Kevin Smokler’s new book, Brat Pack America: A Love Letter to 80s Teen Movies (Rare Bird Books, 2016)is what everyone in their 40s who loved watching movies as they were growing up wants it to be. In Brat Pack America, Smokler takes readers on a journey through the fictional and sometimes not so fictional towns created throughout the teen movies of the 80s. Smokler gives readers a tour through America and the important locations that have endured over time in the hearts and minds of movie fans. Smokler looks at John Hughes America and Shermer, Illinois as well as memorable places such as Hill Valley, California and Astoria, Oregon. Brat Pack America is full of facts about 80s teen movies and the locations fans have come to know and love. But, Smokler also pushes beyond fandom, examining why these places have become so important to the fans of these films of this decade. Well researched and engagingly written, Brat Pack America is a book that brings back memories of those films we know and love.

Rebekah Buchanan is an Assistant Professor of English at Western Illinois University. Her work examines the role of narrative–both analog and digitalin peoples lives. She is interested in how personal narratives produced in alternative spaces create sites that challenge traditionally accepted public narratives. She researches zines, zine writers and the influence of music subcultures and fandom on writers and narratives. You can find more about her on her website, follow her on Twitter @rj_buchanan or email her at rj-buchanan@wiu.edu.

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