Anna Ghislena’s Rock Harder is perhaps not a book you will see taking pride of place on a WHSmiths bookshelf. It is clearly designed for a niche audience, but it’s certainly not one to be dismissed totally out of hand.
Ghislena’s book stars Zoe, a mid twenties former rock chick whose humdrum life as a nursery assistant is shattered by a opportunity to reclaim the forgotten revelry of her slashed tights and nose ring sporting youth. The arrival of an anonymous postcard sparks a journey into a buried past. Zoe forms her own Mötley Crüe consisting of a porn agent, a adrenaline junkie, a spiteful drug dealer, Jess, Zoe’s best friend and champagne enthusiast, a struggling rock band, and a former clergyman with a few secretes of his own..
Zoe battles with her morality as she is seduced by the allure of sex, drugs and tattoo parlours. The book follows her highs and lows before the past inevitably resurfaces and changes her life for her own good.
Cue a slew of rock’n’roll clichés which would make the likes of Jack Black and Spinal Tap blush. For a non-enthusiast of the genre, no doubt Rock Harder will strike you as a dreary, piece of groupie AC/DC fan fiction. But the book’s themes of nostalgia, of reclaiming the joys and dreams of youth will be sure to raise a smile on the face of many a former rocker, now resigned to the nine to five bump and grind.
Ghislena herself has said that her life was forever changed when she discovered Blondie. From that moment onwards “the damage was done”, and after her “baptism” into heavy metal at a Megadeath concert she has been a self-proclaimed metal head.
Rock Harder, her first ever fictional novel, is inspired by the “animalistic qualities of live rock music as an all-consuming, breath-taking and physical presence”.” It taught Ghislena to “rock harder”, and the novel lends itself to helping readers to discover their inner “dark horse.” This is a enlightening read, and certainly worth a peruse, even if you have no previous interest in the genre.