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A review by poisonenvy
Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I'm going to start off this review talking about the racism in it, along with this bit of advice: If you're going to feature the Detroit race-riots of the 70s relatively heavily in your book, you should probably have something you want to say about race.
Zadoorian does not. Instead, the Detroit race-riots are used as a backdrop to help further his white character's teenage angst, without at any point saying anything substantial about race, race relations, or racism. Every race-related conflict we see started in this book is by black kids over-reacting to totally innocent gestures made by white people. The character talks about how his parents, who were both super racist in the home, were actually totally civil to black people they met outside of the home, and, in fact, his mom makes a black friend so it's probably okay? I think? I don't know. There's a lot of talking about people's race (and, in, fact, any time a black character shows up even in passing he's like "And then this black kid walked past me" without remarking on anyone else's race), but at no point does he actually discuss racism.
This, unfortunately, is the running theme of this book. He talks a lot about different songs -- in fact, the entire novel is a litany of songs, just a bit song list (which I made an 11 hour playlist of on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/091kDMoyXxVsPt56mUhw8l?si=e258c4dda38c4241) -- but at no point does he talk deeper about any of it, and in fact, a good 98% of the songs don't add anything to the narrative to the book. There's no deeper meaning to "(You're) Having My Baby" by Paul Anka, it's just a song that he heard on the radio once so he listed it.
Mental illness is yet another theme that features prominently in the book, and yet another one that he never examines with any sort of depth.
That's not to say I disliked the book. Overall, i liked it, I think. It's a decent coming of age novel, the story of a boy who's world was turned upside down when he was 15 and who spent the next year trying to figure out his identity. But it's a book that tries to touch a lot of topics with a lot of depth and never does more than skim the surface.
Zadoorian does not. Instead, the Detroit race-riots are used as a backdrop to help further his white character's teenage angst, without at any point saying anything substantial about race, race relations, or racism. Every race-related conflict we see started in this book is by black kids over-reacting to totally innocent gestures made by white people. The character talks about how his parents, who were both super racist in the home, were actually totally civil to black people they met outside of the home, and, in fact, his mom makes a black friend so it's probably okay? I think? I don't know. There's a lot of talking about people's race (and, in, fact, any time a black character shows up even in passing he's like "And then this black kid walked past me" without remarking on anyone else's race), but at no point does he actually discuss racism.
This, unfortunately, is the running theme of this book. He talks a lot about different songs -- in fact, the entire novel is a litany of songs, just a bit song list (which I made an 11 hour playlist of on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/091kDMoyXxVsPt56mUhw8l?si=e258c4dda38c4241) -- but at no point does he talk deeper about any of it, and in fact, a good 98% of the songs don't add anything to the narrative to the book. There's no deeper meaning to "(You're) Having My Baby" by Paul Anka, it's just a song that he heard on the radio once so he listed it.
Mental illness is yet another theme that features prominently in the book, and yet another one that he never examines with any sort of depth.
That's not to say I disliked the book. Overall, i liked it, I think. It's a decent coming of age novel, the story of a boy who's world was turned upside down when he was 15 and who spent the next year trying to figure out his identity. But it's a book that tries to touch a lot of topics with a lot of depth and never does more than skim the surface.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Drug use, Racism, Addiction, Bullying, Death of parent, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, Homophobia, and Racial slurs