Book Review: Guitar Notes

NOTE: This was an ARC when I read it. But now it's published.

I grabbed this book at the bookstore in the ARC closet. I love that closet. If I had to stay late or got there early, my bosses would let me just stand there browsing through the books on the shelf for teen books.

My bosses are awesome.

One of the books that came up in a search was Guitar Notes by Mary Amato. I read the back.

PARAPHRASED SUMMARY: Tripp is an underachiever who plays guitar. Lyla is an overachiever who is supposed to only play the cello. They share the same practice room on opposite days so they pass notes back and forth and form an easy friendship. But when tragedy strikes, will that friendship remain the same?

What intrigued me was the whole epistolary aspect. I love things written in journal, letters or notes. I'd playfully call it a fetish but I'm awkward enough in person, nobody needs that on the internet.

So I read it. In 2 hours. I literally could not put this book down. My dad called me down to dinner but I could not move from this book. So I read it at the dinner table.

I liked the book. It was compelling, funny and interesting. But I did have some problems. So I have 2 reasons why I liked it and 2 reasons why I kinda didn't it.

LIKES:

Like I said before, I loved all the notes. They added something extra to the story. And I really liked that something extra. And I liked how they were actually an aspect for the book. Approval.

And I loved the voices each of the characters had. Tripp sounded insanely different from Lyla who sounded different from her best friend. I've always thought that was a sign of good writing. Approval squared.

DISLIKES:

*THERE ARE EPIC SPOILERS AHEAD. PROCEED WITH CAUTION. OR DON'T, WHATEVER, I'M JUST A SENTENCE*

The whole car crash at the end came out of nowhere. Like KA-BLAMMO

This also leads to my second problem because, up until that point, nothing really happened. They became friends, wrote and played music together, then she's hit by a car.

That kind of bothered me. Plot is always a good thing. And it seemed that this book lacked it.

So I give this book 75 stars out of 100. It's not bad and I probably will reread in the near future, but it's not something I would recommend to a friend who is a lit snob.

So, yeah, that's it.

Have a great day!

Owyn