For the Love of Music

Music can soothe, inspire, and lure pretty damsels in distress toward classical superstars in dark subway stations. For one young woman, the music means both pain but also the stirrings of hope. She's been ravaged, both mentally and physically for so long even despite her young age. Yet the meet cute in the middle of this self-styled dark romance might just be her redemption.

For the Love of Music has a lot to love (and yes, I did that on purpose). The descriptions, especially in the many sex scenes, are spot on. Many of them are nonconsensual as a warning though since the broad ‘trigger warning' issued at the beginning of the book isn't very specific. Emily/Emma, one of the two protagonists, has been through novels worth of abuse even before the book actually starts. And that abuse only keeps on coming. The fact there's any spirit still left in her was what kept me reading even through the hardest scenes.

At the same time, there's a lot not to love about the novel as well. Much of what happens or has happened to Emily/Emma helps develop her as a character and give readers insight into why she acts or thinks the way she does. However, dark romance doesn't always have to mean let's pound the female character into the ground for shock value. I was shocked to hear that the author was saying this was one of her less dark novels just because of the graphic content that Emma/Emily has to go through. There are definitely some events that cross the line into gratuitous or just there for shock value.

In one instance, I even felt like it was added in so that the other protagonist could experience some sexist shock of his own. The man who does drugs and engages in casual sex with orchestra mates he's just met as a form of teambuilding doesn't get to be as viscerally disgusted by other things later. Especially when those things aren't being engaged in by choice. This addition just seemed to perpetuate the social stigmas that casual sex for men is okay where it isn't for women. Within the context of the larger novel, it makes even less sense to be there too.

I did still find the novel well worth reading just because of how much of a trooper Emma/Emily is. Put her in a horror movie, and her sheer determination would make her the “final girl” hands down. The story would have been stronger without a few of the last particular type of obstacles she had to deal with. But readers who enjoy scenes that will make them squirm in both a good and bad way in the same novel should enjoy For the Love of Music.