In the sequel to Bethany Morrow's <i>A Song Below Water</i>, this book follows Naema Bradshaw after she reveals Tavia as a siren and the repercussion that follows her betrayal. Naema was once a popular and successful influencer/Eloko with a group of loving friends. When she betrays Tavia--and Tavia gets signed for a movie deal of the event where Naema is marked as the jealous villain--Naema must find a way to return to her previous status. But first, she leaves Portland to find refuge with some of her extended family. While away, she finds an online community that seems to still Stan for Naema ("knights of Naema"), but their sense of loyalty may be misguided...

The narrative is primarily from Naema's perspective and she was a difficult character to truly like, at first. She is a "pretty bird" (according to her cousin), shallow, self-centered, and absorbed in her own problems. This was definitely used as a tool to demonstrate her character development as she begins to see the magnitude of her betrayal of outing Tavia as a Siren. Her knights twist her narrative as a means to dox and attack potential Sirens. The book was a great perspective on a supposed villain and how she is able to repair her relationships. The ending felt a bit rushed as much of the action was "behind-the-scenes," but this was a fun sequel set in a magical world that touches upon social justice and racial issues that transcend the book.

For the majority of this book, I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed my reading experience. But I don’t want that to deter you from this sequel. Because parts of A Chorus Rises are supposed to feel uncomfortable and make you question how you really feel.

The second book in A Song Below Water follows the antagonist from the first book, Naema. And for a large portion of the book she still very much feels like the “mean girl”. But Morrow creates an incredible arc of growth and learning, both in the main character and the reader themselves.

This is a book that forces you to consider all sides of a situation, particularly when considering types of discrimination. It depicts the anger and hurt of people who experience daily discrimination with striking clarity. And this is what truly brought the book home for me.

The way that Morrow uses a fictional story to elicit such feelings and ongoing thoughts is worth a standing ovation. The way in which the fantasy and continuation of the story itself as well deserve the same.

This book does not have as much actual magic as A Song Above Water, but it is still magical.
Thank you Macmillan- Tor/Forge. Tor Teen and NetGalley for this important digital ARC

I was excited to get a new perspective in this series. I enjoyed how we got to see Naemas point of view in real time and not flashbacks. I thought it was really great to get her side and we her struggles with finding community snd navigating a word where her blackness, and her being an Eloko are both being tested. The parallels with the real world and the fantasy one worked really well together. I can admit I still don’t LOVE Naema, but I don’t think that was the point. Rather to see her growth and development.

Really enjoyed this follow up. I did enjoy the first one more because of the characters and friendship between the two main characters, and I just did not connect with this main character as much. However, I still was invested in the story and in this world. Loved that we got a different focus and perspective. I am really enjoying this author and look forward to what she does in the years to come.

It's been almost two months since I've read A Chorus Rises and I still have no idea how to review and rate it. On one hand I loved how it was a story of finding yourself and it featured many important discussions, but on the other hand I wasn't a fan of the still-confusing world building and the characters. I absolutely despised Naema in A Song Below Water and despite her character development in A Chorus Rises, she still isn't on my list of my top favorite book characters. I did, however, absolutely adore her cousin Courtney; hilarious side characters have always and will always be my weakness. All in all, it was an okay read.

[A dedicated post will be posted on our Bookstagram account in September.]

After having recently read A Song Below Water and enjoying it enough to pick up A Chorus Rises (provided by netgalley in exchange for a review), I was disappointed to not be giving this book more than a 3 star rating.

It was okay.
In my opinion it did not add value to A Song Below Water and I would have been happy just treating A Song Below Water as a standalone.

If you are familiar with a Song Below Water you understand that Naema is the antagonist... well... in a Chorus Rises, Morrow has taken Naema and tried to convince the readers you just don't understand her perspective. You could say it's one of those 'villain' perspectives where it's all a big misunderstanding and really, she's not as bad as first thought. Except, this one wasn't as well written as I would have liked. It was repetitive, predictable, slow (because I could kind of guess the next move) and took me quite a while to read. In my eyes, Naema is still the antagonist and I do not truly understand her actions.

