Night Music

Starred review from January 1, 2019
After failing her audition at an elite music school, Ruby falls for Oscar, her father's musical genius protégé.A disastrous audition at the prestigious Amberley School of Music would be heartbreaking for anyone with their heart set on a musical career. But for Ruby Chertok, what does the future hold if not a career as a classical pianist, a birthright from her loving, accomplished, but imperfect parents? Her father is on the faculty of Amberley and is in charge of the upcoming season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Enter Oscar Bell, a charming prodigy and YouTube sensation from Maryland who's spending the summer studying with Ruby's father. Oscar is African-American. Ruby and her family and friends are white--aside from her seven black friends, so few she can quickly count and list them, Oscar notes with good humor. Race matters in the course of their budding romance, but Oscar's rising star and Ruby's uncertain future factor in far more. Ruby struggles to figure out the next stage of her life while Oscar wants to avoid ugly assumptions about his interest in his mentor's daughter. Ruby and Oscar's sweet and intense romance sparkles. Readers will root for them not just as a couple, but as individuals trying their best to understand their gifts and passions while facing pressures from the adult world.A smart, funny, engrossing romance with a social conscience. (Fiction. 13-18)

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January 28, 2019
In the mostly white world of classical music, 17-year-old Ruby Chertok seems like a crown princess. Her father is a composer and teacher, her mother is a pianist, and her three older siblings are musicians. But after failing an audition for the summer program that her father runs, Ruby wonders who she truly is. Then her father’s new protégé arrives: he’s handsome, super talented, and staying in their basement. He and Ruby connect immediately, but can Oscar really date his mentor’s daughter? More pressingly, the school’s board, headed by Ruby’s godmother, wants to position African-American Oscar as the answer to its diversity problems, even if it means misrepresenting and stereotyping him. Thorne (The Wrong Side of Right) keeps a complex plot moving—encompassing Ruby’s reconnection with a childhood friend, her fraught relationship with her absent mother, and Oscar’s drive to compose work—while convincingly depicting the casual racism of seemingly well-intentioned liberals. Given all this, a thread about the board’s financial chicanery seems almost superfluous. At heart, though, this is a timely and romantic story about teens who feel like fish out of water finding the person who understands them. Ages 14–up.

March 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-Seventeen-year-old Ruby Chertok is the daughter of famed composer Martin Chertok. Her mother and siblings are elite musicians as well, making Ruby's failed attempt to enter the prestigious Amberley School of Music so much more than just a bad audition. Vowing to leave the classical music world for good, Ruby begins her summer searching for an identity that will provide purpose and meaning. Her plans take a detour when Oscar Bell, her father's newest protege, arrives in New York. Oscar (who is black) and Ruby (who is white) have an instant attraction but are acutely aware of how the music world will perceive Oscar's involvement with the daughter of his famous mentor. Despite their reservations, Oscar and Ruby's love of music binds them together. Their relationship is put to the test when Ruby's father intervenes to remove distractions, including Ruby, as Oscar composes his latest piece. Musically inclined readers will appreciate the countless references to classical music. The characters' voices are witty but almost indistinguishable. The exploration of issues related to racial stereotypes and sexual relationships is welcome but at times seems forced and heavy-handed. Classical music performers and fans will revel in the detailed descriptions of the elite New York music scene, but romance fans may find Ruby and Oscar's on-page chemistry to be lacking. VERDICT Purchase where there are avid music fans; otherwise an additional purchase for large libraries.-Lynn Rashid, Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville, MD

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 As the daughter of a world-famous classical composer, Ruby Chertok has always had music in her soul. But love, unfortunately, is not the same as skill; Ruby's older siblings may be living up to the Chertok name by achieving success throughout the classical music world, but when Ruby, a lifelong pianist, tanks a blind audition for the music academy where her father teaches, she finds herself suddenly in need of a new path. That's when she meets Oscar, a seemingly indefatigable young composer whom her father has taken under his wing for the summer, and as the months progress, they find themselves unable to resist their attraction to each other. Thorne (The Inside of Out, 2016) presents a careful examination of privilege. White, wealthy Ruby comes to realize just how much she takes for granted as she watches how African American Oscar is treated; though he comes from a well-off family, the school is eager to present him to donors as someone from an underprivileged background. A thoughtful, nuanced romance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)