Strange Sweet Song: A Rambling Review

Strange Sweet Song by Adi Rule

I ended up really enjoying this read! I think it's titled very aptly -- it is both strange and sweet in measure. A bit sad, too, at times. In an interesting way, Rule manages to combine a folkloric style with a contemporary setting, and it works. Even though I am a fan of neither cats nor opera, nevertheless, I liked the story here. I did find Sing to be rather self-centered and annoying sometimes, and she made one stunningly poor decision (spoiler, highlight to read: asking her dad to get her the lead role of Angelique), but I felt like her genuine self was a good person. It was neat to get the perspective of the Felix, and I felt those chapters were very intriguing, if a bit vague and not explored as much as I might have liked. The ending did leave me with some questions (spoilers: how come the Felix was able to go back to the sky? And why did the Maestro want to keep Nathan close to him so badly? Was it because he wanted the immortality from the tear? Or did he want to keep everyone from discovering Nathan's talent, because he was jealous? The Maestro's motivations were not clearly explained...)

The feel of this story puts me in mind of Mechthild Glaser's The Forgotten Book, so if you enjoyed that one, you might like Strange Sweet Song (and vice versa).

4 shooting stars.