This book is great in providing the reader with a different perspective. An insight into marginalisation. It reminds you that there is always two sides to a story and to consider all sides. You never truly know what someone is going through. The inclusiveness in this novel is important and I do not regret reading it.

3/5 ⭐️

This novel started off although a year later, exactly where the first one in the series ended which is nice for continuity. Unlike the confusion that some people felt with the first novel, this sticks to one narrator - our eloko ex-social media celebrity who is coming to terms with everything that happened to her at prom a year ago.

As a narrator there is very little maturity and growth to be seen throughout the novel until perhaps the very end. I feel that there were numerous more likeable characters in the novel than our narrator which makes me a little confused.

I enjoyed hearing about ancestors and communication and finding "magic" of voice but really I have to admit that 80% of this book is no plot and then suddenly there is something that needs to be done at the end, almost like setting up for yet another book.

Interesting concept but not one of my favourites.

DNF - Did not finish. I decided not to keep reading this title because I’d did not connect with the writing or plot. Thank you, NetGalley and publisher for the early copy!

A companion novel to A Song Below Water, this book tackles the story of a secondary character from the first, elevating her from shallow villain to protagonist. It is utterly refreshing to read from the perspective such an unlikable character, who is profoundly committed to being who she is. Her journey is not one of redemption, but rather earning a deeper understanding of the world and who her true enemies are. The message that she will not allow the world to pit talented Black girls against each other is well-timed and powerful. A wonderful read.

WOWW. i know i read this late but wow. you should totally pick up this book seriously! the author put so much love and time into this book that i can literally feel it through the pages, i am in love with this book weather it is possible to be in love with a book or not! this book made me feel so many things i can’t even describe how good it was, i highly recommend:)

I enjoyed this book! I didn’t feel that it was as exciting as the first book was, but it was still an enjoyable read. There just wasn’t as much action, which kept me super into the first book.

The Exiled Eloko Princess: Naema Tells Her Side | Looking at A Chorus Rises


“Whatever you think I can do or will do, I promise, you don’t.”

While Naema is an antagonist in A Song Below Water, she is surely not a villain because frankly, in my opinion, teen girls cannot be villains—especially girls who are victims, like Naema. Although, as Morrow writes, “Victims can have victims”.
A Chorus Rises picks up a year after the events of the first book and is told from Naema’s point of view. It has sections of online articles and messaging transcripts mixed in, which I thought broadened the world and grounded it. Naema is described as a popular girl in the first book with an online following on Eloko Verified, also known as LOVE, which is explored more here. We’re also privy to Naema’s personal journey of dealing with life after being Stoned and her identity not only as Eloko but as a Black girl. It is all incredibly well done and written with delicacy and care.

“At least the story I’m going to tell will be true. At least they’ll know at last, who the real villain is.”
What Morrow does wonderfully is take real life situations and put them in a fantastical space that I really love. Noting this, I think it’s interesting how most girls’ problems and interests are trivialized, but not these girls. Something that was between two girls, Tavia and Naema, became a movie that spurred a website, an exile of THE Eloko Princess and a whole lot of mess. Tavia and Naema are not only victims to each other, but also to others, though they’re both just magical Black girls who made mistakes.

It’s as if there was only one girl allowed to be loved at a given moment in time—which is completely vile—and in this book, Tavia is basking in newfound popularity while Naema’s life is in constant readjustment after she was awakened. Feeling betrayed, she decides to leave Portland altogether, even if it’s only to visit her family in the southwest for a while.

It was really cool to learn more Eloko lore, which I was really interested in back when I first read ASBW, and it was also cool to pick up with Tavia and see her growth. However, let’s not get it confused, this is Naema’s story. As someone who loves when family dynamics are explored in literature, I love that Naema is not only able to connect to her living relatives she previously had little connection with, but she is also able to tap into a lost Eloko power and connect with her ancestors. Through this power, we see her develop her more empathy than what we already saw in ASBW. While she did harmful things in the first book, she inevitably still remains true to the network and doesn’t expose their secrets, despite the harm they cause her. Naema could’ve been spiteful, and many times over but she isn’t, not really, especially to those who aren’t deserving of it. All she wanted was for Tavia and Effie’s actions to be held accountable in the same way she was.

“What we’re not gonna do is start thanking our attackers for our personal growth.”
Naema is no martyr, hero, or symbol for anyone’s cause. She is Eloko and a Black girl and neither cancels out the other, which I love most about her. She is guided by Naema and she never stops loving herself. I think what’s really great about this book is it recontextualizes the events of the first book, that no one lives in a bubble and everyone’s choices have consequences. I think what a lot of people, including myself, misunderstood about Naema is that she is not someone who thinks “I am better than you”. She simply states with every fiber of her being “I am worthy”, and for that I love and respect her character so so much!

This book is fantastic for so many reasons that I want to get into now. Again, the ancestral wisdom that Naema wields is so cool, I think I need another book with her, or maybe we can pick up with her and Effie in a third installment—I’m just not ready to completely leave this world yet. Then, there are the scenes when she is visiting her cousin in prison and I really appreciate prison scenes in YA because a lot of us have had family members, even multiple ones, in prison. And though I don’t want to necessarily normalize prison, I think it’s great how Morrow sheds light on the experience of seeing loved ones in that space and the effort that goes into those visits. I also just appreciate the discussion about the prison industrial complex as a whole because a lot of people, if not most, are locked away unjustly. Then, there’s Courtney. I absolutely love his character and how he interacts with Naema. From the nicknames to the extended family details, I just thought this aspect was awesome. Since we really only saw Naema as a mean girl in the first book, thanks to Tavia and Effie’s narration, it was nice to see her as the same girl, but not just an antagonist. This book shows that there’s more than one side to every story. Instead of trying to redeem Naema, this book allows her to learn from her mistakes and finds the commonality between her and Tavia. Most importantly I love how Naema does not stand for the erasure of her Blackness, it’s truly profound.

Also, something that Morrow does with this book as she did with her first is to examine and indict the systems at play, as she put it in our past interview. As noted, she does this with the prison system as well as with discussions of privilege, race, and how the interplay of these things can impact liability and social status in and out of the social media sphere. Morrow pushes readers to consider how Black girls are pit against each other and how Black and Brown people are made to believe we’re only worthy as ‘tokens’. I adored the first book last year and even reread it for a third time before I read this one but man, I must say, A Chorus Rises is a sequel that knocks its predecessor out of being my #1 Bethany C. Morrow book. It’s really amazing and captures a type of character I think we need more of. Naema Bradshaw is unapologetic, confident, and snarky—which if she were a male character I’m sure there’d be more fanfare— but that’s a discussion for another day. Speaking of fanfare, I really liked how Naema had a whole fanbase and how we see that shift due to the events of the first novel and the uprise of the Knights of Naema site. The way that Morrow calls out the super weird side of stan culture and palatability.

Overall, this book felt really meta, like the first few chapters were really Morrow taking jabs at herself or even reiterating hate comments and reviews and I live for that kind of self-referential playfulness. As a huge fan of Morrow as an author and person, I can’t wait to read her next book, which won’t be long since So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix is out September 7th! Pre-Order it now!

<i>"How do you describe something so personal and also so...historic. The swell of centuries before you, voices that speak pictures and memories, a sense that pieces of me have already existed, making me somehow more myself. Naema Bradshaw has always been confident, no one would dispute that, but that's what I want to call this energy the Ancestors bring. Portland might turn on me, a movie might strip me of everything but negativity, but I am who I'm supposed to be.
I *am* magic. Without question."</i>

TL;DR: If I could recommend skipping the first 3/4 of it, I would. The last 22% of this book are what saves it for me -- but the first 78% is *very* difficult to get through, as Naema is a very unlikable, unempathetic, completely self-centered protagonist. The messages Morrow is trying to convey are muddled by Naema's incessant whining and, as in her previous book, <i>A Song Below Water</i>, weak mythological scaffolding, which raises more questions than provides answers.

Vibes: Gossip Girl meets Mean Girls, but told through Regina's POV.

Genre: True-YA Urban Fantasy.
Not magical realism, IMO, because the magic is connected to the status of magical creatures (e.g., a siren has a siren’s calls to compel people to do things).
Also, True YA because of the focus on Naema. I’m not saying *all* teenagers are self-centered, and it’s certainly not exclusively an adolescent issue, but as an adult, I may have found her more insufferable than young adults might. Also, the adults of this novel play a shockingly minor role.

Character MVP: Courtney. Hands down.
Naema is insufferably unlikable for 78% of the book* and even in the last 22%, she's still self-absorbed and narcissistic. Her cousin Courtney is pretty much the only one who doesn't feed into her narcissism and calls her on her BS.

*And by "insufferably unlikable" I don't mean it as a microaggression because she's a witty, snarky, take-no-BS-does-what-she-wants Black girl. I actually enjoyed reading her voice and her snarky asides. And I think you can have an unlikable character as your protagonist and succeed -- where Naema failed for me was that she *did* do awful things in ASBW and just refuses to acknowledge that she could have messed up, that her actions could have been interpreted as harmful/hurtful, and that those actions have consequences. I get that there are two sides to every story, but in Naema's mind, she didn't do anything wrong -- and she doesn't have empathy for anyone but herself. That's a really hard character to support.
Also, it was not lost on me that when she apologizes to Tavia, she doesn't actually say "I'm sorry." She says she "regrets what she wore to Junior prom" and that she "has to apologize," but doesn't actually say she's sorry for anything, or anything else. (I'm still miffed as to how she thinks it was okay to bail on her Network duties and leave Tavia high and dry when she asked for help.) Tavia explicitly says she's sorry and to me...Naema is a bully. And unlikable characters can succeed as protagonists, but its going to be really hard for me to empathize with a straight-up bully who shows little remorse and even less empathy for others.

Verdict: A really tricky one to rate…2.5 stars, and I genuinely can’t decide to round up or down.
Here’s the thing: if I was rating the last 22% alone, I’d give it 5 stars. (Probably. Or at least in comparison to the first 80%.) Because the topics Morrow explores in the last 20% are the strongest/most poignant parts of the book:

✔︎ -- How (any form of) Privilege can shield some Black women from the harsh and abusive treatment so many of them face;
✔︎ -- How online communities radicalize average, run-of-the-mill white dudes, playing on their prejudices – and how easily they do it;
✔︎ -- How systems that purportedly exist to protect “everyone” don’t actually protect everyone, leaving some of the most vulnerable among them (i.e., young Black girls) open to predatory dangers;
✔︎ -- How the media pits Black women against each other, leaving space for only one Exception to shine at a time, as well as the fact that we, as a society, make "exceptions" at all, in a misguided attempt to assuage our own guilt/privilege;
✔︎ -- How the communities that seem to be the most “woke” and liberal, may not be as liberal as they seem.

BUT. Those messages are absolutely lost in the muddled mess of Naema's whining that is the first 78% of the book. For me, the story would have been stronger if we had cut back on that aspect -- Naema trying to insist that she's a blameless victim who totally doesn't deserve all <s>the consequences of her own bullying actions</s> The Bad Stuff that happened to her -- and focused instead on:

(1) Naema Connecting With Her Ancestral Network -- this was the biggest lost potential of the story for me. I think in some of my initial thoughts, I thought that perhaps a story from Naema's POV could have indicated that she wasn't actually a Mean Girl-Bully at all, and was just misunderstood. I think she can still be a Mean Girl who doesn't get along with Tavia (as girls are prone to do) but the focus can be more on her journey of realizing she's not actually blameless (which does occur, just way too late for me) and how that allows her to connect with her ancestors; and
(2) Building the Mythological Framework and Specifically Stating What An Eloko Is -- because, honestly, what was the point of Professor Vesper-Holmes?! She's thrown in to the story -- almost as if someone said, "Hey you need to address the issue of people not knowing what an eloko is" -- only to verbalize the same questions I have and NEVER ANSWER THEM.
And this is only a problem, for me, because the creatures Morrow is drawing on *actually exist* in mythology. She hasn't created a new mythology; she's just revised it/made it her own. Which I fully support, as long as you clarify and specify HOW and WHY it's different. I can fill in the gaps with, for example, sirens, because those are similar enough to Greek mythology. But when you draw on Elokos and significantly change them from the most common hits on Google, you need to explain them. And, TBH, I still have no idea exactly what an Eloko is or how they're connected to the Ancestral Network.

