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A review by jervonyc
The Song Is You by Arthur Phillips
3.0
There is a tremendous amount to like in this book - I'm a huge fan of "The Egyptologist" and the prose is just as exquisite as I'd hoped (and quite a lot of its passages have been Highlighted in my Kindle), and the author's understanding of music's visceral effect on its listeners is absolutely spot-on. And certainly the pains and pangs of unrequited affections, the longing, the fear, the panic, the loneliness, the excitement, the *rush*, the serendipity of crossed and un-crossed paths - these are all beautifully described and deeply moving.
But. There's some stuff in this book that's seriously creepy, yet which is handled in a very stereotypical rom-com sort of way, which is off-putting to say the least; and there's also some stuff in this book that's maddeningly frustrating (at one point I finished one chapter, read the first sentence of the following chapter and immediately and quite literally slammed the cover of the Kindle closed, as I refused to believe what I'd just read); and meanwhile there's a whole separate backstory to the main male character that's heartbreaking and personally affecting (as I also have a two-year-old son) which completely flies in the face of everything else that the author is trying to do.
Regarding the creepy stuff alluded to in the previous paragraph - there's a minor but annoying side-story involving a (possibly sleazy?) cop that doesn't end up going anywhere, which is a mixed blessing because on the one hand it added a layer of distracting and unnecessary tension; and yet, now that I've finished the book, the male lead's actions are SUPER CREEPY, and I can't get over it, and there should've been SOME resolution on that angle.
I dunno. I'm deeply conflicted. I think this book might've been more successful had the author not felt compelled to keep so many spinning plates going at once. The book works best when it's telling its main story - and the good parts are so, so good - but there's also quite a lot of filler that ends up dulling the intended impact.
But. There's some stuff in this book that's seriously creepy, yet which is handled in a very stereotypical rom-com sort of way, which is off-putting to say the least; and there's also some stuff in this book that's maddeningly frustrating (at one point I finished one chapter, read the first sentence of the following chapter and immediately and quite literally slammed the cover of the Kindle closed, as I refused to believe what I'd just read); and meanwhile there's a whole separate backstory to the main male character that's heartbreaking and personally affecting (as I also have a two-year-old son) which completely flies in the face of everything else that the author is trying to do.
Regarding the creepy stuff alluded to in the previous paragraph - there's a minor but annoying side-story involving a (possibly sleazy?) cop that doesn't end up going anywhere, which is a mixed blessing because on the one hand it added a layer of distracting and unnecessary tension; and yet, now that I've finished the book, the male lead's actions are SUPER CREEPY, and I can't get over it, and there should've been SOME resolution on that angle.
I dunno. I'm deeply conflicted. I think this book might've been more successful had the author not felt compelled to keep so many spinning plates going at once. The book works best when it's telling its main story - and the good parts are so, so good - but there's also quite a lot of filler that ends up dulling the intended impact.