Sing Me to Sleep by Angela Morrison
March 2010 by Razorbill
Hardcover, 301 pages
Review Copy
Book Synopsis
Beth has always been “The Beast”—that’s what everyone at school calls her because of her awkward height, facial scars, and thick glasses. Beth’s only friend is geeky, golden-haired Scott. That is, until she’s selected to be her choir’s soprano soloist, and receives the makeover that will change her life forever. When Beth’s choir travels to Switzerland, she meets Derek: pale, brooding, totally dreamy. Derek’s untethered passion—for music, and for Beth—leaves her breathless. Because in Derek’s eyes? She’s not The Beast, she’s The Beauty. When Beth comes home, Scott, her best friend in the world, makes a confession that leaves her completely torn. Should she stand by sweet, steady Scott or follow the dangerous, intense new feelings she has for Derek? The closer Beth gets to Derek, the further away he seems. Then Beth discovers that Derek’s been hiding a dark secret from her …one that could shatter everything.............(GoodReads)
Review
I was so excited to read this novel, anything resembling a retelling of Beauty and the Beast always catches my eye. I know this book by reading the author comments was based on and dedicated to a real boy who passed away and I would never want to diminish his memory by anything I say in my review, so with respect to him and Ms. Morrison this is my personal opinion of the fictional story..........
To begin, I felt this was more teen drama than a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, nothing for me felt fairy tallish or resembled the true characters that make the Beast the Beast and make Beauty ---Beauty.
Beth is a pimply faced gal with very low self –esteem in the first half of the book, she has one friend, Scott and a seemingly well home life. Beth beyond her physical appearance has been blessed with a beautiful voice, she sings in choir and pretty much lives for the competition. In a turn of events Beth who has always sang from the back row finally gets noticed and is given a major lead solo in a fierce competition that will take the choir team to Switzerland. This of course sparks concern with all the girls because of Beth’s appearance and they go to work to transform her into a beauty queen.
And here is where I had the hardest time with the book, I felt a bit lost during Beth’s makeover. To me she really never represented the Beast; she was a very pretty girl with bad acne and greasy hair- nothing a laser, cream and a good stylist couldn’t fix. The book rambles on and on about her gorgeous body and size 2 frame. She’s super tall, but where Beth thinks she’s a skyscraper, the other girls refer to her as a runway model. Nowhere do I think the Beast character was truly represented- he is complex yet a very simple character to nail down and to be honest, we all have a little beast in us, when facing the hard truth of what’s in our hearts. But the beast was punished because he had such a mean spirit before his curse, Beth was good inside and out even before the transformation and Derek (the boy Beth meets in Switzerland) was never in danger of being a beast, he was good through and through – if anything I could see him playing the role of Beauty.
Parts of the book were very beautiful and even heartfelt. Derek surely brings emotional depth to the novel, but many aspects I found were just too wishy-washy. Beth has major self-esteem problems, yet only weeks later after a good laser treatment, she is the queen of the world and has no self-image issues anymore. It was hard for me to connect with her because I thought her character was all over the place. Towards the end of the novel, I knew where the book was going and hoped to see some major depth with Beth, but it felt very forced and not genuine. The ending for me also solidified how much I unfortunately did not like Beth's character. Although this didn't work for me, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes teen romance, singing and choir related themes.
Rating
Sing Me to Sleep is full of teen drama and passion, borderline graphic sexuality, mild language, grief, self-esteem, bullying and teen drinking. Recommended to 16 and up.
3/5- YA- Romance
Copy provided by Around the World Tours
Great review. I've been wanting to try this one.
ReplyDeleteSorry Beth didn't work for you. Not connecting with a character is the worst.
I never really thought of it as a retaling of B&B, so maybe that is why I liked it more. It had small glipses of being like a B&B book but I don't think it was ever suppose to be thought of as a fairy tale book. It was a teen drama book, and there were a few things I didn't like (Beth being so clingy) but over all I loved it.
ReplyDeleteGreat honest review!
It sounds cute, but I'm not sure it's really for me. Great honest review!
ReplyDeleteDarnit. From the blurb I though I needed this one, but looks like it's not really for me after all.
ReplyDeleteeveryone is saying the same thing...i enjoyed but i have the same issues.
ReplyDelete