Review: The Opposite of Music

Title: The Opposite of Music
Author: Janet Ruth Young
Publication date: February 27th, 2007

Summary:

Billy Morrison's father was the kind of dad a guy dreams of having. When Billy wanted a bike, his dad helped him restore a classic to perfection. When Billy said he wanted to be a songwriter, his dad taught him to sing the blues.

But his dad just isn't the same man anymore. Mr. Morrison doesn't eat, barely talks, and even refuses to listen to his favorite records. His depression is slowly crippling his family. And to save his father, Billy will have to face decisions almost too frightening to consider.

The Opposite of Music is a powerful and realistic debut novel about the lengths a family will go to in order to save one of their own, and the strength it takes to learn to ask for help. What would you do for the ones you love?

Review:

I was honestly a bit disappointed with this book. While overall it was good, and the idea behind it was interesting, I think it could've been done better. It wasn't bad, but a lot of it just seemed unrealistic to me. Like the fact that the first thing the mother did when they found out the father had depression, was to talk to the (13 and 15 year old) kids about it and try to come up with a reason why. In most families I know, the parents would've tried to make things look as normal as possible for the children so that it wouldn't be a burden to them as well. But in this book, the children were expected to help care for the father, as if he were sick with a huge cold or something. They also withdrew from professional help, and tried to "treat" him on their own, at the house. And if it was as bad as they made it seem, I think he should have possibly been in a hospital or something. Not being taken care of by a 15 year old boy the majority of the time.

I think the issue of depression was very real and shown in a great way, but just how the family dealt with everything seemed so unreal to me, which made this book somewhat disappointing. It also seemed to just be lacking something. I'm not quite sure what. Possibly it was just the issue of it not seeming realistic that kind of threw everything off for me. I have mixed opinions about this book. While it was interesting and I don't regret the time I spent reading it, I don't know if I'd recommend it to anybody or read it again. Maybe if you were looking for something to read out of boredom, and had nothing else to read. I didn't hate it, but it just wasn't anything really special.

Characters: 6/10
Plot: 7/10
Originality: 7/10
Writing: 7/10
Overall grade: C