Mini Review | A Thousand Perfect Notes by CG Drews

A Thousand Perfect Notes by CG Drews
Published On: June 7, 2018
Published By: Orchard Books
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 282
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
Rating: ★★★

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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?

*A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I can't say I enjoyed this book.
Enjoyable is not a word I would use to describe this book, but not because it was a terrible book. The subject matter is not pleasant but I think it is something that needs to be discussed. Our main character, Beck, is subjected to some truly disgusting abuse from his mother frequently throughout the book, which made for a very difficult read.

This book is heartbreaking.
Beck's mother's treatment of her children is so horrendous that I really struggled to read this book. It broke my heart to read about Beck's home life and everything he has to deal with. The situation felt so real, at times I had to remind myself that these were fictional characters. Despite these characters being fictional, it was an important reminder that this kind of thing does happen more often than I would like to think about. It is a very important topic.

Interesting take on child abuse.
I found it particularly interesting that the abuse Beck is subjected to is regarding his music. Beck is forced to obsessively play piano and is subjected to horrendous violence should he not play for the required time or make mistakes. I have never read anything like that before. I found it especially poignant as music is commonly considered something that brings joy and comfort, which was definitely not the case in this situation.

The characters felt real.
The characters were the best thing about this book. Both Beck and August felt well developed and almost felt like real people. I loved how different they were, August was the complete opposite of both Beck as a person and his life in general. She was a ray of sunshine and it was lovely to see her bring some light to Beck's life.

The plot was lacking.
This was the let down for me; there wasn't much plot to this book at all. I was always waiting for something big to happen, some big plot twist that would make the story more exciting. However, other than the development of the relationship between Beck and August, and August's deteriorating home life, not a lot happened. It definitely wasn't a plot driven book but, for me, it just needed a bit more to happen.

Overall, this was a difficult read due to the subject matter but I enjoyed it as much as a person can enjoy such a topic. The characters were well-developed and felt like real people standing in front of me. However, the lack of plot resulted in me becoming bored at times. I needed a little something more to keep me fully engaged.