Have you ever wondered what it would be like if one of your parents was famous? Have you dreamt of being related to a wild rockstar? The son or daughter of a music legend? A ton of people wish that they had a drop of famous blood in their bodies, but when it comes to Young Republican Leo Caraway, he never wanted anything of the sorts. All this seventeen year old ever hoped for was a scholarship to Harvard.
Leo Caraway, or should I say Leo McMurphy, is your typical high schooler. Well, maybe not so typical. I’m pretty sure not too many high schoolers join their local congressman’s reelection campaign and stay there because they actually enjoy it. I’m also pretty positive that not many high schoolers keep a secret hidden like the fact that they have the same DNA as a raging, 80’s punk rockstar.
A fourth grader’s search for his birth certificate and his passport is what started it all. That’s when the truth is revealed to little Leo Caraway. That is the moment when his mom admits that his dad was a seemingly psychopathic punk rock star who was extremely famous in the 1980’s. The first few chapters of Born to Rock constantly mention the “hitchhiker” in Leo’s DNA, A.K.A. McMurphy. When Leo found out about his mother’s big secret, he was less than excited. All he thinks about is controlling the McMurphy; controlling the King Maggot inside of him.
Leo’s real journey starts with a “cheating” scandal on one of his 12th grade exams and a punk concert that comes shortly after. Leo is the total opposite of a punk fan, but his best friend Melinda sure is. Depressed from the loss of a Harvard scholarship, Leo believes that he has found his one and only chance to get the money he needs to go to the college of his dreams: the beginning of the Concussed World Tour and the big comeback of his bio-dad’s band, Purge.
As the result of a small miracle, Leo comes face to face with King Maggot and at King’s request to spend time with his son, finds himself going on tour as a roadie. This is where you are introduced to King’s cousin, Bernie, who is (in simple terms) a womanizing sleazeball. Now, this is the moment when I thought, “Hmmm, wouldn’t it make sense if Bernie was Leo’s real father?” Well, all I can say is that the predictability of the novel starts from there.
I’ll admit that this was a decent book and Gordan Korman’s idea of writing about a regular teenager’s story of having a “sex, drugs and rock and roll” type of father is interesting. My biggest problem with the novel is how easy it was to predict what would happen next. Towards the end of the book, Leo comes back to his hotel room to see the DNA test results sitting on the table. This is the big reveal, the moment when we find out if his father really is the one and only King Maggot. Leo opens the letter to find out that, what do you know, King is not his real father. However, they are in fact related. I wasn’t too shocked to find out that what I had guessed from the start was true. The partying cousin was the father, not the lead singer who aside from getting arrested periodically from random acts of crazy, wasn’t the late night partying sort of person. Another one of the “surprises” the novel had in store was Melinda and Leo getting out of the friend-zone. I mean, anyone could’ve guessed that they would start a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship eventually.
Born to Rock by Gordan Korman was overall a pretty good novel. The storyline had a relatively nice concept behind it. It was a book revolving around that one thought that practically everyone has had at least once in their life: what would it be like to have a celebrity for a parent? I feel like the author genuinely tried to produce an appealing read for middle school students, but in my honest opinion, he failed to create any exciting plot twists that a reader could not predict. Nothing made me jump out of my seat and gasp over what I just read. That is the kind of thing I look for in successful books and Born to Rock just didn’t cut it.