Published: April 24th, 2012

Synopsis: After years of boredom in her rural South Carolina town, Maria is thrilled when her father finally allows her to visit her estranged artist mother in New York City. She’s ready for adventure, and she soon finds herself immersed in a world of rock music and busy streets, where new people and ideas lie around every concrete corner. This is the freedom she’s always longed for—and she pushes for as much as she can get, skipping school to roam the streets, visit fancy museums, and flirt with the cute clerk at a downtown record store.

But just like her beloved New York City, Maria’s life has a darker side. Behind her mother’s carefree existence are shadowy secrets, and Maria must decide just where—and with whom—her loyalty lies.

Review: Firstly, I absolutely adore the cover of the book and it was entirely the reason why I requested to read this book!! Whilst music was an integral part of the story, I personally was a little disappointed. As the story is set in the ’90s I think I expected some ’90s music of the time to be featured more heavily in the book, but instead it was all rock bands from yester-year (nothing wrong with that, but not my style of music!).

Supergirl Mixtapes took a little while for the plot to build up and so it was maybe after the first 100 pages that I really started to get into the story.

Maria moves from her fathers house in South Carolina to New York to stay with her estranged mother (and her boyfriend who is only a few years older than Maria). I really didn’t like the mother. From personal experience, I just found it extremely difficult to feel any sympathy at all for the mother, but I also think this is perhaps by design as I don’t think Meagan Brothers wanted us to feel bad for Maria’s mum.

Maria’s mother is juvinille, she doesn’t act her age, goes to rock concerts, is mutton dressed as lamb and essentially everything I hate about women of that age who are in denial. lol She irritated me.

Maria on the other hand is really just trying to catch a break in a new city. She makes some decisions that I don’t think were really all that smart, like dropping out of school and lying. But I think overall she was a pretty decent person - but she doesn’t have amazing role models in her life.

The second half of the book was definitely way better than the first. I can’t even really discuss what happens that picks it up without a spoiler alert. I can however say that dispite the mixed reviews, this book is definitely worth a read - you will decide for yourself!

Rating: 3 out of 5