Solo by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess

From Goodreads,

"From award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander, with Mary Rand Hess, comes Solo, a YA novel written in poetic verse. Solo tells the story of seventeen-year-old Blade Morrison, who knows the life of a rock star isn't really about the glitz and glamour. All the new cars and money in the world can't make up for the scathing tabloid covers or the fact that his father is struggling with just about every addiction under the sun--including a desperate desire to make a comeback and regain his former fame. Haunted by memories of his mother--who died when Blade was nine--and the ruin his father's washed-up legacy and life have brought to the family, Blade is left to figure out life on his own. But, he's not all alone: He's got the friendship of a jazz-musician mentor, Robert; the secret love of a girlfriend, Chapel; and his music. All may not be well in the Morrison home, but things are looking up for Blade, until he discovers a deeply protected family secret--one that further threatens his relationship with his family and has him questioning his own identity. Thrown into a tailspin, Blade decides the only way he will understand his past and begin his future is to find out the truth behind the music and himself. He soon sets out on a journey that will change everything he thought to be true. His quest lands him in Ghana, stuck in a village just shy of where answers to the secret can be found. There, Blade discovers a friendship he couldn't have imagined, a people founded in family and community, and a reconciliation he never expected.

With his signature intricacy, intimacy, and poetic style, Kwame Alexander explores what it means to finally come home."

Goodreads - Solo

Welcome back for another poetry book review.  Kwame Alexander is definitely on my top ten favorite author's list.  His first book I read was Crossover shortly followed by Booked and Rebound.  All of those books are sports packed books that pack a poetry punch.  I was really excited to see he had a new book out, but unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations.

Solo is about a teenage boy named Blade who has a rockstar father who is always in the spotlight.  Blade is very connected to music and decides to play a song for his commencement speech at graduation.  The only problem is that his famous father crashes graduation and causes a scene.  Things spiral with Blade and he soon finds that his girlfriend is cheating and that he is adopted.  Blade decides to set out on a quest to Ghana to save himself and find his birth mother.

This book was quite a letdown.  The other books I've read by Alexander were full of passion and moving poetry.  Solo felt like a forced story more than a work of art.  I really felt like this should have been a regular novel instead of a book of verse.  It felt like the sentences had just been broken and arranged to look like a poem.  Books that utilize verse need to be written so that there is a sense of rhythm and flow to it.  This book had no rhythm or flow which is bothersome considering the book had a big central theme of music. 

One of the high points in this book was that there were various points in the book that had music and band information.  I really wish that I had listened to the song as I was reading the book.  I feel that it would have really given me a little more of a connection to the book itself.  It was really interesting to learn little tidbits about songs that actually exist.

Overall, Alexander and Hess really dropped the ball on this book.  It would have been a better fit for it to be a full-fledged novel instead of being in verse.  This book isn't like Alexander's previous Crossover, Booked, and Rebound books.  If you like music and self-centered teenagers then this is definitely a book for you.  I give it 2 stars.