*Spoilers*Nannerl is the sister of Wolfgang Mozart and just wants to be remembered in a society that does not want women to be remembered for the music they create. Nannerl spends this whole book going on this ongoing adventure and making this big deal with a supernatural being just so that she can be remembered. All while her and her brother are traveling Europe as child musicians. Throughout the book you can see Wolfgang gaining the respects of the patrons and royalty as he gets commissioned while Nannerl is just a sort of afterthought. This leads to her becoming desperate for her to be the one to write the family legacy, hence the deal with the supernatural being from a made up world that both her and her brother share. I was so looking forward to loving this book. As a double violin major in college, it sounded like the perfect book for me.
I think Nannerl had so much potential. She had a spunk and a want that I just feel fell so flat during the last 2 chapters. Nannerl ends up being exactly what she stated time and time again that she did not want to be. Another problem I had with this book was the plot points that really didn't lead anywhere. Nannerl meets a boy she is interested in and then he just sort of disappears? He wrote her letters and from the looks of it she never wrote him back or tried making any communication despite being very interested in him? I could see if Johann made an appearance at the end of the book, but instead there is an unnamed husband. I just don't see at all why this character needed to be introduced There were also a lot of times where characters were so sick it seemed they were on the brink of death, but for some reason they always made a miraculous recovery.
I keep trying to understand why the ending was written the way it is. Why Nannerl had to fall so flat at the end. But I cannot. I can understand the approach of not wanting to divert from history too much, but this book includes a magical world filled with a dragon, a witch, ogre among other magical things. There was no reason Nannerl's story could not have been slightly rewritten
she could've continued composing under the vague Mozart name even if there was never no intention of publishing, she could've kept making music, even if it was just for her family and close friends, she could've married someone who was important enough to name. **2.5 Stars**
I think Nannerl had so much potential. She had a spunk and a want that I just feel fell so flat during the last 2 chapters. Nannerl ends up being exactly what she stated time and time again that she did not want to be. Another problem I had with this book was the plot points that really didn't lead anywhere. Nannerl meets a boy she is interested in and then he just sort of disappears? He wrote her letters and from the looks of it she never wrote him back or tried making any communication despite being very interested in him? I could see if Johann made an appearance at the end of the book, but instead there is an unnamed husband. I just don't see at all why this character needed to be introduced There were also a lot of times where characters were so sick it seemed they were on the brink of death, but for some reason they always made a miraculous recovery.
I keep trying to understand why the ending was written the way it is. Why Nannerl had to fall so flat at the end. But I cannot. I can understand the approach of not wanting to divert from history too much, but this book includes a magical world filled with a dragon, a witch, ogre among other magical things. There was no reason Nannerl's story could not have been slightly rewritten
she could've continued composing under the vague Mozart name even if there was never no intention of publishing, she could've kept making music, even if it was just for her family and close friends, she could've married someone who was important enough to name. **2.5 Stars**