Still smarting after her best friend stabs her in the back, 17-year-old Kiki Nichols is inclined to spend all her time watching reruns of her favourite cult TV show, Project Earth, nerding out on Twitter with the other fans, and writing tragically corny song lyrics about love gone wrong. Her only chance to attend a music school is to win a coveted scholarship to Krause University at their pre-college summer voice program. Kiki's always had a natural talent for singing. So she's pretty confident she'll be a shoo-in for one of those scholarships. But it turns out that every other high school singer there is just as good, and maybe even better, than she is. And there are these Footloose extreme rules: like being in bed by curfew; singing only classical opera; and percussionists being at the bottom of the dating hierarchy - which is totally depressing for Kiki after her Phantom-of-the-Opera-esque basement run in with the nerdy secret drummer she can't stop thinking about. As Kiki begins to make friends, and (gasp!) actually prefer the company of real people to TV characters and Twitter avatars, her eye slips from the prize.
And it doesn't help that there is someone in the program reporting their misdeeds to the head of the department. Kiki is finally living, but it may be at the expense of her scholarship and the future she wants more than anything.
This was quite a summer for Kiki! She had suffered quite a few blows at the hands of her former best friend, and was finally getting some distance from all that drama, but the summer music program was so much more than just an escape. Once there, Kiki was no longer the sidekick or the person cast in a supporting role. She was excelling and flourishing and being appreciated for all those things she thought were shortcomings.
I loved Kiki, and I was happy she was able to escape a sort of toxic friendship. When she would reflect on some of the things her former bestie said to her, it made me sad. But, it was wonderful to see her find her people, and to see her find her true passion.
I enjoyed all the technical music bits, the friendships, the Latin, the TV talk, and excellent soundtrack references (Ani!).
Overall: Fun and cute with quite a bit of substance.
