I’ve been looking for a long time for a fantasy book where religion has an important role to play, and a real impact on the worldbuilding. And I guess I found it… partly.

We Are the Song tells the story of Elissa, a young girl with a magical gift: she can make miracles come true by singing them, which is considered a blessing from the Goddess Caé. But the world is at war, and Elissa (as well as 11 other Singers) travels to spread her miracles throughout the lands and help the people in need. Soon, she finds herself at the mercy of powerful people who want to use her gift for greedy purposes, but she knows in her heart that it is not what the Goddess wants, and she will try to stop the war and bring peace instead.

It's a rather simple story when you think about it – young heroine must go against everyone and use her special ability to save the world. I thought the writing was pretty, and the fact that it was in 1st person made a particular scene at the end feel extremely powerful. The pacing felt a bit off, with the story and action really beginning when the characters arrive to the palace of Basso, around 35% in. That’s when I started to get invested, but before that I was a bit bored.
I thought Elissa was the perfect main character for this book, because her being so young (only 12) explains her innocence and incorruptibility. She learns to follow her heart and have faith, even in difficult situations, and even though she doubts herself at first, at the end she’s sure she’s doing the right thing, with Caé always by her side. Her attitude contrasts with Lucio’s, her travel companion and composer, who is 17 and quickly becomes seduced by the lavish and idle life lead by the nobles at the Bassan court, which ultimately leads to him betraying and abandoning Elissa. The King of Basso and the Queen of Acuto were good antagonists, because each truly believes that they deserve to win the war, which makes them all the more so dangerous and ambitious. In front of all their power and authority, Elissa has nothing and is nothing, and they quickly stop listening to the “Voice of the Goddess” as soon as she doesn’t go along with their plans. In fact, the only “good” people Elissa encounters seem to be the ones who are truly devoted to Caé, and wish to serve Her and nothing else.
Side note: I appreciated the subtle queer rep, with one side character using they/them pronouns, two female side characters being married, and two male ones being a couple. It wasn’t a big deal in the story, it was just there and that was nice.

Of course what makes this book different is its magic system, and the importance religion and faith play in it. I think ultimately, this was a story about spirituality and how even the people who claim to follow a divine path will twist morality and ethics to bend to their own will. By listening to the voice in her heart (which is both symbolically and literally Caé’s voice), Elissa proves that deep down, you can always distinguish good from bad, even when that goes against what the Church is saying.
The thing that bothered me about it though, was how evidently the religion in We Are the Song was inspired by Christianity (or perhaps any other monotheist religion). Caé created the world and all things, it’s repeated many times that She has a plan and knows what will happen. She loves everyone and is merciful, and the Singers are Her prophets, the literal incarnations of Her voice and will. At the end, She comes down to earth to pass judgement, and the ones who have disobeyed Her are punished.
I would’ve liked to see a more unique, original, and maybe nuanced approach on religion.
It reminded me a lot of the Chronicles of Narnia, the only other fantasy book I’ve read where Christianity heavily inspired the narrative. But this is a middle grade book after all, so I guess in the same way I didn’t pick up on the obvious Christian similarities when I read Narnia at 10, a 10 year-old wouldn’t either when reading We Are the Song.

Overall, this was a very lyrical story, addressing interesting and sometimes difficult themes (corruption, temptation, and Elissa does get mistreated and threatened a lot). I’d recommend it if you’re looking for something different and don’t mind the preachy message!

TWs for torture, war, death of a parent.

This is such an interesting magic system and I really wish it had been explored a little more in the book. We learn a bit about how the singers and composers work together but I would have liked to see more of that and the history of the three countries. It's such an interesting world that falls a little flat with how little it was explored. The plot was oddly paced it felt a bit rushed at times and dragged at others which also distracted from the overall story. The characters were okay I liked them but overall was more drawn in by wanting to learn more about the magic system.

I absolutely love the concept here with the MC and the singing power too and also the duality of its use. Also the cover art for this book is gorgeous by the way. This is absolutely a voice I want to see more from in the future!

DNF at 20%, and that's entirely on me.

I somehow completely missed that this is a middle grade release, and so was a little confused by the protagonist's young age that lasted well beyond the intro? Well, the age this is intended for explains everything, and I feel a little stupid for not noticing sooner. I don't think I will pick the novel up again to continue beyond the bit I read, because while the writing is quite beautiful, there wasn't anything in the first couple of chapters that stood out to me as an adult. A young girl being patronized by a religious society set on harvesting her powers to achieve more influence (but make it classical music) is an old but well-tried concept that I'm sure will delight a younger audience.

