Soundtrack

Initially released as an audiobook, this immersive novel from Reynolds (Twenty-Four Seconds from Now...) serves as a stunning tribute to New York City’s creative scene and community built through music. High school senior Stuyvesant Grey lives with his single mother, formerly a drummer in an all-Black punk band that included Stuy’s father, who left before the teen was born. Stuy’s close relationship with his mother—cemented throughout a childhood bonding over music—is upended when her controlling, verbally abusive boyfriend moves in, prompting Stuy to seek refuge with his uncle Lucky. Stuy soon meets Dunks, a space-obsessed guitarist living in Uncle Lucky’s apartment complex who shares Stuy’s passion for music. Resolving to start a band, the boys recruit fellow teens—a lively trumpet player, a bassist, and a charismatic hype man—to form Soundtrack. The bandmates revel in their growing popularity until a major setback jeopardizes their progress. Reynolds retains some of the appeal of the original audiobook by incorporating playscript dialogue, which portrays interactions between the magnetic, richly textured cast with lyrical verve. References to culturally significant Black musicians from punk, jazz, and Afrofuturist subgenres, peppered throughout sensorial first-person narration, ensure that the text echoes with the sounds of N.Y.C., as Stuy perceives them, from beginning to end. Ages 12–up. Agent: Elena Giovinazzo, Heirloom Literary. (Apr.)