This novel in verse and vingettes is very much a character driven story, specifically a character driven story about healing and moving forward. After an incident with her ex-boyfriend in California, Angel's mom moves her to Brooklyn to live with her uncle. It's in Brooklyn where Angel meets others who help her on her journey to heal and trust others again.

One of the best things about this book is the way Angel discovers books where she sees herself. Books where she can relate to the characters. If you wonder why representation is so important, this is it. It also shows how important this connection can be to kids and teenagers, and how important it can be in getting kids to read. Angel's journey with reading in this book isn't just for her own healing; it also just shows how important it is that we have all kinds of stories in school and public libraries. Yes! All kinds! (Shouts this into the void of people constantly trying to ban any sort of diverse story).

Anyway, the verse style of this book allows for some really great lines, and hits hard at the emotional elements of Angel's recovery. So many readers will be able to relate to Angel's need to use music and stories to escape, because that's so often what we all do. It's a book about the magic of stories, the magic of music, and using those to move forward past trauma. A relatable, timely, relevant novel.

Also the audiobook narrator is great and I highly recommend it if you like audiobooks!