One Song (A J Betts, Pan Australia)

A J Betts’s latest book One Song is a delightful and emotionally intelligent YA novel. Our protagonist Eva is in Year Twelve and is desperate to win Triple J Unearthed High. After three rejections, three years in a row, this is her final chance to win—but this time, she has help in the form of three bandmates. Cooper is a talented guitarist and Eva’s hard-core crush; Ant is a down-to-earth drummer; and Ruby is an opinionated bassist; then there’s Mim, a Year Eleven filmmaker documenting this historic moment. However, there are a few problems: they don’t really know each other, the deadline is in two days, and Ruby has made it known that she thinks Eva’s song sucks. With one weekend to pull it all together, the band decides to hunker down and make music history. One Song is an ode to both adolescent confidence and adolescent anxiety. There’s talent and drive, but there’s also heartache, miscommunication, mental health stress and an unfortunate incident involving a used sanitary pad. The story is clever, funny and joyful. It’s very relatable, too, and explores the intensity of first love, female solidarity and learning not to judge a book by its cover. This silly and smart coming-of-age story is perfect for readers who love Claire Christian and Alice Oseman.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Danielle Bagnato is a book reviewer and marketing and communications professional. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Reviews