New in town and navigating the complexities of Alder High (go ‘Varks), Geoff Smith might be a little more comfortable with a guitar in his hands than with a conversation. His father, a professor, and collector of magical oddities, is a local goth hero, but that doesn’t exactly boost Geoff’s popularity. However, his dad’s latest find, a mysterious book of spells, might be instrumental in winning a seemingly impossible bet with his crush, Corinne.
In a whirl of notes and lyrics, Geoff unknowingly strums a cursed tune. Suddenly, his low-key life hits a high note as the melody weaves its magical chaos throughout the school. The world becomes a stage, and the students its unknowing actors.
Caught in the spell’s limelight, Geoff must face the music. With the stakes escalating, he has to navigate his feelings for Corinne, dodge the ominous shadow of a bike-rack bully, and find a way to break the spell before his final curtain call. Can Geoff turn the tables, win the girl, and restore harmony? Or will he learn the hard way that in magic, as in music, everything has its price?
Free on 30th Mar 24 - 3rd Apr 24
Reviews:
"Simply written, easy to read and has that rarest of things, a lead character who grows up!"
Reviewer: DireCritical for Bookangel.
This book's cover makes it look like standard rock and roll, or teen high school, so it was a little misleading.
Geoff and his father have moved to Portland Oregon, the wasteland at the end of the earth as far as Geoff is concerned. He has left his friends, his band, his school, and now he's stuck here. Geoff's father runs a magic shop selling artefacts and real magic, and somehow for some reason never told his son. When Geoff stumbles over a book that grants wishes and has a dare to get a date, the combination causes, shall we say,complications.
The big problem I have with this book comes right upfront: a bad case of adults have no common sense. Geoff's father certainly doesn't. Instead of telling his son what he does for a living, and bringing him up in the familiar business, he lies and tried to cover.
Snatching a book away and saying he hasn't read it instead of telling Geoff it is expensive and paying for his college fund is asking for a child to go nosing. He doesn't even lock his study! If he drilled the rules into his son, his dad is setting him up for failure: rather like a gunshop owner not looking up the loaded weapons until his kids has gun safety down, or a chemist letting his child loose among the medicines: there will be a bad end. By loc 340 I was quietly wondering if Geoff's father was trying to off his son.
Geoff knows his Dad's business is like this, he says so, so he should know the rules. Either he is of limited intellect - or average intellect and limited survival instinct.
There are a few obnoxious kid moments - like his dad pointing out the written word isn't vulnerable to internet outages, only for Geoff to point out that fire or water will destroy it - just like fire and water will also destroy digital media, so it really is not the gotcha he thinks.
I can buy a millennial may not have heard of Led Zeppelin. I cannot buy a musician in a band, playing the same genre has not heard of Led Zeppelin. (And he's using an AI-drummer? I give it a few weeks after release that the copyright strike comes in. He'd do better with a standard auto-drum session kit.)
And somehow this kid has never heard of the Gremlins movie...
And once over those first hurdles, this turns into a good book.
All of these early annoyances make it so very satisfying to follow his character arc, as Geoff does a lot of growing up very quickly - there's a time limit on fixing his mistakes as he learns the hard way and he faces up to it. As the plot moves from the concerns of high school to more adult concerns, the characters develop and grow nicely and there is a very nice twist at the end as it turns out certain other characters aren't stupid either.
This is definitely a children's or young teens book. The writing is fluid and easy to read, the vocabulary and grammar are unchallenging, and while it doesn't paint vivid pictures in the mind, it gets the story across enjoyably and isn't distracting.
I didn't spot any egregious spelling errors or grammar mistakes that took me out of the story. The formatting is solid and rather good.
The author's acknowledgements are fine, though her line about if you didn't like it no refunds my leave her disappointed by Amazon T&Cs.
Overall, this is a young teen or older children's book about a boy who makes a bad decision, and grows up a great deal because of it. It's simply written, easy to read and has that rarest of things, a lead character who grows up!Rating: 4Quicklink to this review
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