Music is my life. If forced to pick between books and music, I might pick music (don't tell books I said that.) I'm not going to talk about how much money I spent on concerts today. In a recent Sean newsletter, he recommended the new Billie Eilish album, so I've got to admit I was a bit scared coming into this about whether he could effectively capture what it is to adore music with every ounce of your soul. Yes, I'm a judgemental human being. But I think Sean really depicted what it's like to love music with all your being.

My biggest issue with this was, of course, the romance. Hello, romanticization of a girl with mental health issues. I did not feel a thing for this couple, and instead, I felt very sad because once again we were shown a girl with suicidal ideation who turns to a boy to solve her problems. Not okay, guys. Not okay. Not healthy behaviour in real life, and shouldn't be depicted this way in fiction without an explicit warning and comment that no, it's not okay. I hope that the final version of this book will include some resources and hotlines.

I did absolutely adore all of the Impossible Music pieces. These were exceptionally well thought out and I'd love to see them come to life. His perseverance in getting this to become a reality was really inspiring. His friends were also excellent.

Sean Williams has such a wide range of talent; it's quite remarkable. I need to go back and reread TWINMAKER as I loved those books so much. Ultimately though, I put this book down too many times and wasn't super excited to continue reading it like I was TWINMAKER. I wasn't in love with the characters themselves.

What happens when a musician loses his hearing? Is he still a musician? Can he still even make music? That is what Impossible Music is about.

Simon suddenly loses his hearing in a rare way in which there is no recovery. The problem is that he lives and breathes music; he can’t imagine doing anything else. He shares his frustrations with a girl named G from his class for the newly deaf. They both are resistant in learning Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and immersing into Deaf culture. Their journey, especially Simon’s, in navigating this new way of life was an interesting read, and I really felt for the characters. I can’t imagine how frustrating it is to not only lose a sense, but one that is critical to your passion.

I saw that there was a lot of critical reviews of this book, for quite a few different reasons. Maybe I’m not as in-tune with Deaf culture as some of those readers are, due to me not knowing anyone who is fully deaf, but I personally felt like the author did a good job with writing a story that deals with this situation. As far as the timeline of the story – sort of jumping back and forth over the course of the months since Simon’s hearing loss – I didn’t feel like it was hard to follow. It was a lot easier than I expected, and it all flowed well to me in order to get a sense of his story.

I’m glad I took a chance in reading this book instead of listening to the negative reviews. I really felt this was a great story and it honestly rekindles my desire to be able to understand Deaf culture and learn ASL (American Sign Language) for myself, especially since I have some family members who are hard of hearing and partly deaf. ( )

Grades: 9-12
Characterization: Very Good
Literary Value: Very Good
Recommendation: Recommended

Summary:
Sean wakes up one morning to a strangely silent world and soon comes to the realization that he has lost his hearing. After many visits to specialists, it becomes clear that Sean’s hearing will most likely never return. This would be a blow to anyone, but Sean is a musician and cannot conceive of life without music. Being deaf has seemingly taken away his greatest passion and at the same time left him without a plan for the future since his goal had been to major in music in college. Sean begins attending classes to learn sign language and even meets G, a girl he really likes and can understand what he is going through better than most people because she has tinnitus, a condition in which ears detect sounds that aren’t really there. Even with G’s friendship and the support of his family, Sean hasn’t really accepted his fate. He resists learning Auslan (Australian sign language), relying on app on his phone to communicate, and he rejects his therapist’s efforts to get him to become a part of the (capital D) Deaf community. Then Sean has an idea to create silent music that would be experienced by deaf and hearing people in the same way, and he begins to contemplate what his life as a Deaf person could be.

Review:
Impossible Music is a unique coming of age tale about a guy who thinks he has his life figured out until an unexpected and inexplicable event occurs. Sean is a very realistic and relatable character, especially for readers who have experienced the sudden onset of an illness or medical condition. The novel also offers insight into the Deaf community - and the audism (prejudice against Deaf people) that they often experience. As Sean discovers, “It turns out the Deaf are not just one monolithic organization of identical clones.” Secondary characters including Sean’s parents and sister are well developed and realistically show the struggle to be supportive and understanding to someone in denial about their situation. Recommended for teens who enjoy realistic fiction especially those interested in reading about a teen with a disability. ( )

An interesting "What if" story about Simon, who wakes up one morning to discover he has had a stroke overnight and now is completely deaf. For someone like him, who has played music all his life, is about to start a uni course in music and is even in a heavy metal bad, this is devastating.

This is how Simon has to cope with his disability and also with fitting in to "deaf culture" in Australia -he initially rejects going to learn Auslan as he thinks he will "get better" and instead uses a phone app that translates speech into words to communicate. At one of the few Auslan classes he initially attends, he meets a girl called G ( George) who is one of the few people to "talk" to him.

Simon falls in love with her, but is so preoccupied with his own deafness and trying to create music that no-one can hear that he makes a terrible mistake and risks losing her.

Nice realistic love story for older readers due to swearing and hints of sex. ( )