A Thousand Perfect Notes // beautiful and emotional

A Thousand Perfect Notes was stunning. It made me cry and broke my heart. Even when it pieced it back together again my chest still ached.  It is an emotionally driven, masterfully written debut that exceeded all of my expectations.



Beck's life is miserable. He is forced to play the piano for hours on end by his mother, a once talented pianist whose career was shattered after a stroke. She forces expectations onto Beck that he can never meet, and as a result Beck internalises his own true aspirations. But all of that changes when he befriends August. Where Beck is described as a toasted marshmallow, August is orange peels and wildflowers and sunshine and lemonade. With her in his life, Beck starts to feel a little more brave.

The descriptions of the people and the food and the music in this book were incredibly vivid. It was like I could see the characters in front of me, taste the cake they were eating and hear their music in my mind. I could feel the passion and emotion that filled these characters and the writing made everything feel dreamy and lucid all at once. 

The conflict inside Beck was so intense. The piano is torture for him, but it is also his life. He refuses to be anything like his abusive mother, but music lives inside of him. There are worlds of turmoil inside these characters and Drews explores them beautifully.

With a magical writing style and tragically hopeful characters, A Thousand Perfect Notes is a powerful tale.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

★★★★★

YA Contemporary

 Standalone

Blood, violence, child abuse, physical abuse, domestic abuse

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