Simon and Schuster provided an early galley for review.

As her introductory author's note states, Stapley was a 90's teen passionate about the music and artists of that time. That love and longing translates perfectly into the character of Hen, the sullen teen who Jane encounters shortly after her arrival in the country.

While the present day acts as the roadmap of the story, the flashback chapters provided much-needed backstory to the relationship between Jane and Elijah. I had to smile with the BBS (bulletin-board system) exchanges; early Internet chatrooms were something one does not forget. The use of letters between characters also works very well here (it is a literary technique I don't think about utilizing that often myself). I also liked that the flashbacks are written in past tense while the "present day" chapters are written in present tense. It is a subtle thing (it took me almost a third of the book to register it) that works well.

Stapley mixes real world musicians like Bono and Michael Stipe with those she has made up for her tale (like the reimagined Seattle music scene and her stand-in for Sinéad O'Connor, one of the artists Stapley praises in her opening author's note). For those who know their 90's music trivia, these nods and reworkings will be very familiar. Whether one considers these reinterpretations of people and events as creative license or an literary shortcuts will vary. In any case, the story makes it way to a satisfying conclusion.

I like the added bonus of three song lyrics at the end. That is a nice touch too.

Enjoyed! Its very Daisy Jones & The Six with a little bit more of an active mystery rather than just a 4th act reveal. Fairly well done, I was interested in all the characters whether I particularly liked them or not, which is all that matters in such a character focused story! would recommend.

Jane Pyre was once 1/2 of a famous rock duo. Her husband & bandmate disappeared. Years later, she is hated by the public and wants to know what happed to him and her career. In Germany, where she goes to hide, her neighbor is a superfan of her former band. The girl says that her husband is still alive & has been leaving Jane clues. They need to follow the clues quickly and solve the mystery. Can the two solve the mystery on a cross-country road trip?

Was so excited for this ARC and thank you NetGalley for the chance, so I find myself torn rating this a 2 star read. I loved this author’s previous work “Lucky” and the plot comparisons to “Daisy Jones and the Six” but I just could not get into this one. The prologue fell very flat for me. I kept trying to pick up and get back into this book, but was just not kept engaged and ultimately DNF.

⭐️ 3.75

A really solid read. It took me a hot minute to get into, but once I did I flew through it. I typically love any book that incorporates music and/or the music industry so I loved that aspect. I feel like most I've read take place in the 70s, so to read one in the 90s was a breath of fresh air. But what stood out to me was this element of mystery and suspense that builds up until the end of the book — it kept me hooked and anxious to find out what happens. It fell flat for me in a few places, but overall, I really enjoyed it!

Split between past and present, the story of The Lightning Bottles emerges. Elijah and Jane meet in the early days of Internet chat rooms and bond over a love of music. They form the duo, the Lightning Bottles and become a sensation on and off the stage. The people love Elijah and his beautiful face and voice and love to hate Jane. One day Elijah disappears.

In the present, a fan with her own complicated childhood knows something about The Lightning Bottles and maybe about Elijah’s disappearance.

Amazing writing. Evocative, haunting, and a look behind the curtain of success. Must read!

I wish I could give this book 10 stars! From the very start of Elijah and Jane's relationship, I was absolutely hooked. Maybe it's because I was at the age where I remember chat rooms and talking to the same people online, wishing to one day meet them in person, but I absolutely devoured this book and didn't want it to end. The characters are so well developed, I feel like I know each and every one of them, and the description of the songs, along with the lyrics in the back has me searching for them on all my music streaming apps.
Strongly recommend to anyone who group up with chat rooms and loved Daisy Six!

4.5 brilliant shining stars. Ever since I read Bright Side by Kim Holden so many years ago I’ve been wanting more books about music and what music can mean to you. I know many will relate this book to Daisy Jones (which I also loved) but this one was different for me. The need for music in your heart and soul. This novel is another such book about music - but it’s so much more. It’s about the music you hear in your head and the music in your heart. It’s about a love of another human being who hears the same music as you and has the same need to make it. What happens when you achieve that goal?

The book opens with a young German girl, Hen, listening to a DJ talking about the disappearance 5 years earlier of a rock star who allegedly died in the cold Icelandic water - body never found. Hen loves this band wholeheartedly and is a huge fan. She lives a rather sad life with a mom who won’t leave the house.

A young woman, Jane, meets a man, Elijah, in an online chat room dedicated to music. They speak the same language of music and this develops into a great love.

These two women’s lives intersect and the book takes begins on a mysterious journey to try and discover if Elijah is really dead. I absolutely loved the way two stories were weaved in this book.

I love all the references to Seattle and the music scene in the early 90’s and the music being created there. Courtney Love’s band Hole is thrown in the book too.

This book is filled with so much emotion and angst. What happens when you realize the one person you love more than anything cannot be saved by love alone?

"Sometimes the best part of a dream is dreaming it."

Thank you to NetGalley, Marissa Stapley and Simon & Schuster for several great hours spent reliving a bit of my grunge era in Seattle.

I loved how accurate Marissa Stapley got the 90's in the Seattle area! We truly lived in flannel shirts, boxer shorts over long underwear with long sleeve t-shirts under a regular t-shirt and Doc Marten combat boots. The music was amazing and it was so exciting to see local "small" bands become a huge deal.

Her references to how the artists and their music felt like it was ours is so great. It was heartbreaking to lose artists that influenced our life in a time before we knew what an "influencer" was. We just knew we loved their style and their music.

Her description of the chat room is so spot on. We barely had internet and it didn't do a lot. We truly had to call or write letters. It was just such a different time!

I flew through this book! I enjoyed skipping back and forth from present time to the past years to learn the entire story. The final clues and chase to Berlin were great. I liked that this book wrapped up with an ending that I enjoyed.

