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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
Although not my favorite writer, I admire Slocumb for essentially creating his own genre and somehow making composing music and violins interesting to the broader community. I liked this better than The Violin Conspiracy. It is a propulsive read once you get through the first 50 or 100 pages, and I love how he incorporates race and identity in a world that is so starkly white. This is also a fascinating topic and an unfortunate part of our history: the many, many black voices that were lost or buried or appropriated. Josephine Reed very well could have been a real woman.
4.5 stars - page turner. Enjoyed the way we are in the present and then in the past. White man takes credit for awesome music written by black women, and tells her it's the only way it can be published. Truth wins out in the end.
Symphony of Secrets follows Bern Hendricks, a professor, who makes a shocking discovery about the most famous American composer of all time. Determined to right history's wrongs, Bern strives to give recognition to a young Black female composer whose music was stolen and whose story was silenced.
Told using dual timelines, Slocumb builds a story of today juxtaposed against a story set in the Tin Pan Alley era of Manhattan. While the first half of the book was fairly compelling, the pace of the story picked up during the second half and the narrative became more predictable. As I continued reading, I felt less inclined to pick it up and the inevitable nature of the story became clearer. Slocumb relied more and more on telling and using clipped sentences.
However, the character of Josephine Reed, the young Black composer whose music was stolen from her in the 1920s, was fascinating. Her character was thoughtfully crafted and delicately developed over the course of the book. And while there was still plenty of room for her to be more fully fleshed out, Slocumb's own talent with writing and music clearly shines through Reed and her connection to music. In fact, the depth of understanding the silencing of Black voices, and cultural appropriation in general, could've been more fully and deeply explored if the historical fiction story had solely been told from her perspective. Additionally, her language with expressing music involved a great deal of color association, and the intricacy Slocumb could've utilized to build a more emotionally nuanced foundation might have been more effectively delivered by experiencing her world through her lens.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
Told using dual timelines, Slocumb builds a story of today juxtaposed against a story set in the Tin Pan Alley era of Manhattan. While the first half of the book was fairly compelling, the pace of the story picked up during the second half and the narrative became more predictable. As I continued reading, I felt less inclined to pick it up and the inevitable nature of the story became clearer. Slocumb relied more and more on telling and using clipped sentences.
However, the character of Josephine Reed, the young Black composer whose music was stolen from her in the 1920s, was fascinating. Her character was thoughtfully crafted and delicately developed over the course of the book. And while there was still plenty of room for her to be more fully fleshed out, Slocumb's own talent with writing and music clearly shines through Reed and her connection to music. In fact, the depth of understanding the silencing of Black voices, and cultural appropriation in general, could've been more fully and deeply explored if the historical fiction story had solely been told from her perspective. Additionally, her language with expressing music involved a great deal of color association, and the intricacy Slocumb could've utilized to build a more emotionally nuanced foundation might have been more effectively delivered by experiencing her world through her lens.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Loved:
- Neurodivergent representation
- Music theory and writing about music in general - can hear the love and talent of the author in the text
- The historical part overall was engaging and I kept wanting to come back to that section (from the present day)
- The themes around intersectionality (how being both Black and woman and Neurodivergent impact Josephine), and the insidious nature of 'isms at both the institutional and individual level. Systemic racism led to individual cruelty and exploitation that then led to systems being created to protect the individual's cruelty and reproduce the racism of before. That cycle is really clear here and I appreciated how the author explores this.
- The writing is clear and really brought the historical section to life.
Didn't love
- What would this story have been like if Josephine was more of the center? Her voice? Her view or perspective makes up a very short part of this narrative and I couldn't help but want to hear more of her view. It only starts to appear in the narrative when things shift to outright abuse, and I think her story is less full & her character less realized as a result. A note to the author - if trying to talk about how Black women's music and voice is erased, maybe not have the story do so too?
- The present day section was less engaging overall, Eboni and Berm's relationship didn't really track (as colleagues yes, more? the characterization wasn't really there).
- Also wanted more of Eboni's perspective. Berm realized that Eboni's work was often overlooked and the foundation was trying to erase it - but the author! you get to choose who's voice is shared, so why not have a section for Eboni? Just, an odd juxtaposition to have these Black women not get perspectives even comparable to the men in the text.
- Could have been 100 pages less - it's SUCH a long leadup to a very quick pace by the last 20%.
- The ending wrapped up sort of quickly - didn't feel like all the pieces came together given the stakes outlined.
Overall, I will definitely look into other books by the author but have a big question mark about how they center women's voices in their text (especially when the story is about a woman).
There's one section where Eboni speaks to the women in North Carolina - it's a couple pages - this is the only section where women talk to other women. Just a note - this story is doing a lot of good exploration but I think when it comes to women's voices and perspectives, I think it falls short which undercuts deeply the message of the entire story.
adventurous
tense
fast-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
A complete page turner.
I liked this and was glad to have a follow-up to The Violin Conspiracy. The story kept me reading and interesting, and I think the author taps into some interesting ideas. Ultimately though, a lot seems contrived and I couldn’t help but wonder at the larger impact and controversy the main characters’ findings would have on a wider audience.
Bern is a music historian and the lead expert on America’s most famous composer, Frederic Delaney. When a descendant of Delaney brings Bern sheet music that might be part of a famously lost opera, he thinks it will change history. But there’s a lot more history to uncover when Bern finds a clue to some of Delaney's dark secrets.
This isn't quite a mystery — especially if you read all of the marketing copy, which gives away any intrigue in the first third of the book. But whether it's mystery or historical fiction or a thriller or something in between, I loved it! Brendan Slocumb has such a gift for this slow creep of danger and distrust. And I absolutely love the setting in the world of classical music. This is a fantastic follow-up to The Violin Conspiracy.
Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy.
This isn't quite a mystery — especially if you read all of the marketing copy, which gives away any intrigue in the first third of the book. But whether it's mystery or historical fiction or a thriller or something in between, I loved it! Brendan Slocumb has such a gift for this slow creep of danger and distrust. And I absolutely love the setting in the world of classical music. This is a fantastic follow-up to The Violin Conspiracy.
Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy.
An enjoyable yet heartbreaking mystery. An insight into how society treats occupants on the edges or who aren't "mainstream" or in power/oppression and the injustices that society/dominate group serves them... and not just in the past but even today.