I'm aiming to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, so I apologise in advance if anything seems too vague!
This was my first read of the year, and was a beautiful way to welcome 2020. I was raised in a household where piano ornaments lined shelves, and a baby grand piano filled half of our music room. I learned to play from a young age, and have always adored music. I had also read the follow-up book to this one, Change of Key, last year (the order of reading wasn't apparent until too late). Reading a book that revolved around a piano was something I'd been looking forward to.
Already knowing the characters only spoiled minor plot points for me, and didn't affect my enjoyment of the story. There were a couple of times that I stopped and went, "but I don't think that character would behave like that because...", but these were primarily times where I knew the character's full backstory or future. I'm not sure that I would have made the same observations if I'd read this book first, but it did make me wonder about the plausibility of one or two people's actions. I'm hoping to find someone who has read The Score, but not Change of Key, so that I can ask them.
I enjoyed Jansen's use of unique dialogue to separate the individuals. It was obvious who was speaking at any time, and when she moved to lightly broken English for some characters, it was subtle and didn't make them seem like a caricature. This was refreshing, and allowed me to "hear" the characters' voices.
The piano. It was lovingly described at times, and I liked the level of detail that was used. The description of the damage was precise and careful, while being moving enough. Jansen's descriptions brought back memories of watching the piano tuner at work when I was a child. And when she described the damage to it, I almost had to stop reading. Not because the detail was awful, but because it was overwhelming in a heartbreaking way.
Over all, it was a great start to my year.
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