Skip to main content

Five Flavors of Dumb

A deaf girl takes on the management of her school's premier rock band, which just won Seattle's Battle of the Teen Bands.  From the moment I heard the premise of Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John I wanted to read it.   And I wanted to love it.  The former has been accomplished, but not the latter.  The book, while interesting in some respects, had some flaws that  I just couldn't get past to enjoy it completely.
 

 
Synopsis (from Goodreads):
The Challenge: Piper has one month to get the rock band Dumb a paying gig.
The Deal: If she does it, Piper will become the band's manager and get her share of the profits.
The Catch: How can Piper possibly manage one egomaniacal pretty boy, one talentless piece of eye candy, one crush, one silent rocker, and one angry girl? And how can she do it when she's deaf?
Piper can't hear Dumb's music, but with growing self-confidence, a budding romance, and a new understanding of the decision her family made to buy a cochlear implant for her deaf baby sister, she discovers her own inner rock star and what it truly means to be a flavor of Dumb.

I almost did not finish reading this all of the way through.  The prose did not engage me at all.  There were many times within the first 100 pages when I was bored.  Bored with the characters, who I found to be very  two dimensional.  Bored with the predictability of the plot.  Bored with how many times the author used the band's name as a double entendre (actually that was old by the end of chapter three).  I saw how the author was trying to be clever, but it seemed like he was trying a little too hard.

The plot of this book requires an epic suspension of belief.  Now all novels require this on some level, after all that is what fiction is.  However, I had a hard time buying into this from the first chapter, and not because a deaf girl was going to successfully manage a rock band.  No, it was because this book takes place in Seattle, WA.  Seattle is by no definition a small city, and it has earned its place in the history of rock.  It is the birthplace of Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam. Yet we are supposed to believe from the first chapter that Dumb is the best teen band this large, diverse, musical city has to offer.  They won Seattle's Battle of the Teen Bands after all.  But...They only have three members.  They have no drummer.  The guitarists only know three chords. 

However, the setting of the book is its greatest strength.  In her journey as the band's  manager, Piper is directed by an anonymous person to the home where Kurt Cobain committed suicide and to the childhood home of Jimi Hendrix. She is supposed to learn something about the power of music from this and how the making of it is not all about money.  This was by far my favorite part of the book.  It was what kept me engaged and reading to the end.

The end, by the way, is the tidiest little package you could ever hope to receive.  It is a perfect Hollywood ending.  Girl gets to be a hero.  All three girls do actually.  Girl gets the boy she wants.  Bad guy gets what is coming to him.  All relationships are restored.  The band is awesome and impresses even the professionals they are suddenly opening for.  At The Showbox.  I kid you not. 

If the author had made Dumb just a little more capable I would have been with him all the way.  I just couldn't buy into this story on any level the way it was. 

Not everyone agrees with me though.  In fact, I'm in a small minority.  Lots of people like this book.  I'm linking to some of their reviews to add a little balance to this review:
Becky's Book Reviews
The Book Smugglers
Steph Su Reads

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Favorite Kissing Scenes

When thinking of a favorite things post I could do for February I decided it would have to be kissing. I've already done couples and I was feeling in the mood to do something fluffy and Valentine's related. So kisses it is. I read more MG than YA, and the YA I read tends to not focus on romance so this was actually harder than I expected it to be though a few jumped into my head right away. (And one of my choices does actually come from a MG book. One is adult. Gasp!) The actual scene from the book is quoted followed by my thoughts. The king lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. It was not a kiss between strangers, not even a kiss between a bride and a groom. It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the hollow of the queen's shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day . - The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner Turner doesn't write the

TTT: Most Recent Additions to My TBR List

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed blog hop created by  The Broke and the Bookish  and now hosted at  That Artsy Reader Girl . This Week's Topic: Most Recent Additions to My TBR List From Most Recent to Least: What books have recently caught your eye?

This Side of Home

What attracted me to This Side of Home by Renee Watson was the cover. The story hooked my interest. The characters made me fall in love. Maya has lived her entire life in the same neighborhood in Portland hanging out with the same group of friends: her twin sister Nikki, their best friend Essence, and Ronnie, Malachi, and Devin-three boys her father mentors. They have plans for the future that involve each other: prom, college, life. But things in their neighborhood are changing. People are moving in and starting new businesses. Property values are going up as a result. In addition to change, this is also causing trouble. Essence has to move out of her  house when the owner decides he can make more money selling it than renting it. The racial demographics of the school, which has been mostly African American, is shifting. This presents new challenges and choices for Maya and her friends. It brings new people into their lives at the same time. Maya has to figure out how-and if-she wa

Serafina and the Black Cloak

Serafina and the Black Cloak  by Robert Beatty is a thrilling tale of mystery and adventure set at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC in 1899. Having lived in Asheville and visited the house several times, there was no way I was going to pass up a chance to read this. (Also it's MG fantasy, always a bonus for me.) Serafina lives in secret in the basement of the Vanderbilt's spacious vacation home. She has lived there most of her life. Her father worked on the house as it was being built and is the mechanic who runs the massive generator and keeps the electricity going. Serafina is the chief rat catcher, slipping through the halls of her massive home secretly and quietly. She is light on her feet, sees well in the dark, and is quick enough to catch the vermin and keep them out. Serafina knows she if different and strange. Her father insists she stay hidden. But all that changes when one night Serafina witnesses a horrible crime. A little girl, a guest in the house, is fleein

Shorter Musings MG Fantasy

Here are some shorter musings on recent MG fantasy reads. Anya and the Dragon   by Sofiya Pasternack This book is fun. It is a book full of adventure, an obvious bad guy, some more complicated morally gray area characters, and a strong, brave heroine. It is also a book about friendships, community, and fighting for what is right. All things that usually work for me really well. While I enjoyed this, I did feel it was a little overlong and there were certain plot points at the end I didn't love. However, there were things I thought were done really well, such as Anya's Jewish faith and the idea that power needs to be challenged. In the end it was a middle of the road read for me, but it is one I will certainly be recommending to dragon and fantasy adventure lovers I know! R is for Rebel   by J. Anderson Coats This is tough because I usually really like Coats's books. I had such a hard time with this one though on so many levels. It's difficult to get into because t