The Lightning Bottles

July 29, 2024
In the dramatic if superficial latest from Stapley (Lucky), a rock star becomes infamous after she’s blamed for the disappearance and presumed death of her bandmate husband. Jane Pyre, bassist for the legendary Lightning Bottles, which she formed in the early 1990s with frontman Elijah Hart, is now living in a remote part of Germany, five years after Elijah’s disappearance in Reykjavik. Her isolation ends when her next-door neighbor Hen, a 17-year-old Lightning Bottles fan, alerts her to a photo she saw online of graffiti in Berlin, which might contain a message from Elijah. A clue from the art sends them on a road trip to other locations around Europe, where they find more drawings in a similar style, giving Jane hope that Elijah might be alive. The narrative flits between the women’s quest and the band’s early years, when Jane is discouraged by her religious mother and dismissed by music journalists, who prefer to focus on Elijah and ignore her songwriting contributions. Later, she’s blamed by the public for Elijah’s self-destructive drug use. While the novel plausibly conveys the pitfalls of fame, Stapley introduces but neglects to explore heavier themes of codependency and exploitation. There’s a bit too much filler in this ’90s nostalgia trip. Agent: Samantha Haywood, Transatlantic Agency.