This Song is About Us Written by Sara Barnard. Reviewed by Iona, Age 14

This Song is About Us is a novel by Sara Barnard which follows the relationship between Drew, a music star on the verge of fame, and his girlfriend Ruby who is kept out of the public eye. The book explores the difficulty of being famous, especially today with the expectations and pressure social media puts upon us and what that can do to someone.

The main narrative takes place over three summers, with Drew’s band, “the Kerbs”, playing at increasingly larger music festivals as they grow in popularity. The time in between is covered by newspaper articles, social media posts and online chat forums, which I found very effective and enables the reader to keep up to date with what the band is doing the rest of the year.

I think this book perfectly encapsulates the reality of fame and how relationships are portrayed through social media. We also find out that another band member is public with his girlfriend Stel. This offers a view on what Ruby and Drew’s relationship could have been like if they had chosen this path. I thought it was effective to see both relationships side by side (one public and one secret) as you can see the positives and negatives of both.

The story provides some of Drew’s backstory and the difficulties he had growing up, however some of these are shushed away by the band manager to make them seem more presentable to the public. This novel describes well how a lot of the time celebrities are just putting on a mask to the public to gain acceptance but in reality they are quite likely to be dealing with their own issues and aren’t necessarily the people whom we think they are.

Since the book was set in the present day, I liked how it made references to the COVID pandemic as I haven’t come across many that do. It made the story realistic and I found it more relatable. I also thought that the novel had some really nice and positive feminist messages.

One in particular being the ending, I admired Ruby’s strength in the decision she made! I also loved how strong the bond of friendship was between Ruby and her friend Stel, that whatever happened, they always had each other and that’s what was most important.

I would recommend this book to young adult readers looking for an easy, feel-good holiday read.