Rating: ★★★★☆
GOODREADS
FIVE MOST IMPORTANT POINTS
1. ALL THE FEELS
2. Beach-summer setting
3. So many cute boys!
4.Great narrator
5. Predictable with a twist
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. This in no way influenced my opinion of the book.
I'm not sure why I requested Sing on Netgalley. Maybe it was the beautiful cover or the fact that I've read a bunch of bloggers rave about it, but when it came down to reading this book I wasn't excited. All my expectations were for a cliché, overromantized story that would just annoy me. I'm very happy to say that I was ABSOLUTELY wrong about this novel. Sing by Vivi Greene made me smile with every single page and there's not a YA-loving person I wouldn't recommend this for.
Lily Ross is a world famous singer that is under the scrutiny of the media on a Taylor Swift level. She constantly dates people, even though she always vows not to, and writes her most famous hits about said boys. When her perfect famous boyfriend breaks up with her, Lily and her two friends escape to a Maine island so she can reinvent herself, her love for music and figure out why she always seems to need a boy.
Vivi Greene successfully created a narrator who is at once very removed from the reader (who of us has the same issues as a Taylor Swift??), yet extremely relatable. When I was a teenager, I was the girl who hated the girls who always needed a boyfriend. WHY? Sing actually gives me the answer to this question - and I enjoyed reading it. In a genre where there are either really independent girls or girls who do everything for boys, I thoroughly enjoyed the complexity of Lily's romantic feelings. She knows she always needs a guy and writes her song about them, but she want to change that about herself. In the end, this is a story about whether or not we can change and how much we should listen to what society tells us. And spoiler alert: it's one of the most surprising endings I've read in a while.
The setting of this novel is also great. We go from the glitz and glam of famous New York to a quiet island in New England. Now if you know me, you know I love New England and the beachy, summer setting makes this book just perfect for this month. The descriptions are gorgeous and as Lily falls in love with the island, you can't help but do the same.
Non-surprisingly, I really enjoyed reading Sing. Lily made me smile a lot and I loved reading about her self-discovering journey and the amazing friends she has along with her. This is a feel-good book that lights up any rainy summer day (which I've had way too many of!) and will make you want to dance around in your room and be your own Lily Ross.