This was such a unique and touching story, that I'm still thinking of Ella and her life right now, many days after I'd finished the book! I loved the distinctive way in which the story is told and how it helps you connect with Ella and the experiences she had in her lifetime.

From the traumatic opening, the story never lets up on emotion and drama. You get the frustrations and despair that Ella is feeling now in her current situation where she is on a boat which is starting to sink, and has to look our for her grandchild, the grandchild she can't remember the name of because she is showing signs of dementia. In her toughest times she is 'visited' by the memories of those in her past that meant so much to her and shaped her life from childhood to adulthood.

As she looks back, she is reminded of those who had such an impact on her life and these flashbacks to key moments in her life just went to show how different events changed the course of her life. The 'what if' moments, the missed opportunites, the quirks of fate that drew different people into her life at testing times. Something we all experience but it's not often til later in life that we truly see how important, or not!, an encounter or experience is.

I loved how it really showed that just when you think life is going to go one way, then there's often a curveball to change the trajectory of things. As she moves away and moves to London to become a session musician, then her life sees her making some bad choices and you fear the worst for her, but the world works in mysterious ways and the past always finds a way of reminding her of what is important to her.

Her life is full of many highs, and many lows and it was such an emotional experience to relive crucial moments and episodes in her life, added to the drama of what she is experiencing in the present and I have to admit, there were tears! Many tears!! It's a story you just get so involved in and seems to remind you to take note of those people who keep appearing in your own story at difficult times.

A staggeringly inventive and emotional read!

Joe Heap presents the life well lived of Ella Campbell in an innovatively structured novel. Ella is a talented musician who has lived an interesting life. Now an old lady in a crisis situation she is helped to cope by reflecting on her life through seven songs and the significant characters in her life that she associates with them. I would recommend this heartfelt touching read.

This book delivered everything I had been promised, it was beautiful. It tells the story of Ella an elderly grandmother who finds herself alone on a boat with her baby grandson after a storm. The story gracefully jumps between her urgent fight for survival and the life she had up until that point from being a young girl in Scotland, a musician in London, a wife and a mother all exquisitely held together by the power of music.

This is a story about love and loss, hope and survival. I particularly loved that this story was inspired by the author’s grandparents and you can feel the emotion and pride shining through his writing.

Simply heartbreakingly stunning ❤️

This is the story of Ella.
And Robert.
And of all the things they should have said, but never did.

Through seven key moments and seven key people their journey intertwines.

From the streets of Glasgow during WW2 to the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll of London in the 60s and beyond, this is a story of love and near misses. Of those who come in to our lives and leave it too soon. And of those who stay with you forever…

Thank you so much to @NetGalley and @harpercollinsuk for approving me this copy. This book is out now.

When the Music Stops by Joe Heap is a beautifully written and emotional tale that once started I did not want to put down. A unique and rather wonderful story that follows the lives of Ella and Robert, from their childhood on the streets of Glasgow during World War 2 through to the swinging sixties and beyond.

Through seven key moments, Ella’s life intertwines with Robert’s as well as other key people, with music as a backdrop to their story as time marches on. Ella’s life is explored in great detail, the important moments brought vividly to life as we move seamlessly between timelines. As the story continues we begin to get to know Ella as a person, living alongside her through her ups and downs, the dark moments and the light.

In the present day Ella is in her eighties, caught up in a world she no longer understands. The chapters set in the present were the hardest to read as age begins to take its toll on the once vibrant person she used to be. I didn’t always like Ella or the choices she made throughout her life, but I did come to understand her and loved the time I spent getting to know her within the pages of this book.

When the Music Stops was inspired by the story of the author’s own grandparents and he has done them proud with this beautifully written exploration of love, loss and the importance of holding on to the memories we have of those who have touched our lives. The use of music throughout the book is inspired and really helped bring the story alive for me.

Joe Heap has written a unique and rather wonderful story, filled with a cast of flawed but fascinating characters I couldn’t help but fall in love with. A beautiful and highly emotional story that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

This was one of those novels that came as a complete surprise. I had no idea what to expect as I’d never read Joe Heap’s work before, but what started out adagio builds to an absolute crescendo of emotion and I shed tears over Ella’s story. Through two time frames we meet Ella as an old lady shipwrecked on a yacht called Mnemosyne with a small baby. She’s struggling physically and seems forgetful, whether through injury or age we don’t know at first. Then we are taken back to different points in her life, significