Book review: All Our Pretty Songs by Sara McCarry

Set against the lush, magical backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, two inseparable best friends who have grown up like sisters—the charismatic, mercurial, and beautiful Aurora and the devoted, soulful, watchful narrator—find their bond challenged for the first time ever when a mysterious and gifted musician named Jack comes between them. Suddenly, each girl must decide what matters most: friendship, or love. What both girls don’t know is that the stakes are even higher than either of them could have imagined. They’re not the only ones who have noticed Jack’s gift; his music has awakened an ancient evil—and a world both above and below which may not be mythical at all. The real and the mystical; the romantic and the heartbreaking all begin to swirl together, carrying the two on journey that is both enthralling and terrifying.

And it’s up to the narrator to protect the people she loves—if she can.

All Our Pretty Songs is obviously one of those books that’s supposed to perpetually live in a lyrical, surreal world, with a narrative that sweeps you away.  And there certainly were parts that I loved; I loved near the end, as the narrator is going after Aurora and everything is described.  It chilled me to the bone.  And the whole “you don’t know what’s real and what’s not” thing throughout the novel was executed well.

Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, the narration gets carried away at times and leaves its purpose, going from lyrical and surreal to just plain random and tangential.  I realize that a big focus of the story is the narrator’s relationship with Aurora, but the asides into parts of their childhood that have nothing to do with anything else just made my mind wander, and there were definitely times when I had to put the book down because it was just too much.  The prose was crowded instead of beautiful with everything the author stuffed into it, and it just wasn’t something I could appreciate.

Of course when it’s not being entirely full of itself it can be extremely clever; when the characters actually talk and do things, rather than entire situations being glossed over with a few sentences, you can see that the author has a lot of talent in her and might’ve done a bit better with tighter prose all around.

Still, it has such an unearthly quality to it that I think it’s worth it to finish.  There’s also a lot of legends and mythology weaved in, such as the Styx and Wicca beliefs.  It’s definitely different, so try it out for yourself and see.  Happy reading!