Leo is a typical teenage boy. He plays soccer, hates school, and is in love with a girl in his class--Beatrice. Even though he doesn't speak to her, ever, Leo knows that he and Beatrice are soul mates. Leo's best friend Silvia is a faithful companion who helps him navigate the world.

I was really torn in my review of this book. If I were only rating the book based on the writing itself, it would absolutely get a 5. There are so many sentences that are just truly beautiful. The struggle came with the characters and plot. Leo was so ridiculous in his love for Beatrice (without ever even talking to her) that I found him to be whiny and annoying. Although he later treats her better, Leo takes so much advantage of Silvia's friendship that it made me dislike him even more. While I think other English teachers might appreciate the beautiful text, it will be a hard sell for high school students.

White as Silence, Red as Song
September 10, 2018

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Alex Lopez

We're starting off this week with a review of White as Silence, Red as Song and a highlight of my favorite quotes from the book. As a blog tour special, there is a giveaway for a copy of the book and if you're a fan of Jodi Picoult or John Green, White as Silence, Red as Song is the book for you definitely want to enter!














About the Book



Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Release Date: September 4, 2018

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary




Synopsis



Sixteen-year-old Leo has a way with words, but he doesn’t know it yet. He spends his time texting, polishing soccer maneuvers, and killing time with Niko and Silvia. Until a new teacher arrives and challenges him to give voice to his dreams.



And so Leo is inspired to win over the red-haired beauty Beatrice. She doesn’t know Leo exists, but he’s convinced that his dream will come true. When Leo lands in the hospital and learns that Beatrice has been admitted too, his mission to be there for her will send him on a thrilling but heartbreaking journey. He wants to help her but doesn’t know how—and his dream of love will force him to grow up fast.



Having already sold over a million copies, Alessandro D’Avenia’s debut novel is considered Italy’s The Fault in Our Stars. Now available in English for the first time, this rich, funny, and heartwarming coming-of-age tale asks us to explore the meaning—and the cost—of friendship, and shows us what happens when suffering bursts into the world of teenagers and renders the world of adults speechless.



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Review



White as Silence, Red as Song Alessandro D'Avenia captures the heartbeat of youth in and I found this work to be a beautiful analogy for life. The narrator, Leo, is a big dreamer who associates anything good in life with the color red based on the hair color of the love of his life, Beatrice. Despite his dreams of love and devotion to Beatrice, reality crashes down in various hues of white emptiness as Leo discovers Beatrice has leukemia. Leo's descriptions of the world are nothing short of elegiac as they capture the full extent of a spectrum of emotions.



Alessandro D'Avenia writes a story filled with the gripping sense of heartbreak that is sure to resonate with young adult readers. White as Silence, Red as Song’s English translation captures the pure poetry and movement of Alessandro D'Avenia work that serves as a testimony to the profound, beating rhythm of young love.

Favorite Quotes:

Perhaps she was a dog in her previous life? I enjoy giving people a former life in my head. It helps explain their character.

I can’t believe it. I am sleeping under the same roof as Beatrice and I didn’t even know it. This sends me into hyperkinetic rapture.

Mom yells at me to get out of the bathroom and stop doing indecent things. Why don’t grown-ups understand anything? What do they know about what’s going on in your head? They’re convinced that the only things in your head are the ones they can’t do anymore.

Teachers are like boa constrictors. They wrap themselves around you when you’re distracted, then wait until you breathe out to tighten their grasp.

The worst thing about life is that there’s no instruction manual. With a cell phone you follow the instructions, and if it doesn’t work, there’s the warranty. You take it back and they give you a new one. Not so with life. If it doesn’t work, they don’t give you a new one. You’re stuck with the one you have—used, dirty, and malfunctioning.

My Review:

I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this book as I tend to avoid YA and it took a few beats to acclimate to the author’s innovative and slyly colorful writing style. I soon found myself fully immersed in the cleverly crafted and jagged, yet fascinatingly compelling, stream of consciousness of Leo, a post-pubescent teenaged boy whose thoughts tended to ramble and flit about in a captivating and heart-squeezing manner. Leo’s inner dialogue was wryly amusing as were his personal observations and hard-won and ironic teenaged wisdoms.

