Book Review of Tyler Scott Hess’s Adelaide and the Battle of the Bands

Adelaide has one dream in her life: to become a famous solo singer. She spends hours writing her own songs and practicing singing. She also has a best friend, Alexa, who shares her love for music. Alexa talent is not singing: she plays the drums for a local rock band. The book opens the morning after graduation with Adelaide in her study listening to tunes and writing lyrics in her song journal. She is penning her first great “hit” when her cell phone begins to ring incessantly. She finally returns the call to Alexa who demands that she comes to the mall asap because it is an emergency that only can solve. 

When she gets to the mall she learns that Alexa’s lead singer has abandoned the band at the most critical time ever: the day of the Bridgetown Battle of the Bands. Alexa’s band is signed up for the critical contest and $5,000 is a stake as well as the shot at a recording contract. Alexa begs her best friend to lead the band in the battle.

If she accepts, she has major hurdles to overcome before singing for the biggest audience for which she has ever performed.  First, the former band leader is Alelaide’s former boyfriend and is an egomaniac who is now leading a competing band in the contest.  They don’t know if he will use the band’s old material; so, Adelaide and the band have to come up with three brand new songs to sing in less than nine hours. To make matters worse, some of the band members just want to call it quits because they have doubts that the band will be ready in time for the night’s performance.

Against all odds, Adelaide decides to accept the challenge. Will the band overcome and win the battle, the money, and the ultimate prize of a recording contract?

My thoughts: As a writer, I don’t like to tear down another writer. I will offer constructive criticism, however. The beginning of the story is told in an old style narrative format that I think some younger readers will find hard to follow. Part of the weakness is that the author tells the story and does not show the action as it unfolds. He summarizes and tells the story so that the reader is not drawn into the action. The story takes off in the second chapter, however, and improves somewhat.

The positives of the story slightly outweigh the negatives. The messages of hard work paying off real dividends and holding onto your dreams despite the odds are amplified in this very short story. Without giving away the ending too much, I will say the story does not end in a cliche way.