Unbelievably heart rending and terrifying. Beck's Mutter is awful, lost in grief and guilt and pain until she can't see what she's doing. Beck is so strong to stand up under all of it, even as he thinks he's weak and useless.

I was desperate for him to find a way out and terrified his uncle would be just as bad. But when it mattered, Beck found the strength he needed. I really enjoyed this. Now I need a lot of chocolate to recover.

Receiving an ARC did not affect my review in any way.

A heartbreaking story but I just couldn't find myself connecting with the material here.

Actual rating 3.5/5 stars.

Beck's violent mother stifles his daily live and his creativity. Her imposed rules of piano coming before school, friends, and happiness leads him to feel estranged from his peers and the world at large. But when Beck meets August, he is introduced to a life lead by happiness and is given the option to approach what is missing in his own life, and figure out exactly why.

It is hard to separate a book from its author and my initial interest in this stemmed from the person who penned this, rather than from the synopsis. I did also find that the synopsis somewhat ruined this book for me. I would rather have known less facts about this novel and would have probably then found the abundant sorrow in this, more deeply touching.

I also found, early on the book, that the reader is told of Beck’s fears rather than being shown them. The book opens with Beck informing the reader of his daily routine and the inner-anger he struggles against unleashing on his omnipotent mother. When we were actually introduced to her character and shown heart-wrenching examples of her wrath, it made it far harder for me to feel the desired shock and sorrow such a scene was supposed to emit. I found the story built up far too quickly and would have rather had a prolonged introduction to Beck’s character, divorced from his familial worries.

I found August’s character was my ultimate favourite aspect of this novel. I found her to be the most intriguing part of this story from her very introduction into it. Her constantly shoeless state, her ‘Save the Whales’ t-shirt and her “soliloquy on tree-frogs” made her immediately interesting. We were introduced to her character in a small series of images that worked up to slowly reveal the entire character. This honed my interest, as opposed to learning of Beck’s greatest struggles before we got to know his individual character, which at first did the opposite.

That being said, my initial hesitations were quickly forgotten as I was soon immersed in this troubling story-line. I thought the author dealt with the harrowing subject matters in an extremely thought-provoking yet sensitive light. I found the emotions I was earlier missing were soon in abundance and I was immersed in the narrative. This a tragic book, but not one without moments of tenderness and hope. I found that the dark and light moments, as well Beck's warring emotions, worked to heighten each scene and every feeling. This interplay of opposites became a factor in the power of this book's story and my ultimate, overall enjoyment of it.

Hmm. This is a strange book – all about familial abuse and music and falling in love. The author is a well-known YA book blogger, so I was intrigued to see how this book would turn out. My reaction? It’s alright. Admittedly I’d seen people raving about it already, so I had expectations – but for me it didn’t meet those expectations.

The characters were a major problem for me. A lot of them felt very flat, and I couldn’t connect to Beck at all – besides him being abused by his mother and hating the piano while being forced to play it, I felt like we didn’t know that much about him. He seemed to be totally defined by the abuse, and how he played piano out of fear. August, the love interest, was a little better, but she came off quite manic-pixie-dream-girl-ish (she’s quirky and hippy and goes barefoot and gets Beck to do things against his mother’s wishes). She is also a white girl with dreadlocks – I saw the author is aware of the cultural appropriation and will remove it from the finished copy, so there’s that at least.

But the worst character for me had to be Beck’s mother, the Maestro. She felt like a cartoon villain, her dialogue peppered with random German and Beck referring to her as “the Maestro” constantly. I get she was meant to be intimidating and more obsessed with music than anything else but it just felt over the top and kind of ridiculous.

However, A THOUSAND PERFECT NOTES was a relatively fast read (despite the heavy subject matter), and I was intrigued to see how Beck would deal with his mother and I thought the relationship between him and August was sweet. But for a book that seemed to want to be deep and poignant, it didn’t really work – the characters just didn’t click. Not my thing, unfortunately.

Beck's mother wants him to be a child prodigy on the piano, to live the life she believes she missed out on and make the family name famous. He spends his life practicing but it is never enough for the Maestro, he is never good enough. He feels like he hates the piano, even though music is his life. The only thing that keeps him going is protecting his little sister. Who knows what his mother might do to punish him if he can't make her proud. When he is paired with August for a school project, Beck tries to be cold and distant, like his mother, but August bashes through his defenses with barely any effort. Your heart breaks with feeling everything that Beck goes through and you can't help but wish for him to be strong and break the cycle before his mother causes irreparable damage to him or his sister.

A Thousand Perfect Notes is such a dark tale, where, at the beginning, there seems to be no hope. Then August enters Beck's life and shows him that there is more. And wanting more can be dangerous...

I read this book in one sitting - only a few hours. It’s the most unputdownable book I’ve read this year, full of thrills and feels, and this beautiful musical heart that mine is breaking for.

I’ll start off by saying that the plot of this book is very different to many of the contemporaries that I’ve read recently. Not in a bad way, not at all. This plot is subtle, and it’s fuelled by characters and desires and thoughts and feelings rather than events that occur to drive the story on. That means that all the characters are spectacularly and beautifully written. And I love the style in which the story is told – it has a very conversational tone that dragged me into the story from the very first page.

This book has some good family. Saying that is an interesting point as Beck deserves so much more than the mother he has, but his younger sister Joey is a delight and he is a loving older brother. I don’t think we get enough brother/sister relationships in contemporary, so this one made my heart feel all warm and soft on the inside. The only thing that keeps Beck going is protecting Joey. In contrast to Beck’s monster mother, August has an amazing family. They provided a moment of light and hope in what was otherwise a very dark moment, and that’s refreshing to read since so many books like to give all character’s family problems.

The friendship is a highlight. Beck is a grumpy cinnamon roll and August is a ray of sunshine and snark. They’re paired together for a school project, and Beck tries to be cold and distant, but August easily breaks him down and the purest friendship starts. This book has romance. A tiny bit of romance that doesn’t affect the story at all, but it’s there and it’s pure and it’s beautiful. It’s not InstaLove at all: it’s a mutual love that’s born out of one of my favourite friendships I’ve ever read in a contemporary. It was hardly noticeable but still absolutely stunning. And heartbreaking. Very heartbreaking.

I might have brushed on it briefly before, but I can’t stand when in films or books the characters are about to sit down for a meal then are suddenly like, “I gotta go.” But this book had so much food. And it was eaten. And I loved everything about it. Beck’s home diet is cereal and sandwiches, but August’s food is practically magical in comparison. It’s so refreshing to read a book that cherishes food so much – especially since I know the author is a foodie – and that I could feel myself salivating while reading the descriptions. They were delicious.

This book made me feel so much. Lots of it hurt me to the core, but the rest of it was so wonderfully real and made me welcome the pain. This is a book that makes me want to live and breathe, slightly ironic as I spent a majority of it holding my breath and just hurting for Beck,
This may only be C.G. Drew’s debut novel, but I can’t wait to see where she goes with her next book. I am already a lifelong fan.