We Are the Song by Catherine Bakewell || Religion and World Based on Music

Posted May 5, 2022 by Sammie in arc, blog tour, book review, fantasy, inspirational, kidlit, LGBT, mid-grade, three stars / 0 Comments

We Are the Song by Catherine Bakewell || Religion and World Based on Music

We Are the Song

by Catherine Bakewell
Published by: Holiday House on May 3, 2022
Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Inspirational
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher

A lush and beautiful fantasy set in a world where music is magic and the fate of many thrones lies with one girl...

Twelve-year-old Elissa has been raised in seclusion as a devotee of the Mother Goddess. She is a special child, a blessed child, a child who can sing miracles into being. Her voice can heal wounds, halt landslides, cure hunger--and even end wars.
But there are those who would use her gift for darker things. And when Elissa finds herself the farthest from home she's ever been--along with her vain and jealous music tutor, Lucio--she will have to develop the judgment to decide who wants to use her song to heal... and who wants to use her song to hurt.

Rating:
One StarOne StarOne Star




Content Tags:

               

               

Perfect for readers who want:

  • Plot and world heavily focused on music
  • Magic with a musical theme and cast by singing
  • Christian-based religious themes and sentiment
  • A very LGBTQ+-positive world
  • A slightly darker story with a hopeful, happy ending
  • Big moral questions and decisions to be made

Many thanks to Holiday House and Rockstar Book Tours for an ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes taken from an unfinished product and may differ from the final version.

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Listen. I’m going to admit right up front that the cover of this book is about 85% responsible for me picking it up. I mean . . . how could you not?! I’m not that much into music (couldn’t even tell you a note, probably, or if I did, it’d be a coincidence, I swear), but the idea of a world that revolves around music grabbed my attention. Like a middle grade version of Warbreaker . . . but with music instead of color? Well, sort of. That’s where my brain went, anyway!

We Are the Song is an inspirational fantasy set in a dark world but filled with hope, where magic and religion are based on music and the youngest people sometimes know the most about what’s right.

This book ended up being about 90% religion, which sort of caught me off-guard. Sure, the blurb mentions that the protagonist is a “devotee of Mother Goddess,” but I had expected something . . . else. Had I known that this was such a heavily religion-based story, I likely would’ve passed on it, since that’s not my type of thing! That being said, though, Catherine Bakewell is an absolutely fantastic writer. She manages to blend gorgeous, vibrant writing literary writing in a fantasy middle grade story, which really brings the world to life.

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We Are the Song is set in a fantasy world filled with magic, religion, hope, and darkness.

If it sounds balanced, you’d be incorrect. Unfortunately, our protagonist, 12-year-old Elissa, has been pretty sheltered. At least, until the war broke out, and she was ordered to travel the world and bring the gift of her voice, which is the voice of the world’s god. Basically, Elissa performs magic through singing songs. These songs are composed by a sanctioned Composer, as you might imagine, but they lose power the more they’re used, so new songs need to be written all the time, even to have the same effect, which I thought was an interesting limitation.

Blakewell does a fabulous job of setting a scene. Her writing is gorgeous and paints a scene of the world. Despite its darkness, it’s a world I imagine many readers will be eager to visit. I mean, who doesn’t love the idea of magic through song? Plus, some of the magic Elissa is capable of is pretty amazing.

Tilting my head back against the hard tree trunk, I looked up, and between the crossed fingers of tree branches above, stars poked out through the darkness.

When we die, we become stars said Father, once upon a time.

I shut my eyes and wept.

Stars were cold and distant. Untouchable. Unreachable.

Bakewell creates a very interesting juxtaposition in her novel. The world itself is very dark (surprisingly so for middle grade, in some ways), but the narrative itself, especially Elissa’s point of view, is so bright and hopeful.

I thought this was extremely well done and really grabbed my attention. In fact, this book almost makes a really good hi-lo book (meaning a book with content suitable for older children but a reading level low enough for struggling readers). This would make a really good crossover book for readers who aren’t quite ready for young adult yet but want something a bit more mature.

