Consent

September 1, 2015
When Dane Rossi, a young English pianist substitute-teaching Bea's music-appreciation class, hears Bea play, he insists she could have a career as a concert pianist and urges her to apply to his alma mater, Juilliard, even as their intense, mutual attraction complicates her choices. Bea's mother went to Juilliard and also dreamed of becoming a concert pianist, but she died giving birth to Bea, who's sure her father and older brother hold her responsible. Entirely self-taught, Bea's kept her dreams secret. Now, blossoming under Dane's guidance, she accepts his offer to introduce her to his Juilliard mentor, a great pianist. But when her relationship with Dane takes a turn toward intimacy on their trip to New York, she's both confused and thrilled. The story's strongest when it focuses on this relationship, honoring its complexity and neither oversimplifying it nor demonizing either of them. While that's deftly handled, other plot points strain credulity. Readers will have difficulty buying Bea's near perfection as a classical pianist given that her only instruction has been "from books and online and stuff." After all, a crucial element of classical musical training is feedback from teachers on student performance. While Bea's family is underdeveloped, her deep guilt at having been born seems more than a tad overblown. A compassionate but clearsighted look at student-teacher liaisons, somewhat diminished by an over-the-top plot setup. (Fiction. 14-18)

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September 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Between all of the lies she tells at school about her nonexistent piano teacher and her supposedly okay home life, Beatrice Kim has a lot of secrets even before starting her senior year at Andrew Jackson High School. Then Bea meets her music history teacher. Mr. Rossi is young and good-looking and completely believes in Bea's potential as a professional pianist-something Bea hasn't ever allowed herself to consider. When their shared passion for music turns into something else, Bea and Rossi begin a sexual relationship that could ruin them both. Bea thinks she knows what she is doing and what she wants. She thinks Rossi understands her and loves her. But with the threat of discovery looming, she will have to confront uncomfortable truths about herself and her relationship. This work, reminiscent of Sara Zarr's The Lucy Variations (Little, Brown, 2013), explores how Bea lost her love for the piano and how she can reclaim it. It also is an often uncomfortable examination of a relationship that never should have happened. Despite the problems Bea hints at in her home life and the lies she tells, everything comes very easily to her. She is at the top of her class despite having no real interest in college. She is a piano prodigy with perfect pitch, although she has never had formal lessons. She is conveniently at a recently rebranded "Campus for Baccalaureate and Performing Arts," despite having a nearly pathological desire to avoid the piano at the beginning of the novel. Readers who can get past these contrivances will be rewarded with a layered and thoughtful contemporary novel. The push and pull between what is perceived and what is true throughout the narrative adds another dimension to the unreliable first-person narration as readers and Bea contemplate Rossi's agenda. VERDICT Despite some heavy-handed moments, Ohlin delivers an open-ended novel ripe for discussion as readers follow the plot's twists and turns.-Emma Carbone, Brooklyn Public Library

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015
Grades 10-1 An insecure piano prodigy falls for her dashing music teacher in Ohlin's contemporary novel. Seventeen-year-old Bea is used to pretending. She pretends her workaholic father cares about her. She pretends enthusiasm for her best friend Plum's plan for them to attend Harvard together. She pretends her piano playing is just a hobby, and she's already labeled her dream of attending a conservatory as unattainable. Dane Rossi, her handsome new music teacher, changes all that. Having attended Juilliard and toured Europe as a pianist, Dane recognizes Bea's talent and encourages her to develop it. Bea blossoms under his tutelage; it seems inevitable that she'll fall in love, as accidental touches progress into passionate kisses and, eventually, sex. Seen from Bea's naive viewpoint, the book reads almost like a romance, but readers will wonder about Dane's past long before Bea does, giving the story an uncomfortable edge. Bea learns about age of consent the hard way yet gains self-confidence by the story's end. A morally complex novel good for discussions with older students.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)