Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuester for the Advanced Reader Copy, in exchange for my honest review.

I did not know a lot about this book going into it, but it quickly grabbed me.

The story of Jane & Elijah, a hit music group, The Lightning Bottles, from the nineties. It’s about their rise & fall and about their love story.

I loved that the story was gritty and real. There were some clear references to actual bands/musicians from the 90’s. The story truly brought up some nostalgia.
There is some mystery as the story vacillates between the early 90’s and the heart of Jane & Elijah’s fame and the end of the 90’s when the world is mourning the loss of a music Golden Child.
I loved that Jane was presented as an anti-hero; she is not really likeable, but you see her heart.

I really can’t say enough about this book. There was definitely some emotion and really did capture the time frame. The only downside, for me personally, was that HEA aspect but I felt it was a little too neat ending for a messy story.

If you liked Daisy Jones & The Six or are a Gen Xer or have an affinity for 90’s rock, definitely read this book.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

This is a very addicting novel, and I was hooked from the very beginning. I really liked this story, but at some points, I didn't feel like I connected with the characters. There were a lot of details that added to the story. In the middle and ending, it felt more like a young adult novel. However, I really loved this and would recommend it to any music lover.

A ode to growing up, love, and great music. This book was so fun and I ate up the musical interest in here.

I absolutely loved everything about this book. I enjoyed how it was equal parts love story and mystery.

The book had a very nostalgic feel to it, as it took place during the 90's grunge music era and followed the rise and fall of Jane and Elijah and their band The Lightning Bottles.

The ending is a little farfetched, and you have to suspend some beliefs of what could realistically happen in real life, but it didn't bother me.

One of my most anticipated books this fall was The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley. Set in the Seattle grunge scenes of the 1990s, this dual-timeline novel is about star-crossed lovers—Elijah Hart and Jane Pyre—torn apart by fame and addiction. But when Elijah goes missing in Iceland in late 1994, Jane is forced to carry on without him. Five years later, a teen girl in Berlin may hold the clues that will finally lead Jane back to Elijah.

Tropes & Narrative Devices:
- Dual timeline
- Third-person narration

What I Liked:
- Alternative/Grunge music scene: First and foremost, The Lightning Bottles being about an alternative music group rising up during Seattle’s grunge era is what first captured my interest. I’m too young to have been into grunge at the time (I was a baby!), but I’m from the Seattle area and have since become a big fan of that era of music. Here, Jane and Elijah don’t identify with the grunge scene, but they’re still making alternative music that fits within that mood. I loved getting to see them write songs together, play shows, and rise up with albums and worldwide tours. It was also fun to see real bands, musicians, and producers mentioned throughout, from Mudhoney to Hole to Butch Vig. In other cases, real-life singers are refashioned into new characters, such as one that’s clearly inspired by Sinéad O’Connor.
- Music business and celebrity shadiness… especially for Jane. It’s well known that the entertainment world can be filled with toxicity, and this has certainly been true within the music industry. Jane faces a lot of unfair scrutiny and blatant sexism. A producer thinks she’s too difficult simply for wanting to record her parts of songs correctly. Their label doesn’t want the public to know that Jane writes and co-writes the songs. Industry types and fans alike paint Jane as some sort of horrible villain dragging Elijah down when it couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s a lot to feel angry about her, but I mostly felt sad at how misunderstood and isolated Jane was.
- Discussions of addiction. Grunge musicians in the ’90s were often, unfortunately, heavily involved in drugs, most notoriously heroin. And indeed, both Elijah and Jane deal with their share of addiction: for him, it’s heroin, for her, it’s alcohol. I’ve seen how addiction can destroy people and those around them, and my heart went out to these two dealing with their issues via self-medication (and self-destruction).
- Critical look at religion. Jane comes from a very religious background, even having played in a church band. But Christianity didn’t do her any favors. I like the critical look at how religion put a chasm between Jane and her mom and was never there to save her in her time of need. How ironic.
- Parallels between Jane and Hen. Both Jane and the German teenager, Henrietta, have troubled relationships with their mothers. Both long for escape as teenagers, feeling drawn to music and a life of creative expression. When 27-year-old Jane meets 17-year-old Hen, there are clear similarities to Jane’s own past.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
- I went into this expecting a bit more of a mystery as Jane and Hen follow clues searching for Elijah. While that is an element of the book, the present timeline is actually pretty short and not as thrilling as I’d hoped. Instead, the book focuses more on all the buildup to Elijah’s disappearance—the fame, addictions, and increasing problems between him and Jane.

