Grace Notes (Karen Comer, Lothian)
A verse novel taking place as Coronavirus takes a grip on Melbourne, Karen Comer’s debut Grace Notes is a lyrical exploration of how two teenagers experience exceptional times. Crux, an aspiring street artist, and Grace, an aspiring musician, are in high school when the pandemic hits. Both passionate about their respective art forms, they live in safe, loving homes with parents who support them—to a point. Grace’s parents are determined that music comes after academics, while Crux’s parents support his art so long as he keeps it to the family garage. As restrictions and tensions rise these limits chafe. Crux risks his parents’ disappointment by joining a group of street artists to create a public work, painting a portrait of Grace playing her violin after seeing her in a viral video. Before long the pair find each other online and connect. The two bond over lives in limbo (‘I want to study music in Paris –/but we’re running out of toilet paper.’), a passion for their art (‘I’m so far into my idea of happiness/I won’t find my way back to normal life.’) and the struggle to grow when they feel stifled by family, lockdowns and expectations. In Grace Notes, Comer captures the beats of Melbourne’s 2020 and the unique experience of a generation of teens in one of the most locked-down cities in the world. Ideal for young readers who enjoyed fellow Australian verse novel The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot or international sensation The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo.
Lefa Singleton Norton is a writer and bookseller from Naarm/Melbourne. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
