Under All the Lights Review

 

This is the stand-alone sequel to When it All Syncs Up by Maya Ameyaw, which I read and reviewed earlier this year! You can read that review here. 

Under All the Lights follows Aisha's (from the first book) boyfriend Ollie, who is a amateur musician. Recently his family has fallen on hard times financially, and he has been having a lot of conflicts with his dad. When a homemade music video of his goes viral after being shared by popular singer Jesse Jacobs after a musical festival, he is given an offer by Jesse's record label to tour around the country (Canada) with him! Ollie accepts the offer. His goal is to help his family, and maybe the tour will be his one way ticket to a good music school. But he has to do all of this while managing his anxiety, which isn't easy.

Just like When it All Syncs Up, it's a book that deals with a lot of heavy stuff (but handled in a good way!) while also pursuing ones dreams. The book is also very diverse, too. Ollie is Algerian-Canadian (and bi), Jesse is a First Nations Canadian (and bi), and a minor character named Dev is non-binary, just to name a few. I gave it 5 stars!