Final Thoughts
The Lightning Bottles is a somber but heartfelt look at a musical duo united by music yet destroyed by the fame it brings them. It’s a character study of a woman unfairly demonized, of two people struggling with addiction, and with the aftermath of it all. While there is an element of mystery as Jane and Hen search for Elijah, the main focus is on all the buildup before that. I loved falling into the music and getting to know these characters on this tragic journey.

This book was a nostalgic look into the 90s Seattle grunge music scene. I enjoyed the mystery aspect of this. A rock and roll legend who has mysteriously disappeared five years ago is presumed dead. The story is told in dual timelines. It’s the story of Jane’s and Elijah’s love story from meeting in a chat room to being part of the famous rock group, The Lightning Bottles to the present day trying to solve the mystery of Elijah’s disappearance. There was lots of angst, drama, and adventure as they both dealt with addiction and the high cost of fame. The ending was PERFECT!

For anyone who is a fan of Daisy Jones & The Six then this book gives you all the vibes you need! This book was wonderfully written and truly evoked so many emotions out of me. I was laughing, crying and left constantly yearning for more. The premise of this book I thought was so interesting and creative and really combined so many elements that I love. From the mystery, the 90's rock theme and the relationship between the two women and then the relationship between Elijah and Jane. For a 90's baby as myself this was such a nostalgic read for me and I truly enjoyed this adventure. The 90's music scene will help you feel such a sense of nostalgia and joy while reading this! Any 80's and 90's babies will love the callbacks to the 90's music scenes. I also loved seeing the flashbacks of ELijah and Jane's relationship, it was so beautifully written and truly brought me to tears so many times. The hint of mystery with Elijah's disappearance made for such a fascinating aspect to the book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and the author for an ARC of this book which I had the pleasure of reading in exchange for my honest opinion.

I loved this book!! Just want this 90s, music loving girl needed to read. Addiction is such a heavy topic to read about though. I just felt for Elijah so much, and Jane for dealing with it and trying to help. I thought how they met was fun, loved their letter writing, instant connection, really everything about them.
Hen was a good add on character, and enjoyed the ending with her updates and how the characters stayed in touch.

Readers of a certain age will feel familiar with some of the references in this book. The story of a music duo during Seattle's grunge era were played out in front of fans and news cameras. Fame came and went quickly with the influence of drugs and drink fueling burn outs and deaths. Fictional group THE LIGHTNING BOTTLES follows the same paths so many real groups lived and died through. As teenagers, Jane and Elijah would come together as partners in life and in music. Celebrity status would see them members of a society that valued nothing so much as free will. Elijah's addictions will push the two to the edge, causing him to flee, leaving no trail and disappearing. Five years on, Jane is still looking for him. Popular opinions have forced Jane to hide from their fans.
Jane's new neighbor is a Lightning Bottles fan who has information she believes will lead them to Elijah. At this point, the story will divide. The two women, one young, one too jaded to be young anymore, will travel through Jane and Elijah's musical history from town to town as Jane relives their rise to fame.
There have been a resurgance of stories centering on musical groups and their history from the 1980-1990's. Marissa Stapley has written one of the best ones I've read since Daisy Jones. If you found Taylor Jenkins story spellbounding, you'll love this one too.

I enjoyed all the musical references. It kind of put me in the mind of Jane Green's book Sister Stardust, Daisy Jones and the Six, while also resembling what was great about Lucky, Stapley's first novel. A solid mystery with a fun trip through rock and roll history along the way.

This story was more drama / suspense than thriller BUT that doesn't mean you sleep on adding this one to your library.

It has mystery and love! It has twist and turns! It has JANE and you definitely want to see her WIN! It's hard to really do a detail review without giving away some of the suspense.

I really enjoyed the writing, storyline, and even the ending. Just get ready for this emotional ride.

“I never wanted perfection. I’ve only ever wanted you.”

“Isn’t that the irony? Sometimes the best part of a dream is dreaming it.”

If you were alive for the Seattle 90’s grunge era and watched them vilify Courtney Love after Kurt Cobain killed himself then I think you will LOVE this. So nostalgic.

But the biggest question is, why does the industry do this to women? If you’ve been alive long enough to have heard the rock n roll stories or read about that one girl that simply ruined that poor southern boys life…you will really enjoy this peek into the othe side of that world. Loving a man that is beloved by fans…making you (in the eyes of the world) the one thing that is keeping him from being theirs. Ooh man it’s twisted.

Thank you so much to @MarissaStapley and @SimonBooks #SimonBooksBuddy #FreeGift.

Thank you Simon and Schuster for the gifted copy.

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up!

It’s being said everywhere, and I’ll say it again, fans of Daisy Jones and the Six will love this book. Marissa Stapley did an amazing job creating the vibes of the 90’s music scene. As a kid of the 90’s the inclusion of chat rooms, mix tapes, call in radio contest, etc were a fun walk down memory lane. But more importantly, the author very clearly portrayed the misogyny and sexism that was, and still is, rampant in the entertainment industry. She also beautifully and tragically depicted the cost of fame and the addiction and trauma that so often comes along with it.

This book is told over dual timelines as Jane finds an unlikely partnership in her teenage neighbor Hen and they follow clues to unlock the mystery of what happened to Jane’s musical partner, and soulmate, Elijah.

This is a story about rock and roll, fame, pain and loss, redemption and recovery, and most of all, love.

The Lightning Bottles by @marissastapley is an exhilarating yet tragic look into the price of fame! 🎸💔✨

Blurb: He was the troubled face of rock ‘n’ roll…until he suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Jane Pyre was once half of the famous rock ‘n’ roll duo, the Lightning Bottles. Years later, she’s perhaps the most hated—and least understood—woman in music. She was never as popular with fans as her bandmate (and soulmate), Elijah Hart—even if Jane was the one who wrote the songs that catapulted the Lightning Bottles to instant, dizzying fame, first in the Seattle grunge scene, then around the world.

But ever since Elijah disappeared five years earlier and the band’s meteoric rise to fame came crashing down, the public hatred of Jane has taken on new levels, and all she wants to do is retreat. What she doesn’t anticipate is the bombshell that awaits her at her new home in the German countryside: the sullen teenaged girl next door—a Lightning Bottles superfan—who claims to have proof that not only is Elijah still alive, he’s also been leaving secret messages for Jane. And they need to find them right away.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

I absolutely loved reading The Lightning Bottles! It was full of intrigue and enthralling scenes. The writing is incredible, and it kept me reading into the wee hours of the morning! The character development is fantastic and you get to see Jane’s unlikely friendship with her super fan blossom. As they journey together to solve the mystery of Elijah’s disappearance, you can the feel the heartbreak and love that Jane has endured over the years. Overall, The Lightning Bottles is an incredible story that will stick with you for years to come!

Thank you to @simonbooks for the opportunity to read/review this ARC! 🤩📚

🏷️: #thelightningbottles #marissastapley #review #bookrecommendation #bookstagram

Jane Pyre met Elijah Hart through a web forum she created back in the early 90’s. Jane lived a very solitary life in Canada with her religious mother, only allowed to sing and play for her church group. While Elijah joined a rock band in the Seattle area and was already playing and creating music. They were from different worlds, but discovered that they enjoyed the same music. They had an instant connection and always found ways to communicate with each other over the thousands of miles. Eventually, they are able to form their own band, which becomes very successful. Then, while at the top, Elijah disappears one night in Iceland. He took a rowboat out on the water and was never seen again. Jane takes all the hate for pushing Elijah away. Fast forward 5 years later, Jane is renting a house in Germany. Little does she know, The Lightning Bottles biggest fan, Hen, lives next door. Hen has been keeping a secret that could mean Elijah is still alive. Hen and Jane work together to follow some clues that Elijah may or may not have left. This book follows two timelines- one in the early nineties leading up to when Elijah disappeared and one five years later when Jane goes searching for Elijah. This book pulled me into the story really quickly, but the pacing slowed down in the middle. It picked up again at the end. I never really felt connected to the characters, but I still enjoyed the story overall and would read more from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC to review.