Elissa is completely devoted to the religion and goddess she serves. Her faith is called into question, though, as the people around her begin to claim the religion supported their different wants and needs. Elissa finds herself pulled between what she thinks is right and the logic the people around her use to twist her faith in whatever ways they see fit.

The book asks a lot of big, overarching questions about doing what’s right and following your own morals rather than blindly following others, which is a very important message for this age group.

“Do you not hunt in Cadenza?” Leporello asked Lucio.

Lucio’s cheeks reddened. “Not for sport, no.”

I frowned at Zerlina. “It’s not for food?”

She laughed noisily, and those who overheard me joined in.

“You are so charming!” she cooed, smiling kindly. “You silly thing, do you think the king hunts his own food?”

I supposed not. It seemed sillier, though, that this was a game to His Majesty, chasing and killing an animal with no purpose. Not far from here, his people were dying for food.

There’s a very pro-LGBTQ+ view in the world Bakewell creates in We Are the Song. I was impressed at how casually LGBTQ+ characters are added to the world and simply allowed to exist, without making a big show of it.

It’s the sort of diversity that I love. There is no pointing out of characters’ sexuality at all, in fact. Women simply mention their wives, and boys flirt with boys with no second thought and with no comment from anyone else. It’s the easy, fluid inclusion that diversity-minded readers are sure to appreciate, making it clear that these characters have a legitimate place in this world, instead of feeling like they were just plunked down there for diversity points.

The other lady stuck out a hand, which produced its own music as the bright metal bracelets on her wrists clanged about. “Caé Hanna,” she said as I grasped her hand. “We’ve met once or twice, I’m sure. I was a Composer at the monastery in Cadenza Citadel. They assigned me to travel with Musetta.” Hanna smiled at the woman at her side.

Musetta bumped her hip against Hanna’s. “She’s also my wife, which I would have introduced firstly—”

“I was getting to that!” Hanna replied with a laugh.
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The pacing of the plot is a little wonky, with the beginning slow to get going and the end rushing forward at break-neck speeds.

A lot of this, I think, has to do with my sticking point #2 about religion. The first part of the story was basically establishing the religion and Elissa’s place in it, her daily life (which was centered around religion), and her role in the world (which was also guided by religion). You see the sticking point here? So it took me a little while to really get into the story. Once I did, I was hooked, though!

The opposite issue was true of the ending. Aaaaall the plot is going down at that point, and I was extremely invested, but between characters acting entirely irrationally for no reason, and several conveniently placed deus ex machinas, the ending felt rushed and not entirely earned. I would’ve loved to have seen the characters sit with the consequences of their actions for a little longer before everything being solved for them!


The religion is very heavy-handed (to the point of zealotism) and feels like a carbon copy of many real-world monotheistic religions.

I want to stress that this isn’t necessarily bad, because a lot of people like this sort of thing! In fact, I know quite a few of the young patrons at my library who love inspirational and would enjoy this book. However, what makes it a sticking point for me is that I’m definitely not interested. Gonna be a big pass for me on the religious zealots and preaching. If that’s not your thing, you might consider giving this book a pass, too.

Had I realized that religion makes up the basis of the entire world and plot, I wouldn’t have picked this book up, simply because I know that’s not something I enjoy. The blurb on the back didn’t really give me a clear picture of how wrapped up in religion the entire book would be. It would be different, too, if it was a unique religion based around music, as I at first assumed from the concept of the Mother Goddess. Unfortunately, it is not. It’s a carbon copy of Christianity in a fantasy setting, right down to 12 voices of the Goddess who need to spread Her word (12 disciples, anyone?), along with other obvious parallels.

However, I would highly recommend this to readers who do want a religion-driven plot that mimics Christianity, because they would probably love it.

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About Catherine Bakewell

Catherine Bakewell is a writer, artist, and opera enthusiast. She has lived in Spain and in France, where she romped through gardens, ate pastries, and worked on her novels. We Are the Song is her debut.

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1 winner will receive a finished copy of WE ARE THE SONG, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Stay Fierce, Sammie

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