jane's struggles as a woman in that world. The author did a good job with the issues of alcoholism and addiction.

On the other hand, I didn't particularly like any of the main characters. The plot moved slowly until the ending, which was rushed.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.

If you enjoy rock n roll love stories & Daisy & the Six you will really like this book. I absolutely could not put it down! Stapley fully develops her characters and you will feel like you really know them. A great summer read, thanks for the advanced copy!!

If you were around for the rise of alternative music, loved Daisy Jones, or enjoy a good rock and roll book, The Lightning Bottles is a five star read! Instantly I started catching some Easter eggs about alternative, grunge and rock bands from the 90s. It was great to catch real names from the music scene interspersed throughout story characters (RIP, Steve Albini).

I loved the use of parallel timelines - The time changes were seamless and integrated very well into a genuine story of love, loss, and relationships.

5 stars for a compelling, vivid story. An extra star for a fast, fun read. Another extra star for the feeling I got of being “in the know” while I read.

This is another book that I had high expectations going into, as I enjoyed the authors previous book, “Lucky”. However, I didn’t feel very lucky after having read this newest release. This is story about musicians in the 1990’s, and I thought that I would feel a great sense of nostalgia and longing for what was once a great time in my life. This book didn’t bring me any joy unfortunately, and the pages and chapters seemed to drag on… This book is also labeled as General/Historical Fiction for adults, but I feel that it is more of a YA read.

We have the story of Jane (formerly Janet) Pyre, who runs away from home on her 18th birthday to get away from her very strict, church-going mother. Jane fell in love with a musician she met online, and drove all the way to Seattle, WA from Canada to be with him. Luckily, it was meant to be and they went on to make beautiful music together…

However, things were not always easy for Jane and Elijah. Elijah’s friends hated Jane, as did all their fans. Elijah struggled with substance abuse problems, and Jane always felt like she was the problem. They had to deal with legal issues, all while growing up in the public eye. Then Elijah disappears, and maybe Jane has one friend that can help her find out what really happened…

Unfortunately, I didn’t care for any of the characters in this book and I felt that it was unnecessarily long. As I mentioned above, I didn’t get that nostalgic feeling I was looking for, and I think that those who enjoy reading about young love might enjoy this book more than I did.
(2.5 stars - rounded up)

Many thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and the author for an ARC of this book which I had the pleasure of reading. Publication date: September 24, 2024.

The Lighting Bottles is like elevated Love/Cobain fanfic-- and I mean that in the absolute best way. Told with cinematic precision, Stapley has crafted a portrait of a polarizing, widely misunderstood woman and woven it together with a mystery. Actually, a few mysteries: who is leaving her clues that only Elijah would know? Who really wrote the Lightning Bottles's hit song?, and is Elijah still alive?

Together with Hen, Jane Pyre sets out to find answers, and to find out who she is outside of the spotlight.

While this doesn't feel like a derivative of Daisy Jones, it will certainly appeal to fans of that bestseller, and I would definitely recommend this book.

Wow, this is easily going to be one of my favorite books of the year, and it’s only June. As a younger Gen X’er, I am *super* picky about 90s nostalgia and 90’s music-related fiction, and she carefully built a world in The Lightning Bottles that mixed real 90s musicians and cultural moments with fictional composites and original characters. Marissa clearly knew her stuff or knew where to do her research to accurately reference music venues of the time period (hello, Re-Bar callout!), and it adds to the richness of the setting and story.

But this isn’t just a nostalgia tale. I loved and related to Jane, the main protagonist, who just can’t seem to do anything right or have anything she does perceived correctly in the male-dominated music scene. (A lot of Jane’s struggles with perception still apply to being a woman working in the tech world 25+ years later.) On a personal level, she struggles with the frustration and guilt related to trying to save someone who can’t save himself.

The mystery surrounding what really happened Elijah’s disappearance drives the plot and is handled in a way that keeps you turning pages while you fall more and more in love with the characters. (Side note: I adored Maxime, a minor character who appears in a few pivotal scenes.) To put in perspective how bingeable this book is, I finished it in under 2 days while suffering from Covid Brain Fog and could barely concentrate on anything for more than 3 minutes. If you were ever a fan of or at least fascinated by the Pixies or Jeff Buckley or Courtney Love or Sinead O’Conner, I highly recommend checking this book out when you get the chance.

I cannot truly begin to elucidate how The Lightning Bottles made me feel. This story was so raw and complicated—and reminded me of two of my own relationships. I really loved the dual POVs, as well as the intergenerational component—it felt really well-rounded and hopeful. The conclusion felt extraordinarily satisfying and I am just so truly grateful for the introduction to Marissa Stapley and this story.

“The Lightning Bottles,” by Marissa Stapley is a homage to misunderstood, strong, ambitious female rock stars from the eighties and nineties, in particular Sinead O’Connor. It features a fictitious husband and wife rock duo, Elijah and Jane, called “the Lightning Bottles,” who met in their teens through an online user forum created by Jane to find fellow music fans. After Jane comes to live with Elijah and his parents, Jane writes music for Elijah to sing and perform. Soon they are discovered by record managers and promoters, quickly becoming a rock sensation in the 1990s, with platinum records, Grammy awards and sold out concerts worldwide. The book chronicles their subsequent descent into alcoholism and drug addiction, until Elijah is pronounced dead in Iceland from drowning in the stormy waters off Iceland’s south coast.

Five years later, Jane moves to a farmhouse on the outskirts of Berlin, where she meets Hen, a teenage girl who is an ardent fan of the Lightning Bottles. Hen believes that she has found clues that Elijah is still alive and trying to communicate with Jane through posters and graffitti on the walls of buildings in Berlin, the site of the Lightning Bottles last public appearance. Jane reluctantly agrees to accompany Hen on a journey across Europe to find these clues, ultimately returning alone to Iceland to find the last pieces of the puzzle.

The book contains lyrical language, and well-drawn characters whose anguish and sense of loss are palpable. This book will resonate for those who spent their youth idolizing musicians and compulsively listening to emotionally moving music.