Chartbreaker features flawed family members and a variety of tough-talking characters from the entertainment business. Finch is the narrator and the focus of major themes of identity, maturation, and manipulation. She is a unique creation and certainly no stereotype. Her most life-changing relationship is with Kelp's leader and singer, Christie Joyce. Before she meets Christie, sixteen-year-old Janis Mary Finch is tough, independent, and very negative about herself. She does not identify with the term "good girl," thinks school is a waste of time, believes herself socially inferior, and feels left out at home. Janis Mary is almost six feet tall and heavily built, and she considers her long, blowdried hair her only attraction.

The band Kelp brings Janis Mary her first feelings of self-confidence. When she sings with Christie and his three musicians in the cafe, she realizes happily: "I can do this!" At...