Solo

Solo by Kwame Alexander            Audio Book:  4 hours, 2 min     Hardback Book:  464 pages

           

I liked this book a lot.    It is the story of trying to find your place in your family when the whole interconnected thing is somehow off-kelter.    Blade is 17 and an avid writer of songs, he puts his emotions into poetic words then accompanies himself on guitar.   His father is a drug addicted alcoholic rock star.   Their family enjoys the lifestyle of the rich and famous but their hugely successful musciain father is embarrassing.   He is always doing something or saying something that is awesome to his fans who think he is a rebel and they admire him, yet, Blade his son feels a huge embarrassement weighing him down whenever his father is making the tabloid news.    While his father loves him dearly and only wants the best for Blade and his sister his drug and alcohol hued lifestyle is wreaking their family.   The kids don’t want to be around him although he provides a lifestyle that allows them basically anything they want any time they want it.    A good inner look inside a family about to implode showing how they got there and how good intentions can go awry.   The thin line between love and hate goes back and forth from foot to foot like a game of hopscotch.   Picking petals from a flower, he loves me, he loves me not then getting disgusted and bored and throwing the flower away – this book gives you that kind of feel but the story while intense is good.   Honestly, the songs and poems were more pass for me than wowing me, but, they are pertinent to the story as Blade expresses his inner hurt through them.    It seemed like things might go right at Blades graduation as valedictorian instead of making a speech Blade got up to sing what he wanted to say to everyone, especially one someone who captured his imagination and dreams.  The story takes a twist here that I will leave for the reader to discover but this is a good story, a lost and found of a family who cycles through so much like a driverless car heading for a wall.    Keep reading it will make you bite your lip and think.