The Songs You've Never Heard book review

I loved this book so much and wish I had actually gotten around to reading it so much earlier than I did.

This book follows Meg and Alana who meet each other and automatically assume each other's life is perfect, but as they get to know each other they realise that that isn’t actually the case and there’s so much more to each other than what meets the eye.

There was so much I loved about this book and once I was invested I could not put it down. One of the things I found extremely unique about this book was the fact the authors have created a whole album based on the songs in the book and it’s just so good, and I thought it was a really cool touch. I also loved the characters and how they developed such a strong friendship over the course of the book. There really was not very much romance in this book at all which was nice to see when most YA books include a decent-sized romance subplot these days, yes it was there but really not in excessive ways. Instead, the book was focused on these characters finding themselves, music and their friendship all of which I loved.

I wasn’t a massive fan of Carter for a decent chunk of the book but he did grow on me, as did Meg’s parents. It was really interesting to see a different look on the topic of being a celebrity and famous, you could see how much it affected these characters in many different ways and what went along with that well was the plus-sized rep. This rep and fan culture led into a really nice conversation (that wasn’t really nice to read, but nice in execution) on being plus-sized, having a different body type and briefly racism as well.

Overall I really loved this book and am so glad I finally read it, the YA book prize shortlist prompting me a bit. I can understand exactly why this book has been shortlisted and am so happy to see a book like this on the shortlist, it may not be wildly diverse but it is still relatable and I’m just glad to see a book with a main character like me on the shortlist. There was so much I loved about this book and I highly recommend it. 5 stars all the way.

Thank you for Netgalley and Clock Tower publishing for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

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