eARC Review – Spin

Title: Spin

Author: Colleen Nelson

Publisher: Dundurn

Publication Date: September 3, 2019

296 pages

3.5/5

Goodreads Synopsis

An aspiring teenage DJ must learn how to navigate life when people find out that she’s the daughter of a famous singer.

Fifteen-year-old Delilah “Dizzy” Doucette lives with her dad and brother above their vintage record store, The Vinyl Trap. She’s learning how to spin records from her brother’s best friend, and she’s getting pretty good. But behind her bohemian life, Dizzy and her family have a secret: her mom is the mega-famous singer Georgia Waters. When this secret is revealed to the world, Dizzy’s life spins out of control. She must decide what is most important to her — the family she has or the family she wants.

Review

Good evening all! I’ve been very behind on reviews, so this is my attempt to catch up! I received Spin as an eARC copy from Netgalley and Dundurn Publishing in exchange for an honest review, so thanks folks!

First off, this is definitely a type of contemporary that I enjoy – but is a new area for me. This book held strong similarities to On The Come Up by Angie Thomas. Musically inclined girl has a famous parent and she is trying to get her start in the music industry, and of course drama ensues. There were definitely enough differences to not feel like a carbon copy book.

Dizzy Doucette knows her mother is famous, but has been forbidden to tell her friends. Her father did not want her growing up with a famous mother, paparazzi following them around all the time. He wanted them to have a normal life, especially because her famous mother left them when she was very young. Dizzy desires to have a relationship with her mother, where her father and brother are resigned to the fact that it isn’t going to happen. Dizzy holds out hope and gives Georgia the benefit of the doubt (whether she deserves it or not). Dizzy begins DJ’ing in her father’s record store and is an instant hit – so she begins to use some old tracks of her mother’s to build up her set. I won’t give super spoilers, but this is a BAD idea.

The book also provides narration from Dizzy’s brother and father. It is helpful to get those perspectives, as they do differ greatly from Dizzy’s. It is an interesting family dynamic that is very endearing.

I did enjoy this book, I just found it underwhelming in the end. Colleen Nelson has excellent writing, the plot moved along nicely, and the characters were well fleshed out. The plot line itself was just lackluster. I wasn’t excited to read it, and I didn’t have problems putting it down at times. For this reason, I gave it a 3.5/5 stars.

For those of you who love Angie Thomas and On The Come Up, I would definitely suggest checking this out!

Happy reading, book friends 🙂