Heartbreak Symphony

YA fiction 

"Making music is like summoning a ghost.  Play the right melody, strike the right chords, and people remember the past with their whole bodies.  What it felt like to fall in love for the first time.  What it felt like to have that heart you never knew could be so big, broken.

     The right song sinks its teeth in us and makes us feel in places we thought were numb.  The right song hangs us high above the clouds and makes us dream."

     From these first two paragraphs you just know that music will play a prominent role in Laekan Zea Kemp's Heartbreak Symphony.  It's one of the biggest commonalities of her two protagonists, Aaron and Mia.  Aaron takes pride in his ability to find the songs that reach even the most quietest, most reclusive members of a group when he DJs a reunion or party.  Mia plays trumpet beautifully but freezes when it's time to perform on stage.

     Family tragedy is a second common denominator.  Aaron has recently lost his beloved mother to cancer.  His father is lost in a world of private grief. His twin brother, Miguel has channeled his grief into explosive anger.  Though sharing the same house they seem world's apart.  Mia's mother left her family when she was quite young.  Her father died six months later.  Her brothers, Andres and Jazzy, have done their best to raise her.

     They also share in community tragedy.  Although they supposedly live in a sanctuary city, ICE is swooping in more and more, breaking into homes, taking beloved community members into custody and sending them far away--if they let them live...

     ...and now the community is rising up, preparing for a demonstration.  As risky as participating will be, they aren't going to let all they love get torn away from them by bullies with badges.

     The book has one of the most powerful quotes I've ever read.  Andres is frightened, in danger of being deported.  He says that maybe it's good to be scared.

     "That's the root of it.  We fear because we love.  We fear because we are loved.  These fragile things are what make life worth living, but they're also what makes it so dangerous.  Because nothing is safe.  But maybe the fact is fleeting should make us love it even more."

     Kemp's sophomore YA novel will have readers in tears:  at times from sadness and at other times from glimpses of soaring joy.  It's a rich and vibrant symphony of nothing less than life itself.

On a personal note, Sunday at home I needed a writing break.  I decided to look at cat 🐈 😻 🐈‍⬛️ shirts on Ebay, sure I could pass on getting Eugene to order one.  Then I saw a shirt that had a gorgeous tuxedo cat with the words Tuxedo Mom.  If I hadn't been reading Heartbreak Symphony I would have left Ebay and gone back to work.  Joey Cat, my beloved ♥️ companion 💖 for sixteen years had been a gorgeous tuxedo cat.  I'd just passed the fourth anniversary of his death.  The book 📖 had me thinking about how our dead loved ones live on in our hearts 💕 💞 .  As long as Joey lives in my heart ❤️ 💙 💜 I am a tuxedo mom.  So I told Eugene to send away for the shirt.  It will be a fine tribute to one of the most loving, loyal, and joyous cats ever.

Jules Hathaway 

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