We Are the Song is a beautiful story following Elissa, a blessed 12 year old Singer who can cure sickness and hunger through the song she sings.
However, with great power also comes great responsibility and lots of people are willing to do whatever it takes to use her gift for their own goal. She needs to trust herself in deciding which path is the right one to follow.

The plot is as remarkable as the cover itself with beautiful and poetic writing style. Music lovers would enjoy this kind of story!

The world building and the magic system is very unique. The songs in here is not just a normal song in our world. It has the power to heal someone from sickness, bless someone, and even give peace to the world.

It took me a while to get hooked into the story since the pacing was a bit slow at first. But fortunately, the pace picks up and things started to get a lot more interesting.

Elissa is my absolute favorite character, her character feels relatable for a 12 year old. I love the character development done on Elissa, especially the time where her belief to the Goddess, Cae is tested and how she learn to be wiser after learning from her mistakes.

Overall, this is a delightful story which explore about how to believe your own instinct and belief.
Not just for middle grade, adult will absolutely love this book.
I really enjoy reading this book and looking forward to read more from this author!

Thank you to Netgalley, Catherine Bakewell and Holiday House for granting me this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this, what a different book! Firstly I was drawn to the cover. It's so appealing, stunning and then the fact that the book has a theme of music really intrigued me.

I loved the plot. Very different, very political and also heavily focused on belief, but it was interesting to read.

Loved the characters as well, well developed and interesting. I won't lie, some things did confuse me but mostly I understood it all!

I picked this up because I found the cover pretty and I didn't expect myself to enjoy it as much as I did. I loved the author's lyrical and lovely prose as well as the soft, atmospheric fantasy setting described. The fact that a musical goddess was the foundation for magic in this world was very interesting to read about. The book describes the magic and technicalities of music so beautifully that it affirms the idea of the power of music to connect and heal.

My only issue with the book is the inconsistent pacing. Maybe if the book was longer, the happenings could have been decongested and we would have been able to get to know the various characters much better, because they honestly seemed so interesting. Towards the second half of the book, I thought that the closure of the story would happen in a sequel, which is why I found the ending a bit rushed.

Nevertheless, I loved and enjoyed this fairy tale-like story and I will be watching out for the second book.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

Thank you to Netgalley, Catherine Bakewell, and Holiday House for this arc.

The twelve years old Elissa is a young singer. But she’s way more than that. She is the voice of the goddess. Her gift isn’t just a blessing but also a curse if it’s used wrong and Elissa has to learn this in a painful way.

I requested “We are the song” because of the description and also because of the cover. The cover is just stunning!

Now to the story. I really liked the idea of the story, that their voices are powerful and used for miracles, but there was just something missing. For me the story felt very slow paced. In General I don’t have a problem with that but it didn’t felt right for the story. I also needed several attempts to really get into it. I also think the story would have been even better when it would be a few pages longer. The end felt kind of rushed.

I really liked Elissa as the main character and that she did what she thought was right and not what others told her to do. The amount of her backstory was also right and not too much or too little but I would have liked the learn a bit more about the goddess herself.

Even that it’s not the perfect book for me I will still recommend it to everyone who likes fantasy, interesting story’s and a good world building! I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was a few years younger

thank you net galley for giving me an arc of this book

this was a book like no other i have read. following the main character elissa a young girl who has been gifted the voice of the goddess. she travels with lucio who is a composer. they use their gift to help each town they go to as service to the goddess. but elissa learns that some want to use her voice as a weapon which wasn’t what it was intended for nor did the goddess like it.

watching her grow as a person was amazing. shes quite smart for her age. i loved watching as she came out of her shell being able to speak for herself and to feel more confident in her ability to compose. while i didn’t like lucio at first i began to love him at the end.

this book is a definite 5 star read and i would recommend this to everyone

A kindhearted allegory about the social responsibility of art in times of tyranny.

