“Guitar Notes” by Mary Amato: What Other Coming of Age Novels Strive to Be
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Recommended for: Fans of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda and If I Stay
Summary:
Tripp and Lyla shouldn’t get along. They shouldn’t even acknowledge each other. And, in fact, that’s how it is for the longest time. Tripp scraped by and found solace playing his guitar in his bedroom. Meanwhile, Lyla excelled at everything she did and prepared for elite cello competitions. But that all changes when Tripp and Lyla get assigned to the same school practice room on opposite days, leading to a hilarious exchange of notes between the string of an old guitar.
Review:
I cannot sing enough praises for this book. Set at the perfect pace, we get to see Lyla figure out who she is as both characters influence each other to fight for what they want. And this is all set together through true to life notes full of each character’s voice and their mutual love of all things music. Essentially, the plot was fantastic and transported me back to school. The characters were all well-flushed out and it made me curious to see where everything would go. And above-all, it was a perfectly constructed coming of age novel. I cannot believe that I hadn’t heard of this book before.
“He has been allotted precisely forty-four minutes of joy every other day.”
“Maybe it explains the reason why one person likes another. It’s because their souls both thrum at the same frequency.”