Bellweather Rhapsody

by Kate Racculia

Fifteen years ago, a murder/suicide in room 712 rocked the grand old Bellweather Hotel and the young bridesmaid who witnessed it. Now hundreds of high school musicians, including quiet bassoonist Rabbit Hatmaker and his brassy diva twin, Alice, have gathered in its cavernous, crumbling halls for the annual Statewide festival; the grown-up bridesmaid has returned to face her demons; and a snowstorm is forecast that will trap everyone on the grounds. Then one of the orchestra's stars disappears-from room 712. Is it a prank, or has murder struck the Bellweather once again? The search for answers entwines a hilariously eccentric cast of characters - conductors and caretakers, failures and stars, teenagers on the verge and adults trapped in memories. For everyone has come to the Bellweather with a secret, and everyone is haunted.

• ISBN10: 0544129911
• ISBN13: 9780544129917
• Publish Date: 13 May 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 9 July 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[clq]

I didn't find this book to be anything like what it's like. For me it wasn't really a case of the book being greater than the sum of it's parts, the parts just fit together to make something in which the parts themselves aren't really visible.

The plot: Take a hotel, a hotel in which a murder/suicide happened once upon a time. Sprinkle the hotel with a bunch of teen orchestra-geeks, as well as a handful of adults who are parodies of the characters they represent. Add some teen angst and contrivances, and you have this book. Strangely, I found it to be fantastic.

It took me some time to get into this one. For quite a while it reads like a novel which I'm probably a decade or so too old to appreciate. Gradually things start getting a little strange. Then things get very strange. Before I really realised what had happened the tone of the book had turned from young adult fiction to what I think can best be described as an absurd, gripping, mystery. Normally I find it annoying when books throw plausibility to the wind: what's the point in getting engaged in a story where the rules can change at any time? Where is the thrill of a situation if I know it can be resolved at any time by some out-there contrivance? With this book it was different. Instead of feeling like a lazy way of making stuff happen, the absurdity in itself became the thrill and drove the plot. It created an atmosphere of uncertainty about what was really happening, about what was real or not. The book also has some brilliant characters. Some characters are completely exposed, you get to know exactly what they feel and what they think, yet there always seemed to be plenty of extra information easily readable between the lines. The characters experience situations, and each other, in very different ways, adding to the general uncertainty and ambiguity of what was actually going on. For me this worked very well.

I'm almost surprised this book is as highly rated as it is. There are a lot of reasons to dislike this book, and I'm not sure how strongly I'd recommend it. It's different in a way which I imagine either works or doesn't, and I wouldn't say that anyone was wrong for not liking it. For me it worked very well. I found it to be effortlessly funny and charming, and it left me with a rare combination of thinking "wow, so... that all just happened", while also feeling perfectly content.

[Lianne]

I was approved of an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/06/06/review-bellweather-rhapsody/

Bellweather Rhapsody was a fascinating read. It takes a few chapters to set up the story, but the novel is a melange of different stories: the murder that took place in the hotel back in the 1980s with the consequences reverberating into the contemporary day, a mystery involving the disappearance of the daughter of a famous musician, and a teenage coming-of-age drama. To some readers it might seem a little oddly-paced–the beginning starts off rather slow, with the mystery not coming to the full-front as immediate as some may wish–but I enjoyed the gradual build-up of the story, getting to know the characters, and why they had gathered in Bellweather Hotel.

The characters lie at the heart of the story. I really felt for the characters, their stories were fleshed out. On the surface they say seem like the typical so-and-so character but as the reader gets to know these characters, it becomes clear that there’s a lot going on underneath the surface. These stories and conflicts makes the characters more complex, and I enjoyed the way that the author handled their stories as well as the character interactions overall. No one is perfect here, and their respective drama and motivations were interesting to watch unfold.

As a result, I felt the mystery came in second in this novel, which was fine by me because the respective character journeys and interactions were very interesting. I thought the author did a wonderful job in finding a voice to these characters, expressing their hopes and disappointments, their pain and their angst. It got pretty nutty towards the end, but I was so invested in these characters that it was nice to see where their respective journeys over the course of the weekend led them to in the end. I highly recommend this novel to readers who enjoy a bit of mystery in their literary titles.