I appreciate and impressed by the social commentaries and parallels Morrow draws, but her fantasy-frameworks just leave me frustrated.
I'm going to leave my "in medias res" thoughts below as well, because I do think they elaborate more on some of my previous thoughts.

*****
Okay. Halfway done, and things are *slightly* clearer.
I think -- THINK -- that Morrow is trying to convey the point that this fictional Portland can only revere one Black girl at a time; that they're not really "woke" and anti-racist and liberal, they just make an exception for the Heroine-of-the-Moment. And, since Effie disappeared, and Tavia is the one who woke all the Stoning victims up, Tavia is The It Girl, and Naema has "fallen from grace."
Now, that's an interesting message -- and a powerful, poignant one. I'm thinking of how in 2016 Olympics the media revered Simone Biles and was horrible to Gabby Douglas who, 4 years early, had been the bright, bubbly Olympic Darling.

But this message coming across successfully hinges on a few things:
(1) Not having read <i>A Song Below Water</i>. Maybe, if you hadn't read the first book (or it's been awhile so you're fuzzy on the details), it'd be easier to see Naema as a victim. <i>"Look at how awful Tavia is -- summoning her imperiously to the garage at 6 am and making her help her!"</i> and <i>"Yes! Tavia sicced her attack Gorgon sister on her and turned her into stone! Why is no one talking about that!</i>
(And I'm not saying Tavia was fully justified in what she did nor am I saying that Naema deserved that; clearly she wasn't and clearly she didn't. It's just that Naema clearly doesn't see her actions as wrong in any way -- she thinks she did the community a service, so its frustrating to see her self-righteousness portrayed as...okay? Maybe? There is still halfway to go.)

(2) But. The fantastic framework of this world is just...tenuous, at best. This is where the strength of your mythology *needs* to be supported and fully developed.
Because, whatever else, Naema was part of this Network -- and that NEEDS to be addressed/developed. (Like, who is part of the network? When I read ASBW, I thought it was the entirety of Portland, and that's why the mythological creatures lived there; it was a safe haven. But if it's not the entire city, who's a member? How do they determine that? Is the Network just supposed to be an analogy for the Black Community? Again, that wasn't clear. What exactly are their obligations? Why are children a part of this network? Naema is only 16 and she has these obligations she doesn't want. She mentions she had a choice, but how strenuous/taxing are the obligations?) So, the fact remains: in ASBW, Tavia turns to the Network for help, asking Naema to help her -- which, as a member of the Network, she should have done -- and instead, she refuses her.

[Haughtily and bitchily. Like she can't be bothered to understand what Tavia's had to go through, living in secret, and is only concerned with the impact on her own comfortable life. And, without knowing more about the Network, we can't really arrive at any other conclusion. Even if this book, it's so barely mentioned -- there's a magical mafia donna who appears and that's about it? -- that maybe the full impact of being a member of the Network isn't fully conveyed. And maybe if we got more of that -- more of Naema's struggles with that, then the message would land more clearly.]

And again, Naema essentially outs Tavia -- and it's semantics to say she outs Effie, because she knows the truth, and knows that Tavia will protect Effie.
So to see Naema as a victim is a stretch -- and one that isn't helped by her actions and inner monologues for the first half of this book. Because while the point about Portland "holding only enough space for one Black girl to shine at a time" is a valid one, Naema did some pretty awful things -- so the impact of the message is lessened because <b>there are consequences to actions</b>. Naema was NOT a good friend (as Priam tries to say), and she also wasn't "good to her." (Remember, she neglected to do her duty as part of the Network, said "I'm done" and outed her in front of their whole community.) So, yeah. Some blowback for that isn't unreasonable. So when she whines about hard life is for her because people are trying to hold her accountable for her actions, and she doesn't even seem to feel remorse for the role she played leading up to it...it just doesn't work.

***
30% Done -- Thoughts:
✘ -- Holy Handgrenade of Antioch is Naema unlikable.
On a scale of <i>Beth-March-would-die-for-her</i> to <i>Dolores-Umbridge-do-I-really-need-to-say-more</i>, she's like an almost Umbridge.
Like, as soon as she mentioned that she had a 4-poster bed, I thought, "Hah! I bet her parents gave her the master bedroom too."
Nope.
They gave her the bedroom AND another room so she could literally have a suite.

✘ -- I'm about 1/3 of the way done, and I don't think I can't tell you what has happened so far -- mainly it's a lot of exposition of what happened *after* the events of <i>A Song Below Water</i> and heavy doses of Naema feeling sorry for herself.

✘ -- Which...the only thing keeping me reading is to figure out where Morrow is taking this, because I honestly don't know what the messaging of this book is supposed to be. I think it's supposed to be something about privilege and model minorities, but honestly? The only thing that's coming through is Naema's (literal) whining about not being universally loved anymore.

And the thing is, I feel like there was potential here. After all, <i>A Song Below Water</i> was told from Effie and Tavia's POV, so maybe Naema really was complex and layered and that could have been the point of this book. One of my issues with <i>A Song Below Water</i> was that Naema felt flat -- as did the Eloko mythology -- and her motivations were really unclear. Also, we never found out what happened to her. This book deals directly with her "Stoning," but here's where it falls flat for me:
(1) After she was Awakened, she could/should have had a change-of-heart, a sort of "Shit-I-Brought-This-On-Myself" realization.
OR
(2) The loss of universal adoration she experienced could have been a way to reveal her side of the story -- and the thing is, I think the seeds of potential for this are there -- and round her out as a truly sympathetic character.

I don't see how we're supposed to like Naema at all for the first part of this book -- or even feel sympathy for her, not when she's so self-absorbed and so shitty to everyone around her. This story, from her POV, only seems to validate her depiction in <i>A Song Below Water</i>; she keeps insisting that "Upside-Down Portland" has wronged her, because Tavia told Effie Stone her, which makes Tavia the "real" villain. And that hinges on the fact that Naema IS the victim, which, again, is undercut by her actions, in both this book and the previous one.
Because, after all, Naema stopped protecting Tavia -- she was in The Network and flat out told her, "I'm done." There was never a reason for or explanation given for that; there was no real reason given for why their relationship was contentious; it just was. So, yeah, Naema seemed like the one-note Mean Girl -- and she still does.

✘ -- And I still don't know what an Eloko is.
That, at least, seems to be kinda-sorta-maybe explored here, through the Professor, but the fact that we didn't know this -- what an Eloko is, why they're universally loved, etc. -- just...I don't know. It frustrates me.

✘ -- The writing style. Which is, ugh, tricky, because I actually kinda like Naema's "Voice" here - she's snarky and witty and smart, but it's just wrapped in too many layers of self-absorption.
And the "teen language" is weird to me. The ending sentences with "but." and "so."; the "Doy" (which...I don't think I've ever heard my college freshmen use that...)

I was gifted a NetGalley arc of this one, and have felt so bad because I have not been able to get into it. I DNF at 47%. I just couldn't get into this world. I love fantasy novels, but I have to truly feel like I am lost in their world. That did not happen here. Also, I could not find the empathy within me for Naema. She is just not a kind person. She treats everyone around her like crap but makes herself the victim, and I can't stand that. The last thing that bothered me a lot was the structure of the sentences. Ending a sentence with the word "but" drove me absolutely nuts. I wish I could have loved this one, because that cover is gorgeous!

This was such a difficult read. The character development was so slow going that I almost DNF'ed halfway through. I wanted to explore Naema's point of view especially because she was a "mean girl" in the first novel, however, you read it and find out she is the very mean girl she presents herself to be. I loved how the ending turned out, addressing the rising political troubles with a modern approach and unity. However, the ending is not enough to compensate for how difficult the beginning is.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Teen for providing me with an e-ARC of A Chorus Rises in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this is one of those books where I don't have much to say. It was fine. I like the magical elements but it felt like they were pushed too much into the background of the story. I did enjoy the last quarter of the book the most because ~cute~ and ~friendship~.

