A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews (paperfury)
An emotionally charged story of music, abuse and, ultimately, hope.
Beck hates his life. He hates his violent mother. He hates his home. Most of all, he hates the piano that his mother forces him to play hour after hour, day after day. He will never play as she did before illness ended her career and left her bitter and broken. But Beck is too scared to stand up to his mother, and tell her his true passion, which is composing his own music – because the least suggestion of rebellion on his part ends in violence.
When Beck meets August, a girl full of life, energy and laughter, love begins to awaken within him and he glimpses a way to escape his painful existence. But dare he reach for it?
Rating:
As you can see, I like music. And I had composed/made some songs up, some music, and sometimes lyrics a few years back. But then life happened and something traumatic disrupted my life. I haven’t played the piano for almost four years.
Why am I telling you this? Because those are a few reasons why I wanted to read this book. It is about the piano, it is about music, about abuse and trauma, and it is about life.
It is very hard to read, August is wonderful, but Beck’s life is difficult and some of what happens is extremely hard to read (I would say a trigger warning for abuse and violence should be made here, same as gaslighting). But it was well done. It wasn’t crude or badly done, instead it built a story and it made it become alive. It was a vibrating stacatto at times, and it was good.
I don’t want to spoil this book but I would just say to go read it if you think you can.
Moon recommends
Don’t let life keep you away from things you love to do. I am struggling on what to recommend here, mostly because it is a difficult book to match to others, I remember reading a book about a gilr who played the piano that somehow I could recommend but I can’t remember the title. Maybe I will at some point…
White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock
