REVIEW: THE SONG OF DAVID by Amy Harmon

She said I was like a song. Her favorite song. A song isn’t something you can see. It’s something you feel, something you move to, something that disappears after the last note is played.I won my first fight when I was eleven years old, and I’ve been throwing punches ever since. Fighting is the purest, truest, most elemental thing there is. Some people describe heaven as a sea of unending white. Where choirs sing and loved ones await. But for me, heaven was something else. It sounded like the bell at the beginning of a round, it tasted like adrenaline, it burned like sweat in my eyes and fire in my belly. It looked like the blur of screaming crowds and an opponent who wanted my blood.
For me, heaven was the octagon.
Until I met Millie, and heaven became something different. I became something different. I knew I loved her when I watched her stand perfectly still in the middle of a crowded room, people swarming, buzzing, slipping around her, her straight dancer’s posture unyielding, her chin high, her hands loose at her sides. No one seemed to see her at all, except for the few who squeezed past her, tossing exasperated looks at her unsmiling face. When they realized she wasn’t normal, they hurried away. Why was it that no one saw her, yet she was the first thing I saw?
If heaven was the octagon, then she was my angel at the center of it all, the girl with the power to take me down and lift me up again. The girl I wanted to fight for, the girl I wanted to claim. The girl who taught me that sometimes the biggest heroes go unsung and the most important battles are the ones we don’t think we can win.

I HAVE TOO MANY FEELINGS.

So, first: Where do you get this amazing and original ideas Amy?

Harmon's story telling is unique. In each and every of her books she's blown me away with her freshness. In this story, she uses tapes. The hero, Tag, records the story of how he fell in love with Millie, our heroine. As we read, Millie hears with us what Tag said in those tapes, and in between tapes we have Moses' input to understand a little more how Tag's mind works.

“Life isn't perfect,people aren't perfect, but there are moments that are.” 

I highly encourage anyone who wants to read this book to read The Law of Moses first. Moses, Tag/David best friend, plays a HUGE role in this book, and even though you can read The Song of David as a standalone, I think it would be better appreciated if it was read a spinoff of Moses' book.

The way Amy wrote the story isn't the only thing unique about this book. The premise is also something that was original and unexpected. From the beginning, ever since I read The Law of Moses, I knew Tag's girl had to be special, big-hearted, sassy and patient.

“But it wasn’t. Sex is not the most intimate thing two lovers can do. Even when the sex is beautiful. Even when it’s perfect.” Millie drew a deep breath as if she remembered how perfect it had truly been. “The most intimate thing we can do is to allow the people we love most to see us at our worst. At our lowest. At our weakest. True intimacy happens when nothing is perfect. And I don’t think you’re ready to be intimate with me, David.

I loved the fact that even though Millie had a disability, she was still fierce and strong.
Harmon's writing and prose is still lovely. She has a gift, and her passion shows in each and every one of her stories.
I adored everything about this book. The themes, how it made me think and understand the world in a different way, and the way even the secondary characters were REAL.

“Millie told me once that the ability to devastate is what makes a song beautiful. Maybe that’s what makes life beautiful too. The ability to devastate. Maybe that’s how we know we’ve lived. How we know we’ve truly loved.” 

I am afraid that I'll give too much of the plot or the characters away, so I'll leave it short and sweet. In two words, this story was unpredictable and beautiful.