A Chorus Rises
By Bethany c Marrow
Pub date June 1 2021

loved it if you love anything to do with mermaids siren then you love this one amazing story line with great writing imagination fantasy loved it 💜

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I honestly don't know how to rate this nor how to review this.

One the one hand, I liked the political message and the plot but on the other hand I didn't really like the characters and thought some things needed more depth. So to say I'm on the fence about A Chorus Rises is not an overstatement.

The book follows Naema who was, in a way, portrayed as the villain in A Chorus Rises' predecessor, A Song Below Water. This book posed as a redemption of some sort for her after getting slandered online for her actions and getting cancelled by many of her fans and her own Eloko community. Things start to spiral after a group of diehard fans of hers start exposing black women and girls as sirens online in her name. It's up to Naema to reconcile with the past in order to help fix the present and to stop the perpetrators before it's too late.

I liked the plot and the whole idea of this book: for there to be redemption for what I have always felt was a very misunderstood character. I wanted glimpses into Naema and yes while there was some justification for why she did the things she has done in book one, I wanted more of it, I wanted to understand it better... I wanter to understand her better but I felt like I still didn't get the layers to her character that I've always wanted. In that sense, the book didn't add anything to her for me and I kept wishing for character depth instead of the shallowness I seemed to get. Even with her character, there were bouts of characterisation, dialogue and behaviour that didn't seem to correlate sometimes. For example, sometimes Naema would be nice and pleasant and others she'd be arrogant and rude with no in between or any explanation for this change in behaviour. I wanted that to be dragged out a bit more, I wanted more of a transition from rude Naema into kind Naema instead of it going from A to B very quickly.

Following on with that point, Naema became one with her Eloko soul after immersing herself with her family and family history. I wanted that to be explored but I felt like I was just told that without it really being shown. I wanted to see those changes in characterisation and I wanted to see how becoming one with herself has changed Naema's outlook on self and identity. I felt like if there was more emphasis on that then it would've improved the book a lot and it would've created a lot of empathy towards Naema which I believe was the author's initial intention.

Pacing wise, I felt like things were either too slow or too fast as in, with the first half of the book, I felt like the pacing was slow, however, when it came to the end of the book, everything seemed to happen at once. It even took me a long time to process it all. The ending felt really rushed and everything was told to the reader regarding the plot. I believe myself to be quite attentive while reading however, when reading through all the things the cast of characters discovered, I was asking myself "wait did that actually happen? Did I read about that?" or "Hang on, oh that makes more sense" which shouldn't've happened considering all the conclusions made towards the end should've been drawn from previously revealed information in the book. There were lots of things I discovered at the end that really should've been revealed earlier. If those conclusions were drawn earlier and not towards the end, it would've made the book feel less rushed towards the end and would've created a steady flow of events.

Apart from that and the few grammatical errors I found (which is to be expected from a early ARC), I did enjoy the socio-political commentary and thought that was done well. I liked how we could also see Naema's thoughts and feelings towards Eloko, sirens and her Black community and thought that was handled by the author extremely well just like her previous novel, A Song Below Water also did.

ACTUAL RATING: 3.1 STARS

A Chorus Rises follows Naema Bradshaw's life - the life of a teen influencer. From what can be seen, Naema has it all - the looks, the fame, the privilege but that's not all. Naema is an eloko, gifted with the power of song that woo all who hear it. Sure, this sounds like it could be great, especially when you're already well-liked. However, when she's the cast as the person who revealed Tavia's powers, all those likes are gone in an instant.

While she is aware of her truth, Naema has the challenge of building herself back up. But when a group of her online followers begin to target Black girls, Naema must show everyone the power that her voice truly holds and the importance of it.

A Chorus Rises is a brilliant follow-up to A Song Below Water. It touches upon the very real aspects of social media and how it impacts our lives, including both the good and the bad that comes along with it. Not only that, but much like the first book it does not shy away from tackling topics such as race, privilege, gender, and much more that gives readers a lot to absorb in the best way. I would highly recommend!