The Kingdom of Back Book Review

This winter break, I got back into reading books that I left untouched for quite a while. I decided to read The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu, a best-selling Asian-American author. I've never heard of her before, but this book definitely piqued my interest after reading the synopsis where this book brings a fictional twist on the classical music world of Mozart and his sister, Nannerl.

However, unlike history, Marie Lu brings the focus over to Nannerl and her passion for music composition, but how her time did not allow her to do so. It's set when she is still in her youth, and she only has a limited amount of time to be exposed to the music world, such as playing in piano concerts with her brother, Mozart. She constantly tries to find an escape and wishes that her music can be shown to the world (and that's where the fantasy element of a genie of some sort comes up). Even with her wish, she does have a lot of constraints tying her down. That includes the sexism she faces, where women at the time only had the goal of marrying into a good family. In a sense, those expectations that are set by her family internalized in her as well, because she has a lot of fear in sharing her music compositions to the world, and keeps them a secret from her father especially.

I think that Marie Lu wrote Nannerl in a way where you can sympathize with her. She clearly has a lot of love for her family, but she's also conflicted with her goal to leave a mark in the world in her music. She constantly says that she does not want to be forgotten and to waste away her life. With this dilemma, she faces a lot of obstacles in managing her family expectations and her own personal dreams, which I think is still an issue that some people face today, even if it's not to such an extremity.

One main theme in this book I especially appreciated was family. I think that's what made this book so moving. Mozart being a child prodigy is still clearly made known as a fact in Marie Lu's story, which brings a great parallel to Nannerl. Her skills are on par with her brother's, which is acknowledged by her brother himself. Because she too is a prodigy, which is also the case in real life. The only difference is that one is a boy and another is a girl.

But as family, Mozart is the only person that sympathizes with Nannerl, despite being the youngest. He wants to share his world with her, make music with her and overall, just have her as his mentor. To him, Nannerl is his role model, but does not know how to cross the barrier that society holds for her. And so the two create this imaginary world together called The Kingdom of Back, where the two can be free of any expectations and create the music that they always wanted to write, while facing obstacles together.

Of course, this story is fictional and has some fantasy elements in it. But I do think that Marie Lu did a great job in tying in the reality of this period, which made it an overall moving book to read. My only criticism of the book is the climax. Although I think the plot twist was definitely executed well for the build-up, the climax itself was not that satisfying, because there's an abrupt change from the fantasy setting of this book to its reality, which breaks the momentum.

In terms of the characters (which I think is what makes a story great) are all fleshed out where you can sympathize with everyone, including Nannerl's father, who to Nannerl, is who represents society expectations.

So if you like fantasy stories with the theme of family, sexism (and music is a plus), then I definitely recommend this book! It's actually quite a quick read, but a great one nonetheless.

Rating: 4/5