The Lightning Bottles is a book that takes you on an adventure through the hard to watch implosions of the much loved 90’s grunge bands. The book makes you really feel like you have a front row seat to all the turmoil and overwhelm of the song writers and band members who shaped a generation with songs filled with love and angst. The characters were written in a way that gave me more clarity to what band members were experiencing, and how those experiences were placed in a time capsule through their music. The plot was a captivating trek through darkness of heartbreak and the lightness of hope. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster: for gifting me this early addition.

The Lightning Bottles is a powerful rock-n-roll love story. Two soulmates become the world's best singer/song writers but fame has costs including their love. You'll experience the highs and lows of stardom, the struggles of loss and the rediscovery of finding yourself with the promise of a second chance.

This book is an unforgettable journey with one member of the band and a super fan as they unravel the disappearance of its lead singer. The past is connected to the present, as artwork leads the duo through Europe unearthing clues of what happened one fateful evening.

A heartbreakingly honest story about what it takes out of you to be the most beloved band in the world. This story is still haunting my thoughts.

Thank you, Simon & Schuster

Packed with '90s music nostalgia, especially for fans of grunge, this book is a treat for those who love this style of music. Personally, I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with grunge. On one hand, I love the raw, rebellious energy that fuels the music—it’s intense and emotionally charged. But the lyrics, often full of self-loathing, pain, and despair, can sometimes feel a bit too heavy for me. That same grittiness, though, felt like the perfect soundtrack to the rise and fall of Elijah and Jane, both as a band and as a couple. The angst and raw emotion in their music mirrored the fragility of their relationship, capturing both the beautiful chaos of their success and the heartbreak that came with their downfall.

The novel begins in 1999, on the fifth anniversary of Elijah’s death, supposedly from drowning. Henrietta (Hen) Vogel, now seventeen, is listening to a radio program dedicated to Elijah Hart, inviting fans to call in and share their memories of the music icon. A huge fan of The Lightning Bottles, Hen had been at their final concert in Berlin. Meanwhile, Jane Pyre, who’s been elusive since Elijah’s death, has moved to a farmhouse in Wolf, Germany, seeking escape. When Hen realizes her neighbor is Jane, she feels like fate has brought them together. They bond over Hen’s belief that Elijah might still be alive, sending messages to Jane through street art. Together, they set off on a wild road trip, chasing down clues in these mysterious works.

The story alternates with flashbacks to Jane and Elijah’s first meeting in an online chat room, where they connected over their love of music. After weeks of exchanging heartfelt letters, Jane makes the 2,000-mile journey to Seattle to finally be with Elijah. Eventually, they form their band—The Lightning Bottles.

The book is filled with clever parallels to real-life people and places, and I think Stapley did a great job tying those in. Themes of the price of fame, drug addiction, lawsuits over song rights, and the media’s power over public image, especially how it unfairly painted Jane as “difficult,” add a lot of depth to the story. While I really enjoyed the love story between Elijah and Jane, a few things didn’t quite work for me. The pacing felt uneven, and a major twist at the end didn’t make much sense. The book covered a lot of drama, which made it addictive to read, but the prose itself wasn’t particularly special.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read an early copy.

The Lightening Bottles by Marissa Stapley
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Once Jane was one half of the famous Lightening Bottles. Now she is trying to live a quiet life unnoticed. When her new neighboroffers up a clue, it sets in motion a road trip filled with sweet and painful memories.
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What I liked:
-I loved that this was about people who love music. Music meant a lot to me when I was growing up, so I could relate to Jane and Elijah and Hen and how they connected so heartfelt-ly to music.
-I loved how Jane and Hen were unlikely side kicks that were forced to recognize the things they had in common.
-The last couple chapters surprised me with all the emotion they packed.
-I loved the epilogue.
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4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ if you love music or road trips (or both) then be sure to check out The Lightening Bottles which published this week.

