So Lyrical

So Lyrical #1

by Trish Cook

The life of Winnetka, Illinois, high schooler Trace revolves around her young, music-loving mother, an unknown father, a voluptuous best friend who may be going off the deep end, and the rich, gorgeous lead singer in a band.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Music

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2005

Reviews

[Cait · Rating 5 out of 5]

re-read 7 Jan 2021: this is just so charming, and in hindsight was absolutely a formative YA/romance book for me.

[John Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting take on the teen whose mom won't tell her anything about her father. This one has mom as a romance writer, daughter as determined to sleuth out dad, with able help from rich and cool boyfriend, ditsy best friend, mysterious note-writing admirer of said best friend, lots of running in prep for a rock and roll marathon, humor, snark and a satisfying end. Altogether a fast and fun read and I'm planning on reading more of her books.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book...I love it

[Brandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
I really wanted to like this book. I really, really did. But I couldn't because it had so many problems. And although it did have some redeeming qualities, it just wasn't enough for a higher rating.
There's basically three stories going on at one time and some books are really good at balancing it (for example, Night Circus) but So Lyrical wasn't one of them. It felt messy and not very well put together.
And the characters were unbelievably annoying and not well crafted together. Trace is the normal main character who is different than everybody else and has a best friend, Brina, with big boobs and a dramatic personality who likes dumb jocks and everybody wants to have sex with her. It was cliche, but if the characters are well written, I can deal with cliches. But they weren't and made stupid decisions that nobody in real life would make just to have certain scenes in the book. And then the author would just randomly throw in stuff about them. We were unaware that Brina wanted to study art or had ANY interest in art until more than halfway through the book, almost completely done with her storyline. And the author had said in the beginning that Brina didn't like cussing, and yet had her cursing quite a lot later on in the book. The only good character was Sully.
And I feel like the author was trying to make Brina's mom, Mrs. Maldonati,into a character that really affected how Brina viewed herself by making her Mrs. Maldonati have an eating disorder, but it came across as her making a joke out of it, which is not okay.
The situations were silly, and the plot was predictable. Thankfully, it was a short book and didn't take long to read, but I would not want to read it again.

[Lilly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this in high school and remember kind of enjoying it, but rereading it recently, I have to say that I had no taste back then. This book would not be enjoyed by anyone over the age of 15, I'm guessing. The characters were offensive and cliched. The girls bullied each other. There was no foundation for the relationship between Trace (main character) and Zander (love interest) at all; they didn't even really know each other beyond "omg, he/she's so hot". It seemed like the author was randomly throwing in topics and situations to create "depth" but everything felt forced and was either resolved poorly or not resolved at all over the course of the book.

I don't know why I bought this book but I'm now looking to get rid of my copy.

[Jordan Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this book was really good. I liked how it was so relevant to a normal high school girls life in some ways, but in other ways it was completely different. The ending wasn't the best though because I thought it would be a little more surprising, but to me it wasn't. I do recommend this book to kids. I recommend it because it teaches several different lessons and it is very entertaining.

[Elechia · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read this book I was only 12 and really did not understand all the sexual terms in the book , but I LOVED the book.
Now that I re-read it I love it even more because I understand what is going on. The relationship between Trace and Bebe is amazing.
A definite read.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a easy-read chick-flick, it was surprisingly good. The characters weren't all that creative, in retrospect, but this never really bothered me. It was easy to get into and something that kept me hooked til I read the last page. The romance is delicious, and is the story the whole way through.

[Slaa!!! · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sort of hilariously bad. I'm not even going to get into it because I'll be here all day!! That being said, I have a vague memory of enjoying it the first time I read it. But if you're older than, say, 12... probably best to not.

[Marisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was alright for reading when I had nothing else to read. I wouldn't go out of my way to read it again.

[Cheyanne wasel]

great story im glad she found her fathera and experienced the love of her life

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe if I was a girl or 20 years younger...but I read it and finished it.

[Svea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really fun book!I enjoyed reading it!

[ReadALot]

one of my all- time fav books
i loved the character even though the book is short its ok

[Sascha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Badly written. Main character is a flipflopping spoiled brat. All characterization poorly done. If I didn't work very hard not to have dnfs this would have been one. Total waste of time.

[Angie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this when I was a freshman in high school. I'm 26 now yet somehow this book sticks out like a sore, detached thumb sticking out of a pile of garbage. Ew ew ew.