Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly

Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly

Release Date: May 25, 2010

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 288

Overall:

Drea isn’t your typical teenage girl, she’s logical, literal, and isn’t clouded by the normal emotions that seem to haunt most teenagers. Drea see’s the world in black and white; there aren’t those gray areas that the rest of us deal in. For her things either are or aren’t, there’s no in between, and she doesn’t understand why nobody else sees life the way she does.

Drea has Asperger’s Syndrome and because of her diagnosis, Drea just wants to be normal, she’s tired of going to shrinks, she’s tired of being ignored, she’s tired of being held back by her AS. You know those times when you came home crying because of something some boy or girl said or did to you? Drea would give anything for that moment, even though you would rather pretend it never happened. When Drea moves to a new town, she meets Naomi, her neighbor, and everything changes for Drea.

Drea and Naomi become instant friends. Naomi doesn’t know about Drea’s AS and there’s no way Drea will tell her, she wants to be thought of as normal or at least somewhat normal. When she starts school, Drea meets Justin; he’s cute and instantly drawn to Drea and what he sees as quirky behavior. The thing Drea doesn’t want to admit is that she’s drawn to him too. With her new found friends, they assemble a band, and through that connection you watch as the characters mature and fit with one another.

It’s been almost impossible for me to write this review. Usually I give more details, but with this one, Tara Kelly made it impossible! I found myself having to be extremely vague describing this book to people without giving anything away, but there are a few things I can tell you. One being that this is exactly what debut novels are made of! It’s emotional through and through, the characters are amazing in every sense of the word, and the story is just…wow.

I felt as if I was right there with the characters, I felt like I knew them. You see these characters grow and change through each chapter, you feel what they feel. Tara Kelly has done a truly amazing job in character development, to the point that I was left stunned! The plot flows beautifully, and the story is totally captivating. There were times when I was sitting there grinning ear-to-ear, staring at the pages and the scenes that had just played out. There were also the parts that left me sitting there, jaw dropped, eyes wide and burning as I tried not to cry.

Tara Kelly has written one of the best debut novels I’ve read in a long time and she’s done it with a poise and style that I a dying to see again. Harmonic Feedback is a story that holds a lot of weight, it’s an emotional tale with heavy content, and she handled that in way that just blew my mind. Harmonic Feedback has everything you could want in a novel: love, hate, conflict, tragedy, pure happiness, amazing characters, a story that will blow your mind, and a beautiful cover, all in under 300 pages. I must not only applaud Ms. Kelly, but also beg her for another novel…like immediately!

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I received this book as part of Around the World Tours.