4.65

This story is very different from what I typically read in some ways, which I find exciting. I had no clue it was a companion novel to Perfectly Parvin, so I plan on reading that eventually!

For one, this book is about a 14 year old. I personally really like younger YA and fully think we need more of it, but I also don't read a ton of it because not a ton of it exists!

Secondly, it is about a character with a medical condition I hadn't considered before. Azar has these nodules on her throat which affect her voice, cause her a lot of pain when speaking, and make her susceptible to throat infections.

Thirdly, Azar is Iranian, Argentinian, and Italian. Typically I feel like most of the mixed race characters I read are only mixed between two races, and even then, usually only one of their races have a strong culture. I really like that we get to see Azar's family on all sides, and they all have a really strong cultural background!!

BUT anyway to get to the actual meat of the story, Azar gets into a little trouble at school and ends up owing the school $1000. The principal basically gives her all these options of extracurriculars she could join - but she's always been interested in music, and the Battle of the Bands has a $10,000 prize, so it ends up being an easy choice.

Except not really. Azar loves songwriting but doesn't feel confident that her voice will ever allow her to sing in front of people. Also, it's Battle of the BANDS, and Azar is significantly bandless. So she has to set out to try and find a collection of people willing to be in her band.

Azar has always been very quiet, mostly because it's painful not to be, and consequentially her only friend has pretty much been her cousin. Azar is forced to meet her classmates, for real, for basically the first time. Seeing her come out of her shell so well is very rewarding and sweet.

This book is really funny - Azar has such a personality and it shines through in her narration. As far as actual narration goes, I recommend the audiobook for this book, because the narrator nails the scratchiness of Azar's voice.

Azar's parents are divorced, and she doesn't see her dad too often, and then circumstances change and I think it's handled in an interesting way in this story. Custody is really different for every single family and I am impressed with how it was approached in this book.

The main conflict in this story deals with Azar's need for control. It's hard to watch her fight with people, but it's pretty easy to understand why she wants control in her life when she has such a big thing going on with her health that she isn't able to control.

Overall I really liked this book, and I think it would be a great read for middle grade readers who are getting ready to start reading YA, but also, it's just a great read in general. Definitely recommend checking this one out!!

I REALLY, really enjoyed this YA book about an Iranian American teen, Azar, who has a chronic and invisible disability related to childhood colic and vocal chord nodules. An aspiring singer/songwriter in her first year of high school, Azar is pretty much a loner until she forms a band and develops a crush on one of the other members. The disability and demisexuality rep in this book is great and it was also very well done as an audiobook narrated by Alex McKenna. Much thanks to Libro.fm for my ALC of this charming and easily bingeable book!

The sophomore follow up to Perfectly Parvin.

The sophomore follow up to Perfectly Parvin.