Five Flavors of Dumb Review

Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

Publisher: Dial

Release date: November 11, 2010

Source: Author

The Challenge: Piper has one month to get the rock band Dumb a paying gig.

The Deal: If she does it, Piper will become the band's manager and get her share of the profits.

The Catch: How can Piper possibly manage one egomaniacal pretty boy, one talentless piece of eye candy, one crush, one silent rocker, and one angry girl? And how can she do it when she's deaf?

Piper can't hear Dumb's music, but with growing self-confidence, a budding romance, and a new understanding of the decision her family made to buy a cochlear implant for her deaf baby sister, she discovers her own inner rock star and what it truly means to be a flavor of Dumb.

Review:

Five Flavors of Dumb stands out as one of my favorite books of 2010. It was a well written and powerful sophomore novel for Antony John and made me beyond excited to read more by him in the near future. Antony is not only a fabulous writer he combined two extremely unique ideas (a deaf main character and a high school rock band) and made one hell of a novel. Piper was an extremely likable main character and from the first page I was drawn into her world, leaving me anxious to read at any chance I got. Not only was Piper great, but the other characters all added something fantastic to the story and made the plot that much more interesting.

When Piper is offered the chance to manage the new hit band at her high school, Dumb, she jumps at the chance. Since her best friend Marissa moved away she’s longed for the chance to fit in and make more friends. But managing Dumb isn’t as easy as it seems. And not only because Piper is deaf and has a hard enough time listening to the music. For starters, there is a lot of tension and conflict among the band members and it becomes even more pronounced as the novel progresses. I loved reading about Dumb and watching her grew as a band. Once Piper starts to work at getting the band gigs and other opportunities her life becomes a lot more complicated. Especially once two new members join the band. One of which actually can’t play her instrument and is basically eye candy and the face of the band. The members of Dumb, along with Piper, face a lot of ups and downs and reading about their experiences was an adventure in itself. My heart went out to them and I just wanted them to have success.

The plot was fact paced and sucked me in right away. The main plot revolved around Dumb and the different conflicts and issues among it’s members and how they were just trying to succeed and find their place in the world, but Piper also had some issues at home. Her parents weren’t especially understanding of her deafness and Piper felt they didn’t treat her like they should. Her dad wouldn’t even learn sign language and barely had time to communicate with her. When Piper’s baby sister, Grace, receives a cochlear implant, their parents start spending more and more time with Grace and Piper feels left out because she never had that opportunity. My grandfather is deaf so I could relate to Piper in that sense and my heart went out to her because she worked so hard to read lips and perform sign language.

In addition to Piper, there were many other characters that went through a variety of changes by the end of the novel. Readers get to understand and see all the true colors of Josh, Will, Ed, Tash, and Kallie and I grew to love many of them. Each character was unique and added something special to the novel. There is also romance for Piper- I can’t reveal anything more though!

Overall, I highly recommend picking this up. It’s a fantastic, original, and entertaining read that proves no matter what, you can do anything.

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars