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A review by spommerening
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
3.0
3.75 ⭐ but still marinating on this one.
Ray is quiet kid from rural North Carolina who loves the violin with every fiber of his being. Unseen by the world and unappreciated by his family except his grandmother Nora, Ray's dream is to play classical music. When Ray's grandmother gifts him an ancestral violin, Ray's future begins to take shape. A professor sees Rays talent and begins mentoring him to become the spectacular solist he is capable of. Soon after, Ray discovers the violin his grandmother gave him is actually an extremely rare and valuable violin worth millions of dollars. On the cusp of the world's most famous classical music competition, Ray's violin get stolen.
Things I liked:
- Ray. He was so kind (just like grandma Nora taught him). He had a lot of really crappy things happen and crappy people in his life. His drive and passion for music made him such an easy character to root for. The evolution of Ray's character over the course of the book was great. Everytime he stood up for himself I was mentally hugging him.
- Janice and Aunt Rochelle. I'm so glad Ray had SOME people in his corner. Without these two characters, Ray would not have been able to succeed. They were both bright spots in a lot of very dim situations.
- the ending. I'm glad Ray found happiness in the end and he was able to keep all his promises to his grandmother.
- the themes. The blatant racism that Ray dealt with was horrible. The fact that so many of the scenes were based on the author's own experiences was sickening. I appreciated how this story opened my eyes to a lot of engrained bias that exist in the classical music field. I think Slocumb's discussion of race and the unifying abilities of music is so, so, so ,so important. I loved the authors note at the end, it was the cherry on top.
- the storyline of the violin. I loved Grandma Nora's story and how important that was to Ray and his journey. I also loved the idea that this violin was played and pasted on for generations, especially considering the surrounding details of how PopPop got it in the first place.
Things I didn't like:
- the pace. I really struggled to get into this book initially and I think it's because of the layout. If we would have met young Ray and his family first I think that the pace of the book could have been stronger.
- almost all of Ray's entire family. His mom was the absolute worse person. I wish so many times he would have cut them off.
- the Marks family and their disgusting narrative. I'll leave it at that.
- the culprit. I was disappointed how it unraveled although I did not see the twist coming.
Ray is quiet kid from rural North Carolina who loves the violin with every fiber of his being. Unseen by the world and unappreciated by his family except his grandmother Nora, Ray's dream is to play classical music. When Ray's grandmother gifts him an ancestral violin, Ray's future begins to take shape. A professor sees Rays talent and begins mentoring him to become the spectacular solist he is capable of. Soon after, Ray discovers the violin his grandmother gave him is actually an extremely rare and valuable violin worth millions of dollars. On the cusp of the world's most famous classical music competition, Ray's violin get stolen.
Things I liked:
- Ray. He was so kind (just like grandma Nora taught him). He had a lot of really crappy things happen and crappy people in his life. His drive and passion for music made him such an easy character to root for. The evolution of Ray's character over the course of the book was great. Everytime he stood up for himself I was mentally hugging him.
- Janice and Aunt Rochelle. I'm so glad Ray had SOME people in his corner. Without these two characters, Ray would not have been able to succeed. They were both bright spots in a lot of very dim situations.
- the ending. I'm glad Ray found happiness in the end and he was able to keep all his promises to his grandmother.
- the themes. The blatant racism that Ray dealt with was horrible. The fact that so many of the scenes were based on the author's own experiences was sickening. I appreciated how this story opened my eyes to a lot of engrained bias that exist in the classical music field. I think Slocumb's discussion of race and the unifying abilities of music is so, so, so ,so important. I loved the authors note at the end, it was the cherry on top.
- the storyline of the violin. I loved Grandma Nora's story and how important that was to Ray and his journey. I also loved the idea that this violin was played and pasted on for generations, especially considering the surrounding details of how PopPop got it in the first place.
Things I didn't like:
- the pace. I really struggled to get into this book initially and I think it's because of the layout. If we would have met young Ray and his family first I think that the pace of the book could have been stronger.
- almost all of Ray's entire family. His mom was the absolute worse person. I wish so many times he would have cut them off.
- the Marks family and their disgusting narrative. I'll leave it at that.
- the culprit. I was disappointed how it unraveled although I did not see the twist coming.