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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
The dual storyline, music and mystery of this book were engrossing. The author weaved in how fame can change people, how privilege impacts success and the role race played historically and in present day. Loved that he also had a neurodivergent main character and his authors note at the end was beautiful.
This did a great job with gradual character reveals in the historical chapters.
I loved this book!!! it was fast-paced, very music-heavy, and relevant!!! you do not need to be a musician to appreciate this book :)
adventurous
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I couldn’t stop listening. Racism, greed, a lot of music and a genius neurodivergent character. It was a compelling and well thought out story.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Respectfully, Fred Delaney can go to hell.
In all seriousness though, I loved this so much more than the author's first book; it was both a fun and sad read. I thought Josephine was written incredibly well, especially with the nuances of writing a character with autism. You can tell Slocumb put a lot of thought to not stereotype or infantilize Josephine's portrayal and she was my absolute favorite character POV to read from. The exploitation of Josephine was so believable and the saddest thing too is that you know similar circumstances have definitely occurred before in history.
The book did start off a bit slow since a couple of things that took away my attention: Bern's naivete early on felt immature, and some of the repetitive things, like the many times ironed clothes were mentioned, and using the phrase "double good" kinda grated on me because they felt out of place, but that's also just me being picky. Otherwise I thought the pacing for both the present and past storylines worked really well and neither felt rushed. I'll be looking out for Slocumb's third book next year!
In all seriousness though, I loved this so much more than the author's first book; it was both a fun and sad read. I thought Josephine was written incredibly well, especially with the nuances of writing a character with autism. You can tell Slocumb put a lot of thought to not stereotype or infantilize Josephine's portrayal and she was my absolute favorite character POV to read from. The exploitation of Josephine was so believable and the saddest thing too is that you know similar circumstances have definitely occurred before in history.
The book did start off a bit slow since a couple of things that took away my attention: Bern's naivete early on felt immature, and some of the repetitive things, like the many times ironed clothes were mentioned, and using the phrase "double good" kinda grated on me because they felt out of place, but that's also just me being picky. Otherwise I thought the pacing for both the present and past storylines worked really well and neither felt rushed. I'll be looking out for Slocumb's third book next year!
adventurous
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed it even better than book 1
challenging
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
This was definitely an easy-to-read page-turner about a Columbia-educated university professor of music tasked with bringing to life Red, a lost and just recovered highly anticipated opera of Delany, who was the most popular and prolific American composer who died tragically to suicide. He tag teams with Ebony, a cybersecurity expert to track down the background of what was going on with Delany at the time to understand how to decode/transcribe the opera from the damaged music sheets as authentic to the original as possible. And through this exploration they discover, ofc, a history of musical genius, murder, and mayhem.
I love how easy it was to root for the 2 main leads in the story. And in the 1st half of the book, it was lovely to see the portrayal of minorities (2 black people) in a light of excellence, rather than of just solely existing to point out oppression and victimization. Ebony's personality was a riot.
Drawbacks to the story is that Slocumb really exaggerated the racism of the villains in the latter half. I can forgive the extreme overt racism detailed portrayed in the storyline of the early 20th century, however when we got to the present-day storyline, where they're mentioning modern likes such as Bezos and Musk, it got way too unidemensional in the story's portrayal of how racism and how board of directors power plays take place today. Seriously, the villains in present day started spewing stuff like don't mess with me, the likes of you should be intimidated by my power, boy. Mustache twirling. Like what? I nearly took off another star because of it, but abstained, because even with such exaggerated portrayals, the story itself can stand on its own as an enjoyable, fast-paced story.
I'm trying to diversify my reading this year while also reading less (i.e. probably not 132 books like last year), and can say I'm glad this is in my "read" pile.
I love how easy it was to root for the 2 main leads in the story. And in the 1st half of the book, it was lovely to see the portrayal of minorities (2 black people) in a light of excellence, rather than of just solely existing to point out oppression and victimization. Ebony's personality was a riot.
Drawbacks to the story is that Slocumb really exaggerated the racism of the villains in the latter half. I can forgive the extreme overt racism detailed portrayed in the storyline of the early 20th century, however when we got to the present-day storyline, where they're mentioning modern likes such as Bezos and Musk, it got way too unidemensional in the story's portrayal of how racism and how board of directors power plays take place today. Seriously, the villains in present day started spewing stuff like don't mess with me, the likes of you should be intimidated by my power, boy. Mustache twirling. Like what? I nearly took off another star because of it, but abstained, because even with such exaggerated portrayals, the story itself can stand on its own as an enjoyable, fast-paced story.
I'm trying to diversify my reading this year while also reading less (i.e. probably not 132 books like last year), and can say I'm glad this is in my "read" pile.