A Thousand Perfect Notes

By C.G. Drews

Blurb: 
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?

Review: 
I've been wanting to read this book for a while, I'm glad I have but there are far more better books in this world.

So this book is basically about this young boy who is not allowed to have any friends, not allowed to do anything he wants and he is forced to play the piano for his mother. His family are famous pianists and his mother had a stroke so is now unable to play the piano and she wants him to follow in his footsteps. If he doesn't play them correctly or at all he gets punished and by this I mean beat up. So there is a trigger warning of domestic abuse.

There isn't much that happens in this book apart from that he gets put with a girl in one of his classes for a project and she is the one that makes him start to rebel his mother. They're both quite poor families and this can be seen by the way their lunch, clothes and home are described. August is also a vegan by the sounds of it which I like as I've not come across any characters in books that are began, so it makes a nice change that they starting to appear in books too, and I'm pleased she gets Beck to try some of the food.

Beck adores his little sister Joey and will do anything to protect her and this is shown at the end of the book when he decides to protect the things he loves with the decision he makes.

There's not actually much to talk about about for this book as there wasn't much happening apart from Beck getting beat up a lot. The characters do get on my nerves a bit and there's not much action so that's why it's rated quite low for me. Plus I don't really want to read about kids getting beat up and for having no choice in what they do. I know that this does happen in real life but I don't want to read about it as it just makes me feel sorry for all the people that are in that situation and I am aware it happens a lot more than people realise.

The friendship in this book is good though, August sticks by Beck no matter how hard he tries to push her away. So that's a good point.

So I'd only recommend this book if you are a fan of friendship, don't mind reading about child abuse, and not a fan of much action.

Favourite Character: August

Read: 22/08/19 - 26/08/19

3 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie