AFTER THE WALLPAPER MUSIC

A young violinist learns to rock out.

Flora loves to play tunes for Auntie Flora, her namesake and great-great-aunt, who lives with her family. She also enjoys playing classical music with the Arden String Quartet, where she’s first violin. When retired rock star Theo DeLuca moves to town after the tragic death of his young daughter, his son, Simon, becomes Flora’s classmate. Simon invites her to join him for the local Battle of the Bands competition, and Flora accepts after jamming out to rock music with him. But she finds that this decision creates tension within the quartet, who are also part of the competition. Further adding to her troubles is Auntie Flora’s hospitalization for pneumonia, which is making the younger Flora anxious for her life. All is neatly resolved in the end, perhaps too much so. Flora feels underdeveloped as a character, without enough description beyond her interest in music to make her feel fully dimensional. The secondary characters, including Simon and Auntie Flora, are even less nuanced, generally possessing an attribute or two but not feeling especially realistic. The narrative voice is generic, and particularly lacking is any meaningful description of playing music; at one point during the rock group’s practice, Flora aligns with the book’s tendency to tell rather than show, describing her experience as, “It’s magical. It’s exciting. It’s amazing.” The ultimate result is a tale that falls flat. Major characters present white.

An uninspiring musical journey.