When the placid land of Cadenza finds itself without a ruler, the neighboring kingdoms of Basso and Acuto battle for control of it. More than the agricultural bounties of the region, the claimed justification for all this violence is to take care of the holy site where the creator goddess Caé fell to earth and sang reality into existence. As hostilities worsen, the twelve Singers of the Goddess, divinely gifted performers whose voice can work miracles, roam the lands offering hope and succor to the powerless. After young Singer Elissa uses her magic to clear a roadblock on a town's only supply route, she gets dragged into the ambitious schemes of successive politicians who wish to turn her into an instrument of war. Will she allow her gift to serve harmful ends, or will she dare defy the most powerful people in the world?

We Are the Song presents an interesting scenario of religious conflict that author Catherine Bakewell uses to inspire young readers to question overreach of authority, the weaponization of art, the distortion of religious doctrine for political motives, and the concept of "holy land." In an apparent echo of J. M. Straczynski's celebrated line, "If sacred places are spared the ravages of war, then make all places sacred," this novel argues fervently against the use of faith as an excuse for atrocities.

The treatment of magic, music and prayer as the same force creates incredibly fertile avenues of interpretation. Ordinarily, an ethical allegory would focus on the danger of magic in the wrong hands (i.e. weapons of mass destruction), or the danger of putting art under government control (i.e. censorship and propaganda), or the danger of blending religion with politics (i.e. inquisitions and holy wars). Bakewell's effort to tackle all three problems at the same time is a bold bet that, for the most part, yields a rich payoff.

This book's success relies on the believability of its protagonist, and twelve-year-old Elissa is a solidly built one. Her inner conflict as a musical prodigy raised in seclusion and tasked with more responsibilities than any child should have to handle adds thick layers of dramatic potential to her personality. What she lacks in political education she compensates for in innate gentleness. It's hard to be an optimist during a world war, but Elissa's determination to see the good in people and her uncompromising adherence to pacifism make her the heroine her world needs.

We need the protagonist to be this strong, because the epic quest at the core of the story is essentially about planning a divine intervention. That's right: Bakewell assigned herself the near-impossible task of pulling off a deus ex machina, the riskiest gamble in genre fiction, and without a personality as compelling as Elissa's, the whole endeavor would have come off as transparently contrived. Fortunately, Bakewell's strategy of making us experience the story through Elissa's feelings helps the climax arrive organically. This may be a book where flowers transform into birds, but its whimsical aesthetic never fails to respect the reader.

Hard questions about justice, suffering, inequality and corruption get a serious treatment suitable to the intended readers' level of maturity. One wouldn't expect a story targeted at middle-grade kids to attempt an answer to the problem of theodicy, arguably the most challenging topic in religious studies, and the solution suggested in We Are the Song isn't a very sophisticated or satisfying one, but it fits the internal logic of the setting and provides the emotional resolution that its protagonist was always headed for.

We Are the Song is a potent plea for the independence of artists. Storytelling, both secular and sacred, employs human emotion as its tool. At a time when politicians are becoming so expert at storytelling, we need more stories that challenge that kind of misuse of our innermost drives.


The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10.

Bonuses: +1 for translating the convoluted ethics of religious war into a form appropriate for child readers.

Penalties: −2 for a less than skillful handling of disability. Both the miraculous healing of disability and the imposition of disability as divine punishment are highly sensitive plotting choices that this novel doesn't address with enough thoughtfulness.

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10.

Thank you netgalley, Catherine Bakewell, and Holiday House for approving my request for this arc.

This novel was beautiful! Elissa is more than a singer - she is a voice of the goddess. Through her holy songs, she can perform miracles. She was made to help others. That’s why she’d been given such a gift from the goddess Cae, after all. At least, that’s what the church cites when they have her parents jailed for hiding her talent. Because Elissa has the voice of the goddess, she must do her duty to bring miracles to the people of Cadenza and the neighboring cities.

By the age of twelve, Elissa is traveling around war-torn grounds, giving her miracles to those in need. Slowly, Elissa begins to listen to her inner voice - the voice that tells her that something isn’t right with how her talents are being used.

This novel is a beautiful coming of age story in which an extraordinary girl struggles to come to reconcile what she is told about her gift and the goddess and what she feels is truly right. Like many kids, Elissa has to decide whether being happy and comfortable and avoiding conflict is worth silencing her own morals.

