Muted
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A ripped-from-the-headlines novel of ambition, music, and innocence lost, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Jason Reynolds!Be bold. Get seen. Be Heard.For seventeen-year-old Denver, music is everything. Writing, performing, and her ultimate goal: escaping her very small, very white hometown.So Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean "Mercury" Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights -- plus hours and hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it.Until they're not.Denver begins to realize that she's trapped in Merc's world, struggling to hold on to her own voice. As the dream turns into a nightmare, she must make a choice: lose her big break, or get broken.Inspired by true events, Muted is a fearless exploration of the dark side of the music industry, the business of exploitation, how a girl's dreams can be used against her -- and what it takes to fight back.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dali, Denver, and Shak, "three brown girls," are 17-year-old best friends living in a boring white town, which they dream of someday leaving. Denver feels that music is her destiny, so when R&B megastar Sean "Mercury" Ellis is in town to perform, she and the other two teens act quickly to get his attention. Performing for the musician, the trio soon finds themselves part of his inner circle. Denver believes this is her big break, but things take a sharp turn when Mercury begins to show his controlling nature. Committed to securing a record deal, Denver finds herself willing to do anything, including lying to her mother and ignoring Shak's warning about Mercury. Accepting the opportunity to live in Atlanta with Mercury, Denver and Dali believe they will soon record their album—only to slowly realize this is merely the beginning of a tumultuous journey of abuse caused by the celebrity singer. Though the novel includes potentially triggering subjects such as sexual assault, it's an eye-opening narrative that spotlights the uneven power dynamics endemic in the music industry. Ages 12–up.
