e-Audio, 05:42:49
Narrated: by: Tami Charles
Release Date: February 2, 2021
Published by: Scholastic Audio
Read from: March 10-12, 2021
Stand-alone
Source: Library
TW: Abuse, Eating Disorders, Divorce, Manipulation, and Rape.
For Readers Interested In: Verse Novels, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Diverse Authors, POC MC, Stand-alone, YAA ripped-from-the-headlines novel of ambition, music, and innocence lost, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Jason Reynolds!
Be bold. Get seen. Be Heard.
For seventeen-year-old Denver, music is everything. Writing, performing, and her ultimate goal: escaping her very small, very white hometown.
So Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean “Mercury” Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights — plus hours and hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it.
Until they’re not.
Denver begins to realize that she’s trapped in Merc’s world, struggling to hold on to her own voice. As the dream turns into a nightmare, she must make a choice: lose her big break, or get broken.
Inspired by true events, Muted is a fearless exploration of the dark side of the music industry, the business of exploitation, how a girl’s dreams can be used against her — and what it takes to fight back.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I’m not usually a fan of novels in verse (I know, I know, I start every novel in verse review the same way lol) But with this one, the cover was just kind of “calling” to me. Besides the fact that it was beautiful, I was really interested in how this was about the music industry but it was titled Muted. I was just really interested in this one.
For Denver, music is everything she’s wanted since she was a child. She finally gets the chance to do just that. Her and her group got noticed by one of the biggest people in the industry. They are all come together and trust “Merc” to take care of them. But as time goes by, Denver begins to realize things just aren’t what they thought. She was so blinded by the good things that she was ignoring all the bad.
First things first…. The writing style was a little jumpy for me. But that’s more than likely because it was a novel in verse. This is why I’m not usually a fan of verse, but sometimes the plot is what’s driving it and it ends up workiing. And that’s kind of what happened here. I was past interested in finding out what happened, so by the time I figured out I didn’t really care for the writing style, I was way past invested.
Another thing that had me invested was the way the audio was told. At first I was sad because I didn’t get an ARC/e-ARC of this, but then once I finished the audio, I knew the reason was because I needed the audio. The audio has parts where “Denver” is singing. I did not know the author could sing like that. It definitely made me go back and listen to those same parts slowed down. (I normally listen to my audios on 2x’s the speed.)
The biggest surprise of this book though is the ending. I won’t say much because spoilers, but there’s two things that you will NOT see coming. I definitely didn’t. I knew something like it might happen, but seeing the entire way it played out, I was in shock. I remember having to go back and listen again to make sure I heard right there too lol Let’s just say this book was doing a whole lot.
Although this isn’t my favorite top of book, it still ended up good for me. It wasn’t perfect, but for what I was expecting, I think it was really good. This book surprised me and made me think twice about those heart-breaking tales of childhood stars
