Songs About Us - Chris Russell

From Westlife and Take That to The Vamps and One Direction, boybands will be a familiar part of life for most millennials. Even though I am personally more interested in folk and indie music than pop, the phenomenon of boybands and how they are so deeply adored does fascinate me. I was looking forward to finding out what Chris Russell had to say on the subject in Songs About Us.

The sequel to Songs About a Girl, Songs About Us centres on Charlie Bloom, a gifted teen photographer who is asked to take backstage photos for the popular fictional boyband Fire&Lights. Charlie finds herself the object of two members’ affections, and is faced with the decision of whether to stick with misunderstood Gabe or take a chance on gentle Olly. If that all sounds cheesy and fan-fiction-esque, it is. However, fortunately there is much more to this novel than the romance, and it is the other layers of plot that make Songs About Us a success.

Firstly, there is an emphasis on family, and how complicated it can be. Charlie’s flawed relationships with her father and grandmother are dealt with realistically and sensitively. Desperate to learn more about her late mother, Charlie does some detective work and ultimately unearths an amazing secret but also some darker revelations. This mystery aspect to the novel is what really appealed to me and kept me turning the pages; I was significantly more invested in the truth about Charlie’s mum than in whether Charlie would end up with Olly or Gabe.

A second vital element to the novel is friendship. Charlie’s best friend Melissa is a brilliant character – intelligent and proud of it, a bit wacky and very loyal. I love her interactions with Charlie and the glimpses of their everyday life away from the spotlight. There are also the FireLighters, a mysterious pair of possible new friends who I initially found slightly tedious. However, as the story progresses, their role increases and their personalities develop.

Charlie’s friendships with the two band members she has no romantic involvement with – Yuki and Aiden – are also lovely to read about. As someone from outside the world of fame, Charlie can often tell when something is wrong with the boys, where those around them cannot. Yuki’s issues in particular probably affect many young people who become famous very quickly, and it is good to see them discussed. Aiden’s realisation about himself is something that a lot of readers will relate to, and isn’t seen nearly enough in YA literature.

I picked up Songs About Us unsure of what to expect. What I got was a great book that I honestly had trouble putting down. The Charlie-Gabe-Olly triangle is corny and unrealistic, and had the novel been purely about that I would have been bored. Luckily, the family history angle, the friendships, the characters of Yuki and Aiden, and Charlie’s passion for photography and her determination to be the best she can be all made for a thrilling read.


*This review was originally written for Cuckoo Review (New Writing North) and is reprinted with permission*

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Girl of Glass - Holly Webb

Image
Holly Webb has written a number of series for children – the Puppies and Kittens series, the Rose and Lily stories – and when a novel is part of a larger series it is tempting to suspect it may lack individuality. Indeed, having read some of Webb’s animal stories when I was younger I can confirm that they tend to be very alike, though well-written. Her Venice series, however, is something else. I reviewed its first instalment, The Water Horse , for Cuckoo back in 2015 and I was impressed by how Webb succeeded in making the setting of historical Venice – with some magic thrown in – seem so appealing to young readers. The writer’s passion for the city shone from the pages and the sights, sounds and smells of the palaces and canals transported me back in time. The Girl of Glass is the fourth book in the series, and I was hoping it would match the quality of The Water Horse while also covering new territory. It did – quite literally. We are taken out of Venice proper and instea
Read more

Run - Kody Keplinger

Image
Kody Keplinger is known for her excellently gritty high-school mean-girl novels, including The DUFF , which was recently made into a film. So my thoughts on beginning Run were that it would probably read along the same lines. However, to say it surprised me is an understatement. Run genuinely blew me away. Set in a small town in Kentucky, it transports the reader to an intense, beautiful but very flawed world which, as the book covers a year, we see in every season. Issues tied to the US South such as religion, family loyalty and the want for education versus a simple life are all held up to the light. Keplinger is clearly proud of being a southerner and has huge affection for her own small hometown, yet she also captures perfectly the frustration of the protagonists who just want to “get out of Mursey” and see something else of the world. Who are our protagonists? The narrative is split between Agnes, who tells the past, and Bo who brings us the present. Agnes is a kind, gentl
Read more