This wily author well remembers the insecurities and dramatics of youth and demonstrated remarkable insight into the rapid variability of their intense and extreme emotions, which soar to exhilaration as quickly as they can plummet to the vast pit of despair. I reveled in Leo’s inner musings as he obsessed over every nuance of his infatuation with the lovely and angelic redheaded schoolgirl named Beatrice. His fertile imagination, creative use of nicknames, and fixation on defining colors kept a smirk on my face while reading. Leo’s world revolved around playing soccer, his batscooter, his study friend Silva, the drudgery of school and teachers, and his undeclared love for the perfection known as Beatrice. This ingeniously well-crafted story detailed Leo’s most transformative year of enlightening life-lessons.

This was such a lovely book, I loved Leo's character I thought it was very realistic about what goes through a teenagers mind. I wish I had a teacher like 'The Dreamer' who could've helped me!! I think all the philosophical quotes were brilliant it made me think about my goals and dreams in life!!!
I also liked the blossoming friendship between Leo and Silvia, it was so believable especially how completely clueless he was about how she felt.
I wouldn't call it an Italian 'Fault in Our Stars' but it was a beautiful read.

*DNF at 49%

It’s rare I DNF a novel. And I mean incredibly rare. Sometimes I put books down, but I know I’ll get back to them when I’m in the mood for it so I don’t consider that a DNF because I’ll finish it eventually. I’ve only legitimately DNFed a novel once before. And that was a long time ago. Well, I’m here to say that today I DNF my second novel.

I tired to get through this. Trust me, I did. Especially because I received an advanced copy and I take those opportunities very seriously. But oh my god this was bad. Awful.

Leo is creepy as hell. If this was a psychological thriller, ok sure, it’d be awesome. His weird stalker tendencies would be perfect for that genre. But this is supposed to be a contemporary romance compared to The Fault In Our Stars? What? Who decided that? Like let’s have a chat about that because no, it’s not even close.

I would just like to point out that at 49% through Leo and Beatrice haven’t had an actual interaction between them. He’s watched her from a distance and sat beside her while she slept in her hospital bed and wrote her a letter and gave her blood, but SHE HASN’T EVEN SPOKEN TO HIM YET. WHAT.

Here are some of incredibly stalker-ish quotes from Leo just to help prove my point a little bit:

"I went to her birthday party last year, and it was a dream come true. I spent the entire time hiding behind something or someone so I could stare at her, so I could record her every gesture and movement in my head."

And another one:

"But wasn’t I a lion in my previous life? That’s why I don’t give up. I lurk in the first and, when the moment is right, I jump out from the trees and seize my prey, cutting off all escape routs by forcing it into a learning with nothing to hide behind. That’s what I’ll do with Beatrice. She’ll find herself face-to-face with me and will be forced to choose me."

Anyway, I think you guys get the point I’m trying to make here. This was just so not my kind of book. At all.

Summary: Leo is a passionate sixteen year old who loves soccer and a redheaded girl named Beatrice.  Leo dreams of a his possible love affair with Beatrice but when she develops leukemia his dreams change.  Leo knows he will find a way to save his beloved however as he tries to save Beatrice his feelings for his best friend Sylvia begin to change.

Review: I was quite disappointed by this book and, to be honest, I place the blame entirely on the publisher.  This book is being advertised as the Italian The Fault in Our Stars and that was enough to entice me into reading it.  I was expecting young love torn apart by illness and that is really not what I got.  White as Silence, Red as Song is more of a coming of age story about a boy moving past his fantasy of a girl to understanding a real person.  In this way it’s a little like Paper Towns but without the quirky charm. Instead, White as Silence, Red as Song is a slightly confusing drama that had several pacing issues and a difficult narrative voice.  There are readers out there who will over look these issues and connect with Leo’s distinct narrative voice but I was not that reader.  It may be an issue with the translation but, for me, Leo’s narrative felt like it was lacking emotions.  The whole book is about his love for Beatrice however I never felt like D’Avenia really illustrated Leo’s feelings.  Leo’s narrative felt flat and was almost impossible to connect with.  The entire story felt a little muddled and became a chore to finish.  There is probably an audience out there for this book but I’m not sure who that would be but I know it’s not me.

