Mix Tape - Jane Sanderson

Description

You never forget the one that got away. But what if ‘what could have been’ is still to come?

Daniel was the first boy to make Alison a mix tape.

But that was years ago and Ali hasn’t thought about him in a very long time. Even if she had, she might not have called him ‘the one that got away’; she’d been the one to run away, after all.

Then Dan’s name pops up on her phone, with a link to a song from their shared past.

For two blissful minutes, Alison is no longer an adult in Adelaide with temperamental daughters; she is sixteen in Sheffield, dancing in her too-tight jeans. She cannot help but respond in kind.

And so begins a new mix tape.

Ali and Dan exchange songs – some new, some old – across oceans and time zones, across a lifetime of different experiences, until one of them breaks the rules and sends a message that will change everything…

Because what if ‘what could have been’ is still to come?

Review

I chose to read this book as the title was a blast from the past for me and reminded me of the many mix tapes I used to make. I wasn't really prepared for what I went on to read; thinking the book was going to be just a straightforward lighthearted retro look at the 1970s.

Alison was Daniel's girlfriend in Sheffield in the late 1970s - their ages were similar to my own, all the music they listened to was my music - apart from Daniel's favourite band the Comsat Angels who seem to have passed me by. But my fave band Echo and the Bunnymen and the Human League get lots of mentions - it took me right back.

The first hard hitting part of the book was when we find out the reason for Alison leaving Sheffield in the 1970s and more about her brother Peter. Never even saying goodbye to Daniel she left him at a loss as to what happened. I thought back to that time and how different things were then and how you had no way to contact someone with no mobile phones. 

I was surprised and saddened by the events in Alison's young life wondering how in those different times I would have coped. We get to fast forward to 2012/13 to the lives of Ali as she has become, and Dan. On different sides of the world each with their own life to live, and yet through the power of music they become united once again.

I found it clever of the author to set the book in 2012/13 as it made the events more realistic at the age Ali and Dan would have been. I thought the book was very well researched even down to Huey Morgan being on Radio 6 at the right time of day!

The book is rich with dialogue and description, but not an unnecessary word appears. It was a joy to read and will stay with me for a long time to come.

I'm giving the book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for the ARC