All I needed to know about It Sounds Like This is an asexual MC and a marching band. As someone who was always in orchestra, never band, I am always intrigued by bands and especially marching bands. Plus I’m always on the look out to read more ace MCs! Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
Yasmín Treviño didn’t have much of a freshman year thanks to Hurricane Humphrey, but she’s ready to take sophomore year by storm. That means mastering the marching side of marching band—fast!—so she can outshine her BFF Sofia as top of the flute section, earn first chair, and impress both her future college admission boards and her comfortably unattainable drum major crush Gilberto Reyes.
But Yasmín steps off on the wrong foot when she reports an anonymous gossip Instagram account harassing new band members and accidentally gets the entire low brass section suspended from extracurriculars. With no low brass section, the band is doomed, so Yasmín decides to take things into her own hands, learn to play the tuba, and lead a gaggle of rowdy freshman boys who are just as green to marching and playing as she is. She’ll happily wrestle an ancient school tuba if it means fixing the mess she might have caused.
But when the secret gossip Instagram escalates their campaign of harassment and the end-of-semester band competition grows near, things at school might be too hard to bear. Luckily, the support of Yasmín’s new section—especially new section leader Bloom, a sweet and shy ace boy who might be a better match for her than Gilberto—might just turn things around.
Review
What I was not expecting in It Sounds Like This to be absolutely swept away by the friendships and the friendship break up. I feel like not enough books talk about the ways a friendship break up can change our lives. Can destabilize what we think about our past, our families, and how heartbreaking it can be. And so this element unexpectedly stole my heart in how Yasmín processes the feelings and questions about whether she can fix it. (But also I could never be rivals with a friend or even a love interest – our relationship would never survive).
Yasmín has a good heart so it’s absolutely heartbreaking the ways her friends and peers turn on her. I totally felt like she did the right thing, but I remember high school and the social ostracism in high school is no joke. And the ways she feels like no one wants her – paired with her own family drama – made my heart ache for Yasmín. It Sounds Like This has delicate and tender character details and development. With feelings of loss and loneliness, the true beauty of this book is in the characters.
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We can become so connected to something, to someone, and so desperate to hold on to it no matter the cost. But sometimes it’s more important to take a step back and ask what we are saving and if it’s worth it. Our mind goes into disaster and triage mode to try to get back to where we are, but we can never return. That doesn’t mean we won’t discover something better. And part of the new people Yasmín meets will truly melt your heart! It Sounds Like This is a charming and emotional contemporary with questioning representation, friendship drama, and how important it is to set up boundaries. Find It Sounds Like This on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.