If you’re new here (welcome!), you may not know how much I adore Marissa Stapley. Both as an author and as a person. I’ve met her at countless events and even had the privilege to interview her at an event back in 2019. Needless to say, I would absolutely be reading her latest book, no matter what it was about. The Lightning Bottles is out tomorrow and oh my word it was amazing. Emotional, raw, entertaining, and thought-provoking. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Here’s the book’s description:

He was the troubled face of rock ’n’ roll…until he suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Jane Pyre was once half of the famous rock n’ roll duo, the Lightning Bottles. Years later, she’s perhaps the most hated—and least understood—woman in music. She was never as popular with fans as her bandmate (and soulmate), Elijah Hart—even if Jane was the one who wrote the songs that catapulted the Lightning Bottles to instant, dizzying fame, first in the Seattle grunge scene, then around the world.

But ever since Elijah disappeared five years earlier and the band’s meteoric rise to fame came crashing down, the public hatred of Jane has taken on new levels, and all she wants to do is retreat. What she doesn’t anticipate is the bombshell that awaits her at her new home in the German countryside: the sullen teenaged girl next door—a Lightning Bottles superfan—who claims to have proof that not only is Elijah still alive, he’s also been leaving secret messages for Jane. And they need to find them right away.

Even though I knew I was going to read this book, I wasn’t sure if it was really going to be one I’d fall in love with - and there was no real reason for that. You know that sense you sometimes get with books? Anywho. I started reading and immediately laughed at my idiotic self for thinking I wouldn’t love it. I was sucked in from the first page and alternated between wanting to devour it and wanting to drag it out and make the story last.

I’m not usually a huge fan of prologues or epilogues. I don’t feel like they add a ton to the story and sometimes make the narrative hard to pick up as you start chapter one. The prologue in The Lightning Bottles, though? One of the best I’ve read and it was perfectly done for the novel.

I was really intrigued about the time period Stapley had chosen to set her book in. I’m old enough to know some of the bands and artists she referenced or alluded to (Nirvana and Sinéad O'Connor to name two) but I’m just a bit too young to have been listening to their music at the time the novel was set. I’ve heard the stories (read: gossip) of the artists who came out of the Seattle grunge scene and beyond and I adored the way Stapley approached these types of stories. It really made me think hard about the news we’ve been given about these artists - who was telling those stories? Who may have been a scapegoat or a victim? Who got away with doing terrible things simply because they were a man? What were those double standards? Because that was a huge thing and, sadly, times have not changed all that much. There’s a male artist out there who’s done something outrageous and has gotten away with it but if a female artist did the same? You know what social media is going to say.

I had no idea how this story was going to unfold. Was I going to get the ending I wanted? Was that really the ending the book actually needed or deserved? I loved being kept on the edge of my seat as Jane and Hen searched for clues to find out if Elijah was still alive. I’m pretty sure I felt every feeling while reading this book - hope, joy, grief, rage, worry, love. As hard as those hard feelings were, I’m glad to have felt them and applaud Stapley for writing the story and characters so well.

The novel goes back and forth in time in a way that was well done and helped move the plot along. The sections that were in the past (starting in the early 90s) followed Jane as she first meets Elijah all the way to the day of his disappearance in 1994. Then we get a (perhaps slightly too condensed) snapshot at how she hit rock bottom herself until the timelines meet as she searches for Elijah with Hen in 1999. That probably made it sound more confusing than it was! So just trust me. It worked.

An aside. Do we call this historical fiction? It seems wrong but it’s also not contemporary/set in the present day. A conundrum!

I don’t often make comparisons in my reviews but if you were a fan of Daisy Jones and the Six, you absolutely must read The Lightning Bottles. The way the stories are told may be different and the music genre and time periods aren’t the same but the feel of the stories is similar.

The Lightning Bottles was such an amazing novel and I hope everyone reads this latest book from Marissa Stapley. I finished it days ago and cannot stop thinking about it.

*An egalley was provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster Canada, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

I went into this book not know too much about it but I really liked it.
This is the first Marissa Stapley book I have read and it won't be the last.

This is my second book by Marissa Stapley and has quickly made her an auto-buy author for me.