At first I wasn’t sure I would like this book. The writing style is a little stunted for my tastes, but then I reminded myself to ignore any of those feelings, since this is a book translated from Italian. I’m so glad that I did.

Have you ever eaten something and initially thought, “this is good, not great, but good?” Then the longer you chew, the better your bite tastes until finally, you realize this is really good and you eat all of it? Hopefully, that’s not just me. If you’ve never done that, then my analogy for this book is going to be lost on you, but trust me, that’s what White as Silence Red as Song is like.

The story seems to take a minute to get going, but after finishing it, I now know D’Avenia was simply laying an elaborate foundation. Without the buildup, the end result of the story can’t be comprehended. The impact on each character’s life can’t be understood. The layers of emotion is completely lost on the reader, and honestly, Leo’s emotion is the backbone of this novel.

With intense themes and expressive characters, D’Avenia weaves a poignant tale of teenage life and love.


The Characters...


Leo was the protagonist and a really well written character, though incredibly frustrating. He was extremely self-centered and naïve, but that made him a perfect teenage character. He wasn’t a bad person, he just seemed wrapped up in his own thoughts and drama until life gave him some perspective.

2 stars

This book has so much potential, and I really hope that the version I read goes through a few more touch ups before it's published.

Because seriously--an Italian TFIOS! a coming of age story! These are all really great elements.

Yet, this book ended up being a let down for me for multiple reasons.

My biggest issue with this book is honestly the narrator. I just really did not like Leo for most of the novel. He consistently hates on teachers and calls them losers for no reason, he blames everyone but himself (i.e. blaming his parents for faulty DNA), is self absorbed most of the time, is embarrased to talk to his mom, and cares about very little.

Maybe Italian teens are different from American teens (seriously, why would you disrespect a teacher?), or D'Avenia just doesn't understand teenagers (I'm leaning towards the latter).

It was just almost ridiculous how immature Leo was, and I was really not into him.

Part of this might have been because of the translation. Although I liked the writing style and thought it was concise and less flowerly (compared to John Green), Leo's voice just really grated on me (that doesn't mean it will with you, but for me, he was almost infuriating at times).

Yet, I still liked the writing style and I still liked the short-ish chapters and I liked all the personal thought. I just...didn't like Leo himself.

But really, some of the translation was honestly kind of weird. Like, they use "you queer!" as an insult and I'm just ??? Because the LGBTQ+ community is working on reclaiming that word, and I feel like the better translation just based on context would have been the f-word.

So there were definitely areas that were a bit funky with translation (i.e. I'm pretty sure the direct translation of the Italian title is "White as Milk, Red as Blood" but they changed it to make it sound better). I'm crossing my fingers that this is fixed in the final.

And the love triangle wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't great. (Which I also blame on Leo.) I actually really enjoyed the Silvia x Leo dynamic, although I do think he didn't deserve her, but Leo incessantly pining over Beatrice, a girl he has barely ever spoken to and literally just likes on account of her hair, felt ridiculous and sort of out there.

I feel like this is a book younger YA readers will enjoy and readers looking for a book similar to The Fault in Our Stars, but obviously not as good. It's like the Divergent to a The Hunger Games. It has a lot of potential, but I feel like the execution--whether it's from the author's actual writing or the translation--combined with a protagonist I didn't really like made this to be not a very enjoyable read for me.

This was a heart warming story of a young man in high school and how he falls in love with a girl who is diagnosed with Leukemia. I found it refreshing to read about young love and the many trials and tribulations that come along with being a typical teenager. I felt many emotions while reading this book. Some parts made me laugh, some parts made me happy, and some parts made me feel sad.

The main character Leo has quite a way with words and was easy to like as a character in the book. I enjoyed reading about his daily life, his thought process and the way he thinks. He has quite the imagination and is a typical teenager.

It was interesting to see the world through his eyes and the way he interprets it in various colours. White is silent and boring. Leo doesn't want to be white or boring. Blue is the colour of friendship and this is how he sees all of his friends, including Silvia - one of his closest female friends. Red is the colour of love and this is the colour he sees when he looks at Beatrice, the woman he loves.

This book was quite interesting and it makes you think deeply. It was a wonderful book to read and I enjoyed it from beginning to the very end. It is a story of setting hopes, goals and dreams and then working to attain those. White as Silence, Red as Song is a great story of love, friendship, heartache, and chasing your dreams in an attempt to make them come true.

Leo is your average high school student. He is only sixteen years old and acts like any normal teenager. He is in high school, but doesn't really like any of his classes or teachers. He has good friends, plays sports, and he is just living in the moment. He experiences his first crush in Beatrice, a girl a year ahead of him in school. She doesn't really know Leo other than in passing, but he loves her regardless.

Leo is infatuated with colors and hates white as it is the color of silence. White is nothing and Leo does not want to be white. He does not want to be alone, doesn’t know how to be alone and wants to feel as if he exists. Leo has a passion for red. Red is love. Red is what is tangible. Beatrice is red and Leo will do anything he can to make Beatrice see him, but when Beatrice gets sick will it be too late for Leo to tell Beatrice how he feels?

Leo is not always an easy character to like in the beginning. Sure, he is a good person, but I felt he was lost in his own little world when it came to Beatrice. Everything was about his love for Beatrice and in turn he never actually saw what was right in front of his eyes. His good friend Sylvia. I don’t think Leo really took Sylvia’s thoughts into consideration and at times Leo felt very selfish. My feelings for Leo changed pretty quickly, though once Leo met The Dreamer, a substitute teacher who comes in to teach a Philosophy class. Leo finally starts to shine and become a likable protagonist for me.

Leo finally learns what it means to dream and to have a passion for something. Leo puts his whole heart and soul into his dream and this is when he finally comes into his own and grows from his experience. It was amazing to watch him flourish and become an honorable and thoughtful teenager willing to help others, especially Beatrice. I could see how Leo wanted to make a difference and in doing so, he learned a lot about himself in the process.

White as Silence, Red as Song has been compared to books such as A Fault in our Stars and while I can see a lot of similarities, I can also see this story being compared to A Walk to Remember especially with the beautiful passages and the deeper meaning behind certain things. It really is a highly emotional book, but not only is it emotional, it also makes you think about your own dreams. It really makes you think about what you want out of life. For myself, I did stop to think about my dreams and how I have pushed them to the side and this story makes me realize that without dreams what is your purpose in life?

White as Silence, Red as Song is a beautifully moving and emotional coming of age story full of life lessons that we should all listen to. It is a story that will encourage you to think and to dream.. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes an in depth story on par with the two books mentioned above. This story has found a place in my heart and renewed my faith in my own dreams I had previously pushed to the side.

White as Silence, Red as Song was a great read! I really enjoyed the story and the characters. It was a fast paced quick read.

I cannot tell you how eager I was for this book. It was dubbed as The Fault of Our Stars of Italy, and that alone got my attention. Add to that a very enticing blurb, and it won me over, so I requested it. 

Sadly, White as Silence, Red as Song didn't quite measure up to its potential.

The story follows and is told by 16-year old Leo. He's witty and sarcastic: a typical teen-aged boy who, by all means, does typical teen-aged boy stuff - school, soccer, dare contests with his friend Niko, music. Reading from his perspective was a quart amusing, and annoying and just plain tiring for the rest of the way. Leo is really immature though he pretends to be all-knowing. He throws around these big words like "love" a lot when he doesn't even understand what they mean. Given, he does grow a bit by the end of the book, but not by much.

Another thing that bothered me was Leo's obsession with Beatrice. He claims to be in love with her, but the most interaction the two has shared were just smiles as they pass each other in school hallways. He talks about her all the time, and not to discount how strong his feelings were, but Leo's obsession with Beatrice was strange bordering on creepy. There was this one scene that really made me stop reading for a while. Leo, who was also confined at the same hospital as Beatrice after a scooter accident, goes to visit the girl. He just stayed in Beatrice's room even if the girl was sleeping, and, more, he caresses her face, then proceeds to tell the nurse who sees him in the girl's room that he is Beatrice's boyfriend. 

I'm not sure if, somewhere along the way, things were lost in translation but the writing felt patchy and disjointed. It actually made this short book seem longer. I almost put it down a number of times. 

I just have to make it clear that I haven't read the original, which was in Italian, so my review only applies to the English translation. I really wanted to like this book. It had potential, but that's just it, potential. 

(Review to be posted 9/17 on my blog In Between Book Pages)

I apologize, but I didn't enjoy this read. The protagonist bothered me for so many reasons. He sounded much younger than he actually is. Things take a lot of time to start happening. Most part of the book is just Leo talking about his thoughts and explaining his crush on Beatrice. The cover is absolutely beautiful and definitely got my attention, but the story disappointed me.

This book was written so beautifully!! It read the translated version, from Italian to English, and I really wish I could read Italian because I'm sure it's gorgeous in the intended language. But still. I have a thing for translated books.

"You're either yourself or you're like everyone else.

Leo's voice was SO YOUNG. He plays neighborhood soccer with his best friend with as much passion as he crushes on Beatrice. He was just so cute?????

"We save each other's lives at least once a month because that's what friends are for."

Overall, this was a quick read and it reminded me of a cozy fall day with tea and an Italian film on Netflix. I was 100% in the mood.

"Sometimes in life you feel like doing something so disconcerting that others can no longer ignore you: You want to be in the eyes and on the lips of everyone."

My favorite part of this book was 1) the gorgeous prose and Leo's introspection, god that boy is whimsical af and 2) how the love story is portrayed as an idea rather than a concrete relationship. I've been reading so many messy love stories, so to have something that basically takes place entirely in Leo's head ((relatable tbh)) was new and lovely.

Oh, Signor D'Avenia, this book is so beautiful and emotional, and also so true.
A few years back, I used to teach English to Italian teenagers not far from Milan and I must say reading this felt like re-living that atmosphere. Brilliant!

I cried and I laughed. And my face was a wreck when the last line or words was finished.

The main protagonist goes through such an eye-opening journey in life, dealing with such high concepts as friendships and girls, life and death, popularity and honesty. It's both heartbreaking and inspiring to live along all of that jungle of million thoughts per second in his head. Leo is a truly crazy teenager, in the best of meanings of that word.

This book is also mind-blowingly lyrical and poetic.
Some of my absolutely favorite phrases I want to print out and post above my desk to see them every day.

"When her green eyes are wide open, they fill her entire face. When she lets down her red hair, it feels like the sunrise has smothered you. She has few words, carefully chosen. If she were a movie, she'd be a genre not yet invented. If she were a scent, she'd be early morning sand, when the beach is alone with the sea. Color? Beatrice is red. The way love is red. And tempest. A hurricane that sweeps you away. An earthquake that crumbles your body to pieces."

or

"I stare at the blue of Silvia's eyes: a sea in which to be shipwrecked without dying, an ocean floor where there is always peace, even when a storm rages at the water's surface. And as this sea cradles me, I smile the perfect smile. And without words, my smile says that when you truly begin to live, when life bathes in our red love, each day is the first, each day is the start of a new life."

And on the funny side.
"Ancient Greek is a school equivalent of your daily greens: tasteless and only good for aiding digestion."

Known as The Fault in Our Stars of Italy, this translation is sure to be a tour de force for American YA fans. Alessandro D'Avenia captures readers in the mindscape of Leo, our narrator who sees the world in color. He falls in love with the red-haired Beatrice, but he's distraught when he discovers she has leukemia. This is a coming-of-age novel that some readers will appreciate and others will be detracted by the angst.

At first, when I began reading "White as Silence, Red as Song" by Alessandro D'Avenia, the thoughts of the protagonist were a little to abstract and "out there" to hold my interest. I considered setting the book aside to try again later. But, the more I read, the more compelled I was to continue to read. This turned out to be a book that I would consider to be truly beautiful. There is a certain innocence woven throughout the book that lifted the characters above the trappings of peer pressure and the culture of cliques we find here in America. That innocence gave way to characters truly being individuals with their own desires and directions to pursue, unadulterated by the pull and press of what the crowd wants and expects.
The book was beautifully written and found a special place in my heart.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book was very disappointing. It's advertised as the Italian "The Fault in Our Stars," which is a very good way to get people to read the book, but couldn't be further from the truth I don't know how the original text is but the translation is horrible. It sounds very scatterbrained and all over the place which makes it frustrating to read and hard to follow. I honestly don't know how any editor would allow a book to be written this way. 

The story follows Leo, a 16-year-old boy with the maturity of a second grader. He is completely obsessed with this girl, Beatrice, who he barely even knows but claims to be in love with. The two have never even had a conversation. The most interaction they have is a smile as they pass each other in the hallway at school. This kid throws around the word "love" an awful lot when he doesn't really seem to comprehend it's actual meaning. 

When Leo learns that Beatrice has leukemia, he is heartbroken and angry. He wants to do something to help so he decides to donate some of his blood for her. His obsession with this girl is borderline creepy. After he donates his blood, he talks about how his blood is in her veins and how they share the same blood. Yuck. Also, at one point he sneaks into her hospital room while she's sleeping and just watches her. He then tells the nurse that he's her boyfriend and proceeds to caress her face. Creepy as hell!!! It would be a lot less creepy if he were actually her boyfriend, but they're practically strangers for crying out loud! The girl doesn't even know him! 

Honestly, this book had a lot of potential but just wasn't enjoyable at all.

• Without mentioning the title throughout the novel, the title makes sense, it fits the novel; it can reflect the novel so easily once read, and the reader can make their own judgement about the title.
For me:
- Silence: Death (all you can see is white after death - or so they say).
- Song: Leo and his music, briefly exhibited at the beginning and end of the book.
- White and red are continuous symbols throughout the text, whether referencing white and red blood cells (cancer), blood, white paper, et cetera et cetera.

• Leo as a character - I mean, he’s got it all going for him, and I’m glad he’s got everything sorted out i.e. got to talk to Beatrice, eventually ends up with Silvia, et cetera, however, If I found out that a guy was talking about me the way Leo was talking about Beatrice and I barely knew him...I would be a little more than a bit creeped out.

• But even with that in mind, D’Avenia’s writing urged me to continue to read on, and I definitely was not disappointed, the book description likened this novel to be the Italian version of ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, and I can definitely see where that description was coming from; dealing with cancer and living life to the fullest/our utmost potential.

• I’m actually really excited to read more from this author and so thankful that D’Avenia’s novel was translated into English so that I could experience this amazing novel!!! If I had to go out and re-purchase it, I would do so in a heartbeat!

This, to me, is a mediocre novel that fell short of being the Italian “Fault in our Stars.” Although I liked “The Dreamer" and was amused by Leo's dachshund I found many of the characters lacked depth and the plot uninspiring.

I was unable to become emotionally invested in this novel as I found the love triangle lacked authenticity, mainly because Leo had never actually spoken to Beatrice before becoming aware of her illness.

For me the relationships, the core of the novel, felt rushed and superficial. I do not see fans of John Green giving top marks to this book as the relationship between D'Avenia's characters falls short of the emotional connection one felt to both Augustus and Hazel.