Book Review: Hot Wax by M. L. Rio

It’s summer 1989 and ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. But life on the road with a controversial band is no place for a child, even if that child is enthralled by the volatile rock and roll lifestyle of Gil and the Kills. With her mother on an extended honeymoon with her new husband, Suzanne jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that her father hopes will bring the band the glory they deserve. But as the band blazes up the charts, they’re set on a devastating collision course that will ripple through the decades afterwards.

Almost thirty years later, spurred on by her father’s sudden death, Suzanne has fled an unhappy marriage in her father’s old ’68 Ranchero GT, affectionately named Blondie. She’s still haunted by the troubled past she tried hard to bury and the questions that were never answered after the fateful night that irrevocably destroyed Gil and the Kills. Befriending two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, Suzanne begins to rediscover things she thought she’d lost forever: camaraderie, desire, spontaneity and a thrill for adventure. More than anything, she finds the person she once wanted to be. But her desperate husband, Rob, refuses to let her go, and as he chases her across country, Suzanne will be driven to a desperation all of her own.

Hot Wax is a raw and unflinching story that charts the dizzying rise and fall of a band who let egos, drugs and hedonism ruin them. Shifting between the past and the present, we witness the climb, the elation, the crash and the inevitable burn through Suzanne’s young eyes. She’s utterly in awe of her father and though he clearly loves her – he tries his best to shield her from the darker side of life on tour with a hard rock band – his relentless pursuit of fame, and his hot-tempered rivalry with his bandmate, Skelly, constantly puts Suzanne in danger. Even decades later, Suzanne is still traumatised by her childhood. She’s withdrawn, lost and uninspired. She’s forgotten her love for photography and music; it’s all so tangled up in the conflicted memories she has of that long ago summer. But those parts of herself aren’t gone, they’re merely dormant, and it takes two free-spirited drifters to show her that it’s not too late to reclaim her life.

Though it’s not always an easy read, Hot Wax is a magnetic one. Full of 80’s punk rock atmosphere and dusty road-trip vistas, it simmers with slow suspense and a dark tension that builds as it nears the end. M. L Rio’s writing often feels like a song, veering from gritty and stark to rhythmical and poetic. She captures the chaos of life on tour and the friction that mounts when people are moving from one gig to the next, fuelled by late nights and fast food and unsavoury motels. In many ways this is a coming-of-age novel but the coming-of-age happens much later in life, with a woman in her 40s whose youth was snatched away from her. Suzanne’s journey to healing and forgiving runs parallel to the unfolding of her past, and Rio expertly balances the two timelines so that they work in tandem to paint a picture of a broken woman and the wide-eyed child she once was.

Like Daisy Jones and the Six before it, Hot Wax invites readers into an immersive world of music and ambition and disfunction. It’s messy, chaotic and transportive, and none of the characters come out of it unscathed. But there’s a silver lining to be found at the end of all the angst and tragedy, and it’s worth the tumultuous ride to get there.

★★★★

Hot Wax was published by Wildfire on 9 September 2025