Their fame costs them more than they could have imagined

Once upon a time in the early 1990’s there was a husband and wife band who got their start during the early days of grunge. Janet Ribeiro grew up in a small town in Ontario, with a lousy father who left her and her mother Raquel behind (with Janet providing the push that sent him on his path). Raquel turned to religion for comfort, and soon imposed strict rules on what Janet could and couldn’t do, what she should and shouldn’t be….but her plans for Janet had nothing to do with what Janet herself wanted to become. Janet lived for music….listening to it, playing it, writing it….and singing in a church group was not cutting it. She set up a chat room for music lovers, and it is there that she found Elijah Hart. Elijah lived with his alcoholic father Moses and free=spirited mother Alice in Seattle, and found in Janet the lifeline he needed. Online chats led to letters, letters to phone calls; EIijah’s parents, his mother in particular, were delighted that he has found someone that made him happy and helped him to battle his personal demons, while Raquel thought that Elijah himself was a demon and did everything she could to cut off their communication. On the verge of her 18th birthday Janet stole her mother’s car, changed her name to Jane Pyre, and headed to Seattle. There Elijah was in the Marvel Boys, a local band he formed with his best friend Kim and others, and when he inevitably decided to leave them behind and instead write and perform with Jane, it was a move for which Kim would never forgive him and which earned Jane his unending loathing. Tragedy struck them unexpectedly, bonding them ever tighter and providing the inspiration for what would be their most successful song, the one that would launch them into superstar territory. Elijah’s voice and Jane’s writing combined to propel their career to instant fame, but the song would also be a millstone around their neck. Their fans were led to assume that it was Elijah who wrote all the music, even though he always swore he and Jane wrote it together. And it was Elijah who fans adored, while Jane became the target of rumors and hatred. After public and private struggles with addictions, Jane and Elijah came to a place where she could no longer keep him from self-destructing and after a fight he disappeared into the cold and rough waters off the Icelandic coast. After a days long search found nothing but a few articles of his clothing, Elijah was presumed dead, and Jane would become the one who everyone blamed for his death. Now it is five years later, and she moves into an isolated German farmhouse to escape the world but instead finds that she has a neighbor…17 year old Hen, a music lover and devoted Lightning Bottles fan who believes that she has proof that Elijah is still alive and trying to connect with Jane. Could it be true, or will allowing hope to resurface destroy Jane once and for all?
In The Lightning Bottles, the reader is introduced to two damaged teenagers who want nothing more than to be with one another and to make music together….although that is not strictly true, because Jane wants one other thing; she wants her music to be heard by the world and to be loved and appreciated for it, and that is a dream that proves beyond her reach. The ugly side of the music business and stardom is on full display, from jealous rivals and reporters looking for a juicy story to manipulative music executives who are interested in making money off of others’ talent rather than in helping them pursue their creative dreams.. Alcohol, drugs and sex are readily on tap and in fact are often pushed at the rising stars, and too many (both in the book and in real life) fall prey to addictions that will ruin their careers and their lives. It is impossible not to be reminded of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love (or in another era, John Lennon and Yoko Ono) as you read of a man who charms the world and the woman he loves who is reviled by the same people who idolize him. In Jane’s case, she is blamed for another’s sins even as she is belittled and condescended to for being female in the rock world, calling to mind Sinéad O’Connor, Marianne Faithfull and others faulted for behavior that was tolerated in their male contemporaries, How many women in any field are called a bitch if they demand high standards, or are judged not pretty enough, warm enough, or pleasant enough in order to be loved or admired? As readers learn the story of the two young lovers who seems unable to surmount the brutal world in which their dreams lie, they also are presented with the mystery of Elijah’s disappearance, and follow along with Jane and Hen as they pursue clues imbedded in street art which bears an uncanny resemblance to the drawings which Elijah drew for Jane about their relationship and dreams. These are characters who quickly gained a foothold in my head with their passions and despair on full display, as is the yearning of Hen to find meaning in her own lonely life. Readers of Taylor Jenkins Reid of Daisy Jones fame, of Isabel Banta and of Caroline Leavitt will want to dive into this parable of love and fame woven into a mystery. Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me early access to this ode to the 90’s and its depiction of talented women in an industry that seeks to minimize their power.