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Starring Adam West (2013)

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Starring Adam West (2013) Anonymous Whether you know him from his iconic role as Batman in the...

Young Rock

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As Dwayne Johnson runs for president in 2032, he takes a comedic look back at his extraordinary life...

Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Turn It Up! in Books

Jan 23, 2020

Turn It Up! was a totally random pick I chose from my library's OverDrive catalog because they didn't have the book I so desperately wanted in my hands right at the very moment. Come on, American Panda. Come to meeee.

Or maybe they did but I didn't feel like reading any fantasy. I've been wanting more and more cute contemporary romances lately. Give me all the cute contemporaries, bookwyrms. I need to feed my latest addiction until I'm tired of it and go back to my usual fantasy groove.

Anyways...

Jen Calonita's latest novel is about acapella groups. I love and admire acapella (Pentatonix is one of my favorite groups) so this novel caught my eye really quick. Turn It Up! is essentially Pitch Perfect set in a high school setting instead of college. I was hoping that I would enjoy the book a lot since it is about music and acapella.

Unfortunately, the book focuses too much on Lidia's and Sydney's problem with little to no progress and an ending that was basically handed over to the characters on a plate adorned with musical notes and shoes. Boom. Happily ever after for everyone.

This is basically the summary of the book:
<ul>
<li>Girl has a crush on a guy</li>
<li>Other girl ends up falling in love with the guy</li>
<li>Girl catches other girl and guy kissing, creates tension among friendship</li>
<li>Girl develops other interests and chases after it because it conveniently keeps her away from other girl and guy as well</li>
<li>Other girl tries to push guy but really, she's in love but she values friendship</li>
<li>Girl falls in love slowly with another guy</li>
<li>Guy somehow gets between girl and other guy by accident - oopsies</li>
<li>Girl and other girl realizes they don't have to be this way</li>
<li>Somehow they become best friends again and everyone lives happily ever after</li>
</ul>
I was expecting more... I don't know, music to be involved? There's certainly conflict among the acapella group, but it felt like the musical angle wasn't even needed to create drama among the characters since there seemed to be issues well before the acapella group became a thing. 🤷

A lot of the issues seemed to have roots since middle school/early high school - they just seemed to have escalated. And while the Pitch Perfect movie had their drama, it was at least entertaining and catchy. I can't say the same for the book.

The writing felt off - there were times where it felt awkward due to punctuation usage, mainly exclamation points. Sentences that didn't need an exclamation had one, or maybe it's just the phrasing of the sentences themselves. It didn't really help me enjoy the book more.

And then there were the characters. I don't know if it's just me, but I have a hard time thinking of how old most of the characters are. I know Turn It Up! is set in high school, but there were times where I felt they were a little younger. 🤔

But hey, there were maybe a few parts that were good!
<ul>
<li>Eventually, everyone got past their differences - hooray</li>
<li>There is a cute romance, and I definitely ship it</li>
<li>Sometimes I wanted to smush the two characters together</li>
<li>Lidia's family is cute and adorable</li>
</ul>
Anyways, those smol little bits that were good didn't make up for the bad. I wanted more from Turn It Up! and I got a Pitch Perfect version in book form that was less entertaining than the movie.

<a href="http://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/turn-it-up-by-jen-calonita-ya-pitch-perfect/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>