{"id":46242,"date":"2026-03-27T22:54:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T02:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46242"},"modified":"2026-03-27T22:54:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T02:54:36","slug":"review-of-soundtrack-by-jason-reynolds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46242","title":{"rendered":"Review of Soundtrack, by Jason Reynolds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Soundtrack<\/em><\/p>\n

by Jason Reynolds
\nperformed by a full cast<\/p>\n

Listening Library, 2025. 6 hours, 29 minutes.
\nReview written February 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
\nStarred Review
\n2026 Odyssey Honor Audiobook<\/p>\n

I always listen to Odyssey Award Winners and Honorees, because they are without exception excellent productions. Even knowing that, I was blown away when I listened to this book.<\/p>\n

Jason Reynolds wrote this as an original audiobook – they’re coming out with the novelization next month, but the audiobook came first. It’s about a kid fresh out of high school forming a band in New York City and then playing in subway stations and gaining a following. And the audiobook production is incredible. It’s got a full cast (and a large one), with full sound effects. When they’re talking in a group, you hear them as if they’re talking in a group, there’s crowd noise and sounds of objects they refer to – and music! <\/p>\n

Throughout the entire production this story about a young band is accompanied by the sounds of a band jamming to music. It’s astonishingly good.<\/p>\n

For a minute there, I was astonished on this audiobook’s behalf that it had “only” won Odyssey Honor, because I was misremembering which one won the award. Then I remembered that the actual winner was Trans History<\/a><\/em>, also with a full cast and full sound effects, and including the actual voices of present-day trans folks – and I understood the decision better. Still, this audiobook is incredible, and together these books have raised the bar on what an audiobook production can be.<\/p>\n

Our main character in this book, Stuy, is the drummer, and his mother was a drummer before him, who dropped out of her band when she gave birth to Stuy and his father left. But now Stuy’s mom’s boyfriend throws his drum set into a corner, and Stuy goes to stay with his Uncle Lucky – where he meets a kid who plays the guitar. That leads to finding the rest of their band, and the whole adventure is tremendous fun – though with some serious undertones (fair warning).<\/p>\n

It was a truly engaging story – and the music and the cast made the whole thing into an experience.<\/p>\n

jasonwritesbooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/soundtrack.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soundtrack by Jason Reynolds performed by a full cast Listening Library, 2025. 6 hours, 29 minutes. Review written February 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook. Starred Review 2026 Odyssey Honor Audiobook I always listen to Odyssey Award Winners and Honorees, because they are without exception excellent productions. Even knowing that, I was blown away when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,21,42,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audiobooks","category-contemporary","category-starred-review","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46369,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46242\/revisions\/46369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}