This is Teen Read Week, and we thought what better way to celebrate than by featuring some awesome teen bloggers. So all this week, we’re featuring guest blogs from some of our favorite teen bloggers! That is actual TEENS who blog about books. (Because while the Novel Novice staff loves YA, it’s been a few years since any of us were considered teens).
Today’s guest blog is from The Book Cellar:
Books with Beat. When thinking about books with beat, I came up with several ideas of what it could mean. The obvious was books dealing with music, but I also came up with books that I thought had beat in the sense that they were OFF-beat of a lot of other young adult fiction out right now. In fact, a lot of the music related books are slightly off beat from the rest of fiction, which is super awesome.
The first book I thought of that dealt with music was Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly. This was a debut book I managed to borrow from a friend a few months before its release and simply fell in love. I read it then, and pre-ordered it and read it again once it arrived. It is simply amazing. It really makes you think—the main character suffers from a “touch of Aspergers” yet she doesn’t let that stand in her way. It’s a very empowering sort of book.
Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert is another book that deals with “beat”. The characters write their own ballads to explain their own story, which makes the book super cool. It thought it was really interesting reading, how you get a section of the story then a character tells their “ballad”. Each time a ballad is revealed, you appreciate the book even more.
Thinking a little past simply music I came up with Heidi R Kling’s Sea, which is a book I absolutely adore. One of the most memorable scenes in the book is shortly after Sienna, the main character’s arrival in Indonesia in the orphanage. There is a boy playing drums and the main character and Sienna connect. The beat in that scene is so strong, and it just stands out in your mind. Sea though, overall, is more a book that is offbeat. It’s a book that isn’t like everything else out these days. It’s set in Indonesia, which is already very cool, but then there’s also tragedy, hope, romance, and so much more.
There are so many amazing books with beat– you can always find a book that is right for you, no matter how you apply the term.
More About The Book Cellar:
Erica is currently a senior in high school. She started her blog, The Book Cellar, in February of 2009 to share her love of books with others. When she isn’t reading, you can find her in show choir, Key Club, or in whatever theatrical production happens to be taking place at the time.
Novel Novice 
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