Assessment:
Plot: There Was Music's personal, harrowing, and ultimately thoughtful story of survival strikes a powerful chord, and indeed rises above much of its fantasy ilk largely due to its powerful narrative decisions. It is a story that challenges the conventions of what fantasy can be about, and readers looking for something different out of the genre would do well to give Grubb's work a read.
Prose/Style: J.D. Grubb generates an intriguing narrative through strong, confident writing and an eye for dramatic, emotional storytelling that will keep the pages turning from beginning to end.
Originality: Though it leans on some familiar and expected designs of the fantasy genre, the book's dedication to its harrowing, personal story lends it a strength and identity often absent from many of its contemporaries.
Character Development/Execution: With seemingly minimal effort, J.D. Grubb conjures a roster of complex characters, and uses them to touch upon the nerves at the center of the human condition with such aplomb as to be inseparable from real life itself. By forsaking genre traditions, Grubb's characters demand patience from the reader, rather than simply rewarding preconceived expectations.
Blurb: J.D. Grubb eschews the black-and-white, good-versus-evil approaches that have marked the fantasy genre for generations in favor of a harrowing personal journey soaked in shades of gray so painstakingly reminiscent of day-to-day realities that the work often annihilates all preconceived notions on what the genre is capable of, and rewrites it with a boldness that is refreshing and—perhaps most importantly—deeply engaging in thought and spirit.
Date Submitted: May 18, 2021
"Beautifully done. I couldn't tear my eyes or imagination away. . . . There was Music strikes me as the most trauma-aware novel featuring a female protagonist I've ever read."
