New York, New York - In her new novel The Lightning Bottles, author Marissa Stapley dives into the world of '90s grunge through the eyes of an epic rock n' roll duo, and she sat down with TAG24 to spill her inspirations for the tale.

Perfect for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid's Daisy Jones & The Six, The Lightning Bottles follows Jane Pyre, who was one half of the titular rock duo before her partner Elijah Hart disappeared.

As Jane looks to put her past behind her, a fan of the band comes calling – and the teen girl has found clues that Elijah may still be alive after all, turning Jane's world upside down.

From there, the novel alternates between the year 1999 – where Jane searches for Elijah – and a recounting of the Lightning Bottles' rapid rise and fall throughout the prior decade.

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"I was a 90s kid, and I was really, really into the grunge alternative scene," Stapley told TAG24 of the novel's influences. "So obviously, Kurt Cobain and his death influenced this. I was 14."

Cobain, along with Jeff Buckley, significantly inspired the creation of Elijah, but it's Jane who takes center stage as the book puts a spotlight on the double standards women in the industry faced.

"Looking back on that era, I see that the female stars were really marginalized, and there wasn't always room for as many female stars as male stars, and when there was, they were held to a different standard," the author said.

As for the women who inspired Jane's journey, Stapley was drawn to figures like Courtney Love and Sinead O'Connor, who were heavily scrutinized – and often villanized – throughout their careers.

"Sinead O'Connor was a huge part of creating Jane," Stapley said. "I was heartbroken that she passed away while I was writing because I had it in my head that she would maybe read the book."

While there are plenty of elements that may read as dated to today's bookworms (remember AOL chat rooms?), the sad truth is that the way female stars are treated by the media and the general public remains largely unchanged.

Stapley noted the recent example of the drama surrounding It Ends With Us co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, where Blake was quickly thrown under the bus in a virtual pile-on as her male co-star was painted as the hero.

"Blake Lively is not perfect, and obviously, there are issues, but I'm really shocked by the clear double standard that's happening," Stapley said.

As Lively was being slammed online, Baldoni quietly hired a crisis manager who had represented Johnny Depp during his trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.

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"Somehow, that's okay," Stapley added. "I understand that maybe right now, it's an unpopular opinion, but I think in retrospect, we'll be like, 'Wow, that happened again.'"

In The Lightning Bottles, Jane faces a similar onslaught of vitriol as fans blame her for Elijah's disappearance, and her contributions to the band's success are repeatedly minimized.

Though the cycle of judgment against women certainly doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, Stapley hopes that stories like Jane's can help draw attention to the problem.

"I don't know how to stop it, except maybe to point it out and have the bravery to say, 'Look, this person is not perfect. This person made mistakes, but more than one thing can be true at the same time.'"

Along with working to alter the perception of women in music, The Lightning Bottles also serves to imbue a sense of hope into an era wrought with tragedy.

Having drawn inspiration from Cobain and Love, Stapley looked to pen a new ending for the grim reality.

"The reality is [Elijah] wouldn't have survived it. [Jane] possibly wouldn't have survived it either," Stapley explained.

"And I'm not taking it lightly by giving that alternate ending... I'm trying to provide hope, and that does mean that a lot of the things that I learned about addiction won't necessarily ring true because it is so difficult, and it's such a prison," she continued.

"The escape too often ends up being death for addicts, and I just wondered what it would look like if it could be different."

The Lightning Bottles hits bookstores on September 23. For more on this month's hottest releases, check out TAG24's Book Release Radar.