Juliet, Naked

By Nick Hornby (Penguin Group, RRP $37)

Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity and Slam, returns with this funky and utterly appealing story of long-time couple Duncan and Annie and their mutual love of musician Tucker Crowe.

Tucker Crowe has vanished from the music industry, leaving a handful of fans who believe he's one of the all-time greatest musicians. When Tucker releases a stripped-down version of his infamous album Juliet, Annie and Duncan's conflicting opinions causes their relationship to deteriorate further.

Duncan and Annie post their opinions to an online community for other fans to read. Annie's post sparks the interest of a man claiming to be Tucker Crowe and they soon develop an unexpected relationship.

Wikipedia, email and online forums play a large part in the lives of our lead characters and Tucker Crowe fans. The story looks at how easy it is for fans to become stalkers and for a lie to become fact.

The characters in this story irritated me so much. I found myself shaking my head in disbelief at times and actually muttering to myself "Don't! No"! Don't get me wrong though, I loved it. It was refreshing to read characters with flaws and real personalities.

It was my first Hornby read, but I'm no stranger to his stories. I loved the screen adaptations of High Fidelity and About a Boy and Juliet, Naked has made me want to check out his written back catalogue. This is a highly recommended read that will appeal to a wide variety of readers.

- © Fairfax NZ News