The past few years have seen a steady stream of book releases, academic as well non-academic, on punk and punk-related topics. The subject of punk is well suited for popular-academic approaches, so unsurprisingly scholarly publications can be roughly divided into those that align themselves with the established international research canon in the field, and those that for various reasons do not. Marta Marciniak's Transnational Punk Communities in Poland places itself somewhere on the halfway line between those two. It is based on an interdisciplinary academic study informed by qualitative fieldwork, yet its bibliography with its clear preference for works of rock criticism over works of popular music studies has more in common with those of popular-academic publications. The book aspires to present and discuss its material on an academic level, yet it gives primary priority to the author's personal voice and personal experience. While there is nothing principally wrong with being openly subjective in a popular academic publication, it poses a number of problems when the book simultaneously aspires to comply with the demands of a full scholarly format.

The fact that the book does not properly address the issues of its format and approach causes the scholarly reader – as well as a reader expecting a popular-academic read – quite a bit of frustration. It is somewhat puzzling that the editors of a well-renowned publisher such as Lexington Books have not seen it necessary to tend to a problem of this magnitude. Attempt to read the book as an introduction to punk scenes in Poland, their special characteristics and the dominant discourses generated by and surrounding them, and you will find it a quite laborious undertaking. Fortunately, however, Transnational Punk Communities in Poland offers an alternative way of reading. If approached from the point of view of identity formation in relation to a music-centred subculture, the author's focus on personal experience becomes less of an obstacle and more of a case study in itself, opening up an altogether different analytic level, backed up with considerable information about Polish punk scenes and their internal dynamics. Such an alternative reading also avoids getting unduly hung up in aspects such as an incomplete discussion of the concept of subculture, descriptions of punk as inherently ‘romantic’ and ‘nostalgic’, as well as the book's consistent apologetic take on all the provocative, vulgar and destructive aspects of punk culture.

In sum, scholars with an interest in punk and identity formation might find this book time well spent, despite its failure to inform the reader of such a trajectory, its obvious weaknesses in disposition, its lacking precision and clarity of language, its frequent digressions and its strong authorial focus. Researchers interested less in identity formation, more in punk music and punk communities in Poland or elsewhere in Eastern Europe, will probably not find this book quite the cornerstone its publisher presents it as, but they will be able to glean much valuable information from the direct speech of the author's interviewees.