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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
I hate this book. I never thought I would give a book five stars yet start the review with "I hate this book." It is an excellent book. It is very well written. It's an important book focusing on the real problem of racism in classical music. The book makes me angry and frustrated. I started this book as part of a "buddy read", I dreaded reading each section as the discussion came up. It is tough content. While you are dealing with tough family dynamics, overt racism, a family's enslaved history and the violence they endured, there is also a mystery around a stolen violin. It is a lot to take in. The book isn't all doom and gloom; Ray has a supportive loving grandmother, an excellent mentor, some good friends, and the love of music.
This book is so far outside my wheelhouse, I would never have picked it up had it not been a "buddy read." It is an excellent book and I cannot take away any stars just because the content makes me uncomfortable.
This book is so far outside my wheelhouse, I would never have picked it up had it not been a "buddy read." It is an excellent book and I cannot take away any stars just because the content makes me uncomfortable.
This story kept me reading! I’m looking forward to seeing what this author does next. I loved the passion for music. It made me want to have a playlist of the music mentioned to listen along with the book.
This is a really strong debut novel with a unique plot. I also appreciate that the author is a Black man and a musician, which also describes the protagonist, Ray McMillian, a violin protege who did not grow up with wealth and privilege. He grew up with a rented violin he had to turn in at the end of the school year and everyone doubting his talent because of the color of his skin. Finally, his beloved grandmother gives him her grandfather's beat-up, ratty violin to use, which was given to her grandfather from the slave owner who owned him and who was also probably his father. In present day, we know from the premise and start of the book that as an adult, Ray discovers that his beat-up violin is really a priceless Stradivarius and that it gets stolen.
This book is not a thriller and is not really a mystery. I did enjoy the mystery part of it, but that's not the driving force of the book. Instead, we really get to know Ray—I often forgot the story was written in the third person because I felt like I was so inside Ray's head most of the time. The author's experience and love for music comes through in the way he describes how Ray plays classical music and how that is different and better than everyone else. The music descriptions are some of the best parts. And though it's not a funny book, Ray is funny at times, causing me to chuckle at his human interactions.
While I really liked Ray and enjoyed the music aspects and the mystery, I have a few quibbles and warnings about the book. First, his mom is one-note. She's just AWFUL in every way and never really gets better. Also, Ray has siblings apparently, but there's hardly any mention of them, which is strange because we hear a lot of details about his family, mostly his aunts and uncles and beloved grandmother. There's also a lot of horrible racist things that happen to Ray in the book, which was hard to read, but many of these are based on true events that happened to the author, which is heartbreaking. But just fair warning, it can make the book difficult to read in parts.
I would recommend this book because it's a great story and has a point of view that we rarely hear about in literature.
This book is not a thriller and is not really a mystery. I did enjoy the mystery part of it, but that's not the driving force of the book. Instead, we really get to know Ray—I often forgot the story was written in the third person because I felt like I was so inside Ray's head most of the time. The author's experience and love for music comes through in the way he describes how Ray plays classical music and how that is different and better than everyone else. The music descriptions are some of the best parts. And though it's not a funny book, Ray is funny at times, causing me to chuckle at his human interactions.
While I really liked Ray and enjoyed the music aspects and the mystery, I have a few quibbles and warnings about the book. First, his mom is one-note. She's just AWFUL in every way and never really gets better. Also, Ray has siblings apparently, but there's hardly any mention of them, which is strange because we hear a lot of details about his family, mostly his aunts and uncles and beloved grandmother. There's also a lot of horrible racist things that happen to Ray in the book, which was hard to read, but many of these are based on true events that happened to the author, which is heartbreaking. But just fair warning, it can make the book difficult to read in parts.
I would recommend this book because it's a great story and has a point of view that we rarely hear about in literature.
I gave this five stars, because it was just an enjoyable read. Then [a:Brendan Slocumb|21711480|Brendan Slocumb|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1681255485p2/21711480.jpg] gave a talk about it at my local library, and if I could give it another five stars for that, I would.
I highly recommend the book, and if you have a chance to hear the author talk or play, take it.
I highly recommend the book, and if you have a chance to hear the author talk or play, take it.
Not my usual type of read, but still enjoyed it for what it was
This was great. At first I thought it was going to be thrilling, da Vinci code-esque. But it was a much deeper, richer story - not so much a page turning thriller. I really enjoyed.
DNF @ 50%
beautiful cover. the author attended my undergrad alma mater! really wanted to enjoy it but just wasn’t. in particular i wasn’t into the wide eyed shock of anti-black racism the main character expressed, it felt naive and unrealistic. didn’t like the push of “you have to work twice as hard as white people” rhetoric even when they’re being horrible and the air of respectability that seemed to be the moral of that? also Black women characters/family members are portrayed as one dimensional and it made my teeth hurt. not for me but i’m glad it was helpful for highlighting anti-black racism in the classics music scene for others.
beautiful cover. the author attended my undergrad alma mater! really wanted to enjoy it but just wasn’t. in particular i wasn’t into the wide eyed shock of anti-black racism the main character expressed, it felt naive and unrealistic. didn’t like the push of “you have to work twice as hard as white people” rhetoric even when they’re being horrible and the air of respectability that seemed to be the moral of that? also Black women characters/family members are portrayed as one dimensional and it made my teeth hurt. not for me but i’m glad it was helpful for highlighting anti-black racism in the classics music scene for others.
I highly recommend listening to the audiobook. I really loved this book. Original story, interesting mystery, great narrator, great violin pieces in between narration. It was an easy listen to a sometimes heavy topic as well. I admit, I was quite surprised by the ending, although I think a more savvy mystery reader would pick up on the clues earlier.
A great read from start to finish, and not your average mystery. It’s a beautiful story about a boy and his violin, overcoming difficult obstacles to achieve his dreams.
Ray McMillian is determined to pursue a career as a violinist, despite all the obstacles the classical music world puts in his way as a Black man. After discovering his great-grandfather’s fiddle is actually an authentic Stradivarius, Ray’s dreams suddenly seem reachable. But then the violin is stolen, and Ray is determined to get it back.
WOW. This book is absolutely remarkable. The descriptions of music and the violin are gorgeous, the racism Ray experiences is harrowing, and the mystery is perfectly twisty and turny. I drove everyone in my life nuts talking about this book while I was reading it. What a complete stunner. Don't sleep on it!
WOW. This book is absolutely remarkable. The descriptions of music and the violin are gorgeous, the racism Ray experiences is harrowing, and the mystery is perfectly twisty and turny. I drove everyone in my life nuts talking about this book while I was reading it. What a complete stunner. Don't sleep on it!