Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - The Violin Conspiracy

The author does a wonderful job of balancing a young protege narrative with an interesting who-done-it. I enjoyed the lovely descriptions of music that overlapped with a vibrant world of family history and personal trials. I enjoyed that there were small twists and turns, but that they amplified the story, instead of detracting from it.

The pacing was great, I felt as if it was consistent throughout the story and I was able to read it without feeling an urge to skip to the end, while also not feel bored.

Most of the cast are brilliantly written. I love how there’s many hate-able characters , but each are written with intricacies that make them uniquely unpleasant.

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scarroll178's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This.. is a really hard book for me to rate.

I loved the MC. He has great character development from the time he’s a kid to the time he's an adult at the end of the book. The relationship he had with his grandma was so beautiful. Hearing his grandma’s writing at the end of the story and everything Ray’s great great grandfather went through was heartrending.

I wish the book had started at the beginning of Ray’s life as opposed to when the violin was stolen because it really took the momentum away from the first half of the story. A little taken aback that every evil/bad character was described as ugly and/or fat. Also, I wish the title had been something else because “Violin Conspiracy” makes the book sound a lot more action packed than it is. The first two thirds of the story focus on Ray’s family and his experience in the classical world. The action comes much later.

Also, I wish his girlfriend’s betrayal had been hinted at more before it was revealed at the end. And I’m surprised Ray pushed for the maximum sentence for her. Confused on how her betrayal is supposed to fit in with the themes presented in the rest of the book. Is the message just that you can’t trust anybody?

Also, Ray listing “dating a supermodel” as one of his accomplishments at the end of the book was cheesy and kinda gross tbh.

TW for the G slur for Romani people. It’s used several times in the book.

So, yeah. I loved Ray as a character. And I appreciated all I learned in this book about classical music and the prejudices toward Black classical musicians. But I didn’t like the ending, and I wish the book had been structured differently. And there were some parts that rubbed me the wrong way. Very mixed bag.

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kelsea's review against another edition

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inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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thisbookrox's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

4.0

moving descriptions of music, and a good twist. a little repetitive but i’ll chalk that up to debut writing.

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laurenleigh's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I had an idea that this would be more thrilling, more ‘whodunnit,’ but I let that expectation go pretty early on and enjoyed the book much more. It’s a story of growing up as an American Black man in an exclusionary (and extremely white) field: classical music. The writing was approachable and well paced, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Though the overt racism and the unsupportive mother character were so infuriating! And even if the whodunnit plot was kind of a side note attention grab, it did keep me engaged throughout.

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ajay913's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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