“She had actually believed that Jane Pyre and Elijah Hart were magical, immortal, pure legends. Better than anything. Better than human.”

This backdrop for this book is music in the 1990s, the grunge/punk rock era.
Elijah and Jane are teenagers when they meet and begins the rock ‘n’ roll love story everybody thought they knew, but nobody did

Elijah disappeared years ago he’s presumed dead, when Jean gets pulled into a scavenger hunt with a teenager who swears Elijah is still alive and leaving her clues in all the places that meant something to them.

I so enjoyed this book, it was what I expected and not what I expected, it is my first book by this author, and it definitely will not be my last. I really loved her style of writing, her characters and this book was so well researched, and the back-and-forth in time Was seamlessly written !

The Lighting Bottles by Marissa Stapley is a captivating book about a popular grunge band’s rise to fame and their downfall. A young girl’s obsession with the two musicians also gives the story extra flavor. If you liked Daisy Jones and the Six, I believe you will enjoy the Lightening Bottles!
Elijah and Jane, two teenagers with a love of music find their way to each other through online messages which ultimately becomes the beginning of their love story, fame and fortune. Life for them is amazing, but like many others during that time period, drugs and alcohol becomes their downfall.
Woven throughout the book is the story of a teenage girl with an obsession for the duo. After Elijah has been missing for over 5 years, she discovers that Jane has moved in next door to her. She also tells Jane she has proof that Elijah is still alive and so their quest to find him begins.
I loved this book with the relationships, music, fame and downfalls that it encompasses. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a book that you can’t put down!! Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC.

A kind of based on Kurt Cobain-Courtney Love what-if story. If you have no idea who these folks are, then this is a nice Nick Hornby-esque YA mystery in which a teen girl joins forces with a retired, fairly hated, half of a famous 90's rock duo. The book shifts back and forth between 1999, when the girl and the hated rock star are on the case, and several years earlier filling in the blanks of who the Lightning Bottles were and how they met.

If you do know who Kurt and Courtney are then it will be a much different book, one that is rife with nostalgia and references to the 90's Seattle Grunge scene. With all the mentions of real and made up musicians, some of the fun is trying to figure out if the made up characters are based on real people. Is Kim in the book based on Krist Novoselic? Is Mikey Churl based on Johnny Depp? And Fiadh Connelly is surely based on Sinéad O’Connor...

Regardless of familiarity and knowledge of the Grunge Era, this is a fun and interesting read. Interesting in how it puts a spotlight on certain inappropriate and hateful behaviors mainstream press engaged in that are surely no longer tolerated today but were seen as totally normal and accepted at that time.

One observation, at the back of the book are lyrics from the fictional band at the heart of the story. This is the second time where I have seen this recently, the other book being Lucky by Jane Smiley, which is the same title of this author's first novel. Strange coincidence.

Disclosure: Received an uncorrected ARC of this book from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (Thank you!) in exchange for an honest review.

The Lightning Bottles is overall more successful in premise than execution. Jane Pyre is an incredibly complex, interesting protagonist in the vein of other female rock musicians like Courtney Love or Joan Jett, but she is continually failed by the story around her. The rise and fall of her relationship with Elijah and their creative partnership was compelling; what is less compelling is Hen and everything taking place in the best. And the ending? What an absolute cop-out. It feels like a fantasy. Jane especially gets a raw deal.

Jane and Elijah meet in a music chat room going on to become one of the hottest new bands. But fame becomes too much and they succumb to their demons, ultimately losing the pure love they’ve had for each other. And everyone, (read all males) are determined to cast Jane as the bitch and there’s no escaping the moniker. When Elijah disappears, presumed dead, Jane changes her life for the better, and is doing somewhat okay until she moves next to a young girl as her neighbor who may have proof Elijah is alive.

Yep- I absolutely loved this. Great story, great characters, great ode to the musical women legends of the 90s. The story was a little slow at some points, but overall I really enjoyed everything.

A rock and roll story, a love story, a sad story AND a hopeful story.

Jane and Elijah were meant to be. They met online and formed the famous rock bank the Lightning Bottles. After Elijah disappears in an accident or potential suicide, Jane is demonized and forgotten. When a young fan stumbles upon Jane she sets in motion a new search for Elijah and closure.

Where is Elijah? Is he still alive? If so, why did he leave.
It's a romantic story for any rock and roll lover.
#simon&Schuster #lightningbottles #marissastapley

WOW. I could not put this book down. I loved the grunge, rock & roll, music feel of this book, the darkness that can surround music & addiction, and of course the 90s! I read this book in 2 days. Wow. Even better than 'Lucky'.

3.5 stars

If 'Daisy Jones and the six' and a John Green novel and maybe 'The Notebook' got together and had a baby, this book would be it. The misunderstood teen who escapes her boring life to become something bigger. The rise and fall of a rock band. It's all in there folks.

I liked the book, and didn't mind the jumping back and forth in time. (Sometimes it can get confusing!) And I liked the characters ok enough, but my problem comes with the ending.

Overall, it was a good read.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

When I think of female rock legends: Chrissy Hynde, Courtney Love (love her or hate her), Blondie, Stevie Nicks, the list goes on.
The Lightning Bottles is a dedication to all of these female rock heroes, which is a fairly quick read (similar to her last book Lucky, which I finished in a day).

Essentially about two musical artists on a road trip, reminiscing about their lives, how they got here, and how to move forward. While it's an easy read, the characters were neither lovable nor did I hate them. Jane and Elijah share a lot of heartbreak and a familiar relationship trope.

I had high anticipation for this book, but it fell flat. I didn’t feel the sense of nostalgia that I expected. I didn’t really care about any of the characters. Could’ve been a really good read.