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A review by leahegood
Solo by Kwame Alexander, Mary Rand Hess
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Summary
Seventeen-year-old Blade can't wait to escape the life of the rich and famous. The son of a washed up rock star, he's tired of broken promises, broken trust, and the sordid details of his families brokenness on tabloid headlines. His desperate quest for peace takes him all the way to Ghana, but half way across the world might not be far enough.
My Thoughts
I read this book to fulfill a prompt in a reading challenge, and it definitely exemplified the tendency of reading challenges to get you out of a reading rut. Solo isn't the kind of story I typically gravitate to. The writing style is more stylistic than I tend to prefer and the story itself wouldn't have caught my attention if I wasn't seeking a book about a musician. That said, I enjoyed the story a lot more than I thought I was going to ask I read the first quarter of it.
Other reviewers have indicated that this book is for an upper teen audience ... 15 or 16 and up ... since it has some mature content. I'd agree with this (leaning towards 16 and up). See more details into content.
I didn't love the relationship with the girlfriend at the beginning of the book. The story in general didn't really pull me in until truth bombs starter shaking Blade's already messed up world.
What I did like. I'm always intrigued by stories that show the less glamorous sides of celebrity life. I also enjoyed the depiction of Ghana that acknowledged (and mildly mocked) the well-intentioned but often short-sighted ways westerners often interact with other countries and cultures. The author keeps all of the characters real and relatable.
Content
Romance: One or two times, explicit wording was used to express kissing. Handsy making out expressed in poetic (not explicit) terms. Blades father shoes up a few times drunk with scantily clad women much younger than himself in tow ... much to Blade's disgust.
Language: Minor swearing using throughout. Can't remember anything more explicit than d*mn or h*ll, but I was distracted a few times while listening to the audio, so there may have been words used that I missed.
Violence: Minimal to non-existent.
Religion: Blade has some unpleasant encounters with his girlfriend's father who is a pastor or a bishop.... something like that. Blade's family is generally non-religious, but his father exclaims "maybe there is a God!" when observing a spectacular view.
Seventeen-year-old Blade can't wait to escape the life of the rich and famous. The son of a washed up rock star, he's tired of broken promises, broken trust, and the sordid details of his families brokenness on tabloid headlines. His desperate quest for peace takes him all the way to Ghana, but half way across the world might not be far enough.
My Thoughts
I read this book to fulfill a prompt in a reading challenge, and it definitely exemplified the tendency of reading challenges to get you out of a reading rut. Solo isn't the kind of story I typically gravitate to. The writing style is more stylistic than I tend to prefer and the story itself wouldn't have caught my attention if I wasn't seeking a book about a musician. That said, I enjoyed the story a lot more than I thought I was going to ask I read the first quarter of it.
Other reviewers have indicated that this book is for an upper teen audience ... 15 or 16 and up ... since it has some mature content. I'd agree with this (leaning towards 16 and up). See more details into content.
I didn't love the relationship with the girlfriend at the beginning of the book. The story in general didn't really pull me in until truth bombs starter shaking Blade's already messed up world.
What I did like. I'm always intrigued by stories that show the less glamorous sides of celebrity life. I also enjoyed the depiction of Ghana that acknowledged (and mildly mocked) the well-intentioned but often short-sighted ways westerners often interact with other countries and cultures. The author keeps all of the characters real and relatable.
Content
Romance: One or two times, explicit wording was used to express kissing. Handsy making out expressed in poetic (not explicit) terms. Blades father shoes up a few times drunk with scantily clad women much younger than himself in tow ... much to Blade's disgust.
Language: Minor swearing using throughout. Can't remember anything more explicit than d*mn or h*ll, but I was distracted a few times while listening to the audio, so there may have been words used that I missed.
Violence: Minimal to non-existent.
Religion: Blade has some unpleasant encounters with his girlfriend's father who is a pastor or a bishop.... something like that. Blade's family is generally non-religious, but his father exclaims "maybe there is a God!" when observing a spectacular view.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Drug abuse, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Ableism, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, and Classism