BOOK REVIEW: A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews

BOOK REVIEW: A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews

Orchard
June 2018
Paperback, $16.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell

Young Adult / Contemporary

90% Rocking

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?

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From the heartbreaking, visceral opening page of this story, readers are given some insight as to the tone of the rest of the story, but they really can’t imagine the full extent of the emotional roller-coaster that’s to come.

What he wants most in the world is to cut off his own hands.
At the wrists would be best. That hollow tiredness that stretches from fingertips to elbow would be gone for ever. How sick is that? There must be something seriously – dangerously – wrong if he can lie on his rock-solid mattress at night and think about lopping off limbs and using bloodied stumps to write ‘HA!’ on the walls.
And he’d be free. Because, without hands, he’s worthless to her.
To the Maestro.
His mother.

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.

August lives here? Warm and happy and safe?
If he knocks, he’ll unleash a legion of pathetic awkwardness. He’s never asked for help in his life. He doesn’t want it. What does he want?
A family.
An occasional hug.
To know his sister is safe.
A friend.
Something more than a friend?

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?

Beck thinks August has reopened a raw rift of bitterness. It’s easy to drag himself through life with his eyes close and accept the hate – until someone bumps him and forces him to look up and realise life’s cutting him with broken shards while everyone else is dancing. It’s suffocating. It’s unfair.

This is the emotional kind of story that will pull a reader in and break their heart many times over, but they have to keep reading because they need to ride this journey out with the characters. 

Debut Aussie author Drews paints a portrait of the kind of abuse that can be so incredibly powerful and yet remain hidden in general society, mainly because the victim is so terrified that they put on their own. But she also shows how the little things can give that same victim the strength to get through the day, and the courage to fight for the kind of life that everyone deserves. 

He wants Joey to be safe. He wants to eat until he’s stuffed. He wants to walk far, far away without a care in the world. He wants every string that ties him to the piano to snap. He wants the Maestro to say well done. He wants to write the music in his head, pages and pages of it, and never show it to a soul if he doesn’t want to. He wants to own it.

I’m honestly gobsmacked that this is a debut title, it is penned in such amazing and visceral terms. It shouldn’t really be such a surprise, as she’s an avid and well-known reviewer on Goodreads – she devours books as easy as breathing – but so many readers have dreams of writing and never produce anything near this quality over years, let alone as a debut title.

Beck’s fingers calm and skate to the high registers, adding something sweet to the feast of darkness. It aches in minor, like butterflies and broken wings. If the audience doesn’t lose some tears over this, they have no soul.
He leaves the butterflies bleeding over their wings and descends back to the pits of volcanoes and terror.
He plays like it’s his last moment on earth. He plays so he feels like crying.

This is an author to watch, and an Aussie to boot. I’ll be keeping a keen eye on her titles and suggest you do the same.

Those interested in Drews’ work should also check out The Boy Who Steals Houses.

 

Tags: 2018 Release, Aussie Author, Debut Author, Fiction, Hachette, Orchard, Young Adult

Category: Book Reviews