Night Shifts Black #4
Audible audiobook
Author: Alyson Santos
Narrator: Zachary Webber
I’m unpredictable.
A genius, an underachiever.
I’m the song, the voice, the passion, the pain.
I am failure.
I do music because it’s what I am, but sometimes that’s not enough.
A slave to my nature, I wait for it to show mercy
and drop a gift in my lap.
Because the music chose me.
I’m its victim not its gift.
She destroyed my career.
Ruined my life.
Pushed me from the shadows and exposed my lies.
She’s the fire that destroys lesser men,
and now her flames are aimed at me.
She loves to watch me burn,
but the part we never saw coming?
Sometimes it takes a fire to ignite a spark
And slay the darkness.
I used the blurb here because I still don’t know how to explain this book.
Told entirely through Jess Everett’s POV, it’s a lyrical and strange deep dive into a tortured soul. Jesse’s been through terrible trauma and the only way he finds to reconcile the ghosts that haunt him with the music that literally invades his thoughts is through drugs.
When we first meet Jesse it is through a post by Mila Taylor, the all-powerful music blogger – daughter of an icon herself – and she’s trashing him. Her posts basically ended Limelight’s career and, after being dropped by their label, they’re relegated to small local gigs.
This is a very character driven story and we see everything exclusively through Jesse’s eyes. We get sucked into the vortex of his despair and it feels almost voyeuristic. His mind is populated by music and lyrics and his ghosts and you are right there with him.
It’s an unconventional “romance”. It does have an HEA, or at least a very hopeful HFN. I’m glad that it’s a closed door romance basically because we are already so much into his mind that going there would feel a little lurid almost.
It’s beautifully written. Sometimes you laugh and you will have your heart broken because you just can’t believe how Jesse can take so much pain. Be advised – it’s not your regular, fun rockstar story. It’s the journey of a tortured soul to whom music is salvation.
Narration: If you pick this one, pick the audiobook. Zachary Webber is beyond amazing. From Jesse’s tortured soul, to Mila’s Yorkshire accent, to Jonas… he’s narration gold. But then again, this is no surprise.
Possible triggers: drug use; PTSD; child abuse; child abandonment; living in foster care; loss of a sibling; grief; drug overdose; fatal car accident; violent acts committed against a main character; parental abuse