I too came of age in the 90's so this story of Elijah & Jane was everything! They met online in the early days of the internet chat rooms. Her a young music lover from a religious family in Canada, him in the literal birthplace of 90's grunge music era, Seattle, Washington.

The world they find themselves is anything but what they dreamed of. They become mega stars very fast. And fame is not easy. Jane, the creative voice behind the band is treated like a second-class member of the two-some - The Lighting Bottles.

Everyone loves Elijah. Everyone HATES Jane. At the height of their fame Elijah goes missing and is declared dead. Jane has to find a way to carry on.

This is a dual timeframe and dual POV. We move between the early 90's when Jane meets Elijah and 1999 when Jane is moving on with her life, but can she? We also meet Hen, Jane's new neighbour in Germany who happens to be one of the biggest Lighting Bottles fans and a budding musician herself. Hen was there at Elijah and Jane's last concert. Hen has discovered something that might just change the future.

I adored this book! It was gritty, deep, filled with love, loss, pain, addiction and heartache. It's a love letter to the music of my youth and inspired by many of my favourite bands and musicians. I adore how Stapley consulted with the ultimate expert on 90's alternative music, the one and only Alan Cross (if you don't know who he is, you are not really a fan... see Alan Cross' Ongoing History of New Rock podcast etc).

This book was everything. Mysterious and captivating, I couldn't put it down. My only issue is with the publisher for listing this as romance. That is a misleading genre for this book. Contemporary fiction would be fine. Thank you to Simon & Schuster for an early review copy in exchange for my honest review. Please keep bringing us incredible stories like this.

I both can’t shut up about this book and can’t find the words to describe it. I’ve staff picked every copy in our store. I feel like Marissa Stapley scoured the depths of my brain, took everything I’ve ever wanted in a book, and made the Lightning Bottles. She had me locked in from the dedication and epigraph.

Absolutely LOVED the “me and you against the world” dynamic of Jane and Elijah’s relationship. The Adam and The Rib drawings idea is my favourite thing ever. It was a great narrative way to keep the emotions, nostalgia, yearning, etc., of their relationship alive in parts of the novel that only had half the duo.

The ‘90s alt rock/grunge scene and vibes was just the cherry on top. It gave the perfect setting for their dynamic and troubled backgrounds to coexist and intertwine intensely. I loved, in contrast, the innocence of Hen’s storyline. She’s for everyone’s who’s laid awake staring at a poster with their music on, wanting to escape their life. I think everyone’s got a little Hen in them.

The occasional name-dropping and “veiled” references to real celebrities took me out of the story a bit. I do get their purpose, and thankfully those parts were never long enough for it to really ruin anything. Definitely rereading soon, as I read it too excitedly to NOT have missed stuff.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of The Lightning Bottles!

This book caught me by surprise in the best possible way! I was not expecting to love it as much as I did. It gripped me from the beginning and I had to keep reading to see how it would end.

I thought this story was so well written and well thought out. Each character had so many layers to them that made them feel so real.

I highly highly recommend this book!

This book has a nostalgic feel to it with the music scene in the 90s that brought me back in time to when I was a preteen. This is slightly different from my usual reads, but I loved it. I enjoyed how the story reflected on the power of and a love for music. I also loved the storyline surrounding Jane and Elijah, superfan Hen, and the mystery of whether or not Elijah died when he disappeared years earlier. I think fans of music, mysteries, and thrillers will really enjoy this book. All the stars for this one!

A heartbreakingly honest love letter to rock n' roll, falling in love and the high costs of fame and addiction. I absolutely loved this latest from Canadian author, Marissa Stapley. This is a must read for fans of Daisy Jones and the Six and anyone who mourned the untimely loss of 90s music legends like Kurt Cobain and the extra toll exacted on women musicians like Sinead O'Connor. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!!

I am a music lover. I’ve worked in radio and now I work at a PRO (performance rights organization). A book about a rock band is right up my alley!

If you read Daisy Jones & The Six and enjoyed it this book will probably appeal to you. Throw a little Thelma & Lousie into the mix and you’ve got Marissa Stapley’s Lightning Bottles. The main difference is that this story goes back and forth between the past and present with a bit of mystery thrown in for good measure.

I enjoyed this book and I hope you will too.