My Review

What I loved:

There are several things that I love about this book.

First, the music. As a former band geek and a person with audio-visual synaesthesia (I see sound as colour and pattern), the world building is absolutely wonderful. To have a well crafted story where characters can create these elements to become deified in the universe is wonderful, and to set it in a musical competition styled setting is genius. We get to discover the inner workings of deification the same way Phex does, and through his grumpy, cynical attitude.

I love Phex’s character. There is something heartbreakingly familiar about the fact that Phex feels like he needs to take care of others in order to be loved. He instinctively does it, relating to people the only way he knows how, which is through service. This is how he cares, or thinks he fits in, by consistently putting his needs aside to take care of everyone else. It speaks of the trauma of a rough childhood, and I suspect many will relate to him as a character.

But it is because of this that Phex finds his new family, and those who love him anyway. And doesn’t everyone need that?

What I didn’t love:

I couldn’t figure out whether or not Phex really wanted divinity or what his goal was in the deification process until more than halfway through. He just goes through the motions, only really doing it to protect the cafe where they found him, which wasn’t the best reason, to go along with it in my mind.

The initial descriptions of the roles of the cantors, graces and sifters also got me thoroughly confused. I think Ms. Carriger could have done with a lexicon at the beginning of the book, but maybe that’s just me.

While it wasn’t tough for me to place the genres, I think the found family portion is a little at odds with the performance genre. Generally speaking, the performance genre is a solo character item, even when it’s part of a team (Bend it Like Beckham) there is a lead that needs to come out on top. Don’t get me wrong, Phex does express his gifts, but without giving away spoilers, its not in the standard way of the performance genre. That’s not a bad thing, just unconventional.

But that didn’t detract from the story at all, because in the end, I wanted what Phex wanted, for their Divine Group to move on to the next stage.

I would recommend this book.

My Analysis

POV:

3^rd close past, Phex.

Genre:

Internal: Worldview – Education
Global Values: Ignorance to Wisdom
Core Emotion: Satisfaction
Controlling idea:  Being yourself is the best way to find your people.

External: Performance
Global Values: Shame to Respect
Core Need: Esteem
Core Emotion: Triumph

Other:

Violence: very low, but present.
Gore: very low, but present.
Romance/Sex: questioning only, cuddles.
Series: Tinkered Starsong Book 1.
Reality Clover: Sci-fi / Fantasy – Future

Reference:

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