"I'm sorry", I said "No. Be something else". "Then I'm grateful".
- Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books (27 Oct 2011) Genre: Young Adult - Contemporary Source: Publisher
Rating:
My Thoughts - VIRTUOSITY is a book that I've seen all over the blogosphere, so I was pretty curious when I got it in the mail.
Carmen is a violinist. Her mother a failed musician has been the driving force that has pushed and encouraged Carmen to reach the potential that she has today. With a Grammy under her belt, and a place to compete for the Guarneri music prize - nothing is going to stop her. She's one of the best, if not THE best, but for the first time there's an ounce of doubt when she hears a boy called Jeremy play.
Turns out he may just be the one to worry about, and although she knows he's competition - she can't help how she's starting to feel.
There's a ridiculous amount of pressure on this girl and if not from the industry then there's her mother breathing down her neck. It's a bit too much for a 17 year old girl, so it's not surprising when she starts to become overwhelmed.
Carmen's mother is an interesting character. She has kept her daughter sheltered - in a way - from the outside world and has made her eat and breath the Violin. To the point where Carmen, perhaps sub - consciously thinks this is all she wants to do. To top it all off she has her hooked on pills and refuses to tell her daughter about her father when she has every right to know. These things always get to me. Why take away a child's right to know their father? It's wrong and cruel, but there's a lot about her mother I don't understand, and yet, despite all this, I couldn't quite bring myself to dislike her. She is obviously still grieving over a loss that she has to live through her daughter every day. It must be incredibly painful seeing anyone dear to you thrive in something that you had no chance but to let go.
I'm a little indifferent when it comes to Jeremy. He was arrogant and a complete jerk - there's not all that much too him apart from that in my opinion. The thing is that he knows he is both those things and seems to think that being nervous or using it as a defence mechanism is some kind of excuse. Hardly. There really wasn't anything appealing about him or anything that I connected with anyway, but I can see why him and Carmen would click.
One thing I have to mention is the part that music plays in this novel. A part of me felt sad when I would hear her play, when I would hear Jeremy play. They are obviously wonderful at what they do but I felt out of the loop - left out so to speak. I've read books like NAKED by Kevin Brooks and WHERE SHE WENT By Gayle Forman where music is a pivotal part of the book, but in those instances - alongside the protagonist, I felt that buzz, that excitement and wonder as they played, but this time around I felt like I wasn't given that, or either, I couldn't understand the beauty of it, or how the characters felt because I wasn't a part of their world. And the thing is that I'm not sure if this is purely just me being me, or if it was done intentionally. I know that both Jeremy and our MC did feel like others who weren't musicians couldn't understand how it really felt to do what they did, and I know that they were both very arrogant - it comes with the territory so it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, but when I felt out the loop, and when I felt like I couldn't feel that buzz - I wondered if it was the MC or author pushing me out, or the protagonist sub - consciously not connecting to her music anymore. I've probably completely confused you there, don't worry, I'm a little confused myself!
I have conflicted thoughts on the ending, but not ones that I can share without being spoiler-y - as much as I want to blurt them out, which sucks because I love to share my thoughts on every aspect of a novel. I will say that I would like to hope that she doesn't regret her choices when she looks back on life. That unlike her mother she is able to look back fondly at certain memories rather than allowing them to be too painful. Although the last page indicates to something more promising I still feel a little uneasy about how things ended, but I've never been good with loose ends and unanswered questions, I'm far to nosey for that!
Oh, and I found the constant British references quite amusing. I'm guessing she's a fan? As much as I wanted to say, we do not talk about the weather all the time, and we do not all drink tea! I kind of had to bite back a smile, because, well, I do. ;)
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