My only critque of this book is that age wise, it falls in an awkward place between middle grade and YA. While Elissa’s experiences of self doubt are portrayed beautifully in a way that middle and late elementary school aged readers would relate to, the religious issues combined with the pretty hefty fantasy can make this book feel a bit sluggish or heavy in ways that seem better suited towards a dramatic and serious YA novel. While I wouldn’t call what happens in this book horribly violent, there were some awfully traumatic moments, that I just couldn’t fathom reading at before 14/15ish, but that’s my personal bias.

I think it could be enjoyed by both age groups, of course, but I just find it a bit difficult to find another book comparable, and I’m afraid that may make it a difficult pick for readers advisory.

If you love music and magic it’s a good read as music is central to the plot and world. The cover is definitely what grabbed me as the illustration is stunning. The synopsis had me intrigued and wanting to read about this world. This read seems to be a good fit for middle grade, so it didn’t hold my attention as well as it would if I was younger! This book has a character with strong beliefs and religious aspects which may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it has a great theme of standing up for what’s right. There’s a unique world and prose! I will have to say I couldn’t commit and had to set it down, but I still think the right audience will enjoy this! I just would love to have a higher level audience in mind, but that’s on me being a YA reader who didn’t acknowledge this book is meant for someone younger and would include less tension. It’s just not what I was anticipating or wanting at the time, but for some young readers who love music and interesting abilities it may be a good fit!

We Are The Song is a middle-grade fantasy novel following Elissa and her love for music. Through music, 12-year old Elissa learns to trust herself, remain strong in her beliefs, and NEVER underestimate her abilities powered by love and music. This novel was enjoyable and easy to follow along. It is a beautiful story that I think any child/adult will definitely enjoy.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review. This book will release on May 3, 2022.

Iv been looking forward to this read for a while, it has a beautiful cover and an interesting synopsis but it took a little getting into, there is a strong religious focus to the book, its character, world and magic system, it seems to be a real point of focus which I know isn't for everyone, I am able to overlook this but at times it really did slow down the pacing of the book and didn't necessarily keep me turning the pages as if felt a little heavy handed with its message

The plot and content is written with very young adults in mind, strong messages of choice, self worth and happiness, light tension and easy to follow, that said at time this was at odds with the descriptive and detailed wording of the writing, almost like the thoughts and the character didn't always match up, however this really did lend itself well to the world building and unique magic system which I found really well done. I would loved to see this world and magic system aimed at a slightly older audience with some high tension between characters.

A nice quick and light read.

A story that I would consider flowery and did not read like a middle grade. Like it was very descriptive in the sense that there were a lot of adjectives, which didn't leave the reader room for imagination. Plus Elissa, the main character, seemed much older than a 12yo to me. The magic weaved with songs and lyrics was a great premise. Unfortunately, it fell short for me.

I have not been this surprised by how fantastic a book was in a long time. When I say this one was hard to put it down, it was REALLY hard to put down--I was up late a couple of nights just to see what happened next!

Every character in this story gave me intense emotions, from joy and love to frustration and anger. I was also quite surprised to see how utterly diverse it was! There are characters of color and queer characters, who are not merely in the background--they are just as important as our main protagonist, Elissa. It was such a relief to read, especially as the religious tone of the story may make some of us under these umbrellas uneasy. The Goddess is loving and gentle and it is so obvious that She is meant be social commentary. It was wonderful.

This book really made me want to sing, too.

I was definitely not the right reader for this book. It might appeal to a niche audience, but I don't think I have those readers in my library. I didn't enjoy the prayers, blessings, miracles and other religious content even though the main character was a voice for the Mother Goddess.

I did think the cover was stunning.

I really liked the way religion is showed here and the power of peace, the LGTBQ+ representation in secondary characters was handled pretty well, where their gender identity and sexual orientation didn't define the character. Also the very unique magical system.
However it did get a bit too heavy with the religion at times and as a not religious person myself, this bored me quite a lot.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Between 2.5 and 3 Stars

A story about a kind of a 12 years old saint called Elissa who is travelling a devided world by war with her maestro trying to help the unfortunates ith her songs for she is the voice of the goddess Cae and her songs do miracles. Poor Elissa will have to undergo so many hardships like all this kind of religious figures, people will either try to use her or harm her for what she represents.

To be honest, I was going to dnf it but after reading half the book, things got a little bit interesting and it was a short book so I did finish it and I have to say that this kind of stories are not my cup of tea, with all the spiritual stuff, it got really boring at a lot of points and nothing exciting really happens.