Thank you Hear Our Voices Tours and the publishers for the digital copy!

📕 Title: Choir Grrrl
✏️ Author: Ashley Granillo
📖 Genre: Middle Grade Fiction
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK BLURB

When Alondra’s father announces that his emo band will be kicking off a reunion tour in summer, she and her sisters must prepare to be the opening act. Although she prefers other types of music, she dedicates herself to her sisters’ band, feeling obligated to uphold her father’s legacy. Looking for an outlet, she secretly joins the school choir club, a pressure free space to sing the way she wants. As she struggles to balance choir and band rehearsals, Alondra can’t keep her secret forever.

REVIEW

Choir Grrrl is a middle grade story about choosing your own path despite the expectations and pressure from both family and society. Alondra’s story feels authentic, which is no surprise as the author drew on her own experiences as a woman and Latina in a male dominated and primarily white genre.

Alondra is the oldest of three sisters and the leader of their band, a position that comes with a ton of pressure. Her family and audiences expect her to sound and perform a certain way and she feels obligated to conform because she is scared of disappointing them. This pressure also affects her relationship with her sisters, who push Alondra to change her voice, making her reluctant to share her secret about the choir club with them. Throughout the story, Alondra finds her own path and realizes that music doesn’t have to be a competition.

Beyond her musical endeavors, Alondra’s life is further complicated by other challenges. Alondra must contend with her mom’s absence and her parents’ impending divorce. Alondra is dyslexic and struggles to earn a passing grade in English, the one class that could prevent her from graduating eighth grade. She has disagreements with her sisters and faces bullying from her peers. Like many eighth graders, she has a lot going on in her life!

Alondra’s friendships with the kids in her choir help her better understand herself and encourage her to think about things in a different way. I love how they challenge each other, support each other, and have productive conversations when they have disagreements. This felt like a really good model on how to handle overbearing friends while still understanding and respecting where they are coming from.

This story is so queer normative and I love that Alondra, who herself identifies as ace, is so accepting and considerate of how others identify. The story also touches on intersectionality, highlighting the Riot Grrrl movement while acknowledging its lack of inclusion and pointing out the lack of diversity in emo music despite the diversity of the genre’s audience, along with other examples. Additionally, the story addresses how gendered stereotypes hurt everyone, including boys.

This is the second book I’ve read by Ashley Granillo and I absolutely love her writing and the way she seamlessly weaves real music into her stories. As a Millennial reader and former emo kid, this book was a trip down memory lane! I loved the references to real bands, like Straylight Run, Paramore, Jack’s Mannequin, and even the Linda Lindas, as well as all the local SoCal venues. This book is awesome and would be a fantastic read for middle schoolers who are interested in music!

If you’d like to purchase a copy of this book, you can use the code HearOurVoices at Tuma’s Books  to get 15% off Choir Grrrl!