Teenreads.com -- KNUCKLE SANDWICH: Sometimes Rock N Roll Hits Back by Adam Palmer

KNUCKLE SANDWICH: Sometimes Rock N Roll Hits Back
Adam Palmer
Th1nk Books
Fiction
ISBN-10: 160006048X
ISBN-13: 9781600060489
304 pages

When Jeremiah Springfield and Matt Ripke met at camp, they thought they would be saying goodbye at the end of the week. However, in Adam Palmer’s KNUCKLE SANDWICH, a chance encounter between two high school seniors turns into an unexpected adventure. Both Jeremiah and Matt are members of their respective church’s praise bands, and what starts out as a friendly competition turns into a friendship. They part ways when the week winds down, promising to keep in touch but knowing that they probably won’t.

Fast forward one year. A college-bound Jeremiah is working the register at his summer job when a familiar face walks in the store. Matt, as it turns out, not only lives in the same town as Jeremiah but also is going to the same college. Their friendship picks up right where it left off, and destiny seems to take over when they meet Amanda and Liz, their perfect matches.

Matt tells Jeremiah that God has given him the vision to start a band. With Matt’s striking talent on guitar and vocals, Jeremiah’s skill on bass and Liz’s powerful drumming, the band, which gets the name “Knuckle Sandwich,” starts gaining some local notoriety. After being scouted out by a manager, they move from playing the school battle of the bands to some more impressive venues. While Matt and Liz are enthusiastic about the band, and even more so about God, Jeremiah seems to be more interested in Amanda. She’s his first real girlfriend, and being the band’s unofficial “roadie,” they are allotted plenty of time to spend together.

As Knuckle Sandwich’s popularity continues to grow, things become more and more strained for the group. Jeremiah and Amanda have been making some choices in their relationship that may have big consequences. Meanwhile, Matt’s ego seems to be growing even faster than the band. As the tension mounts, big secrets are revealed, leaving everyone to wonder if Matt really ever was the God-fearing rocker he portrayed himself to be. With its group members torn apart and a big tour coming up, will Knuckle Sandwich ever reach the heights of stardom?

KNUCKLE SANDWICH is quite different from the majority of Christian teen novels. Most notably, it targets the adolescent male audience that is often forgotten in the world of fiction. The book is set during the heyday of Christian rock music in the 1990s. However, as most readers would be far too young to have experienced this, many of Palmer’s clever pop culture references and parallels will be lost on them and would be better appreciated by a twenty-something crowd. Music fans will enjoy the inside look at the industry from the former musician, but those without a keen interest might find the long descriptions of composing, rehearsing, recording and touring to be a bit drawn out. Nonetheless, Palmer creates a very likable protagonist in Jeremiah, whose story most readers will be eager to follow.

--- Reviewed by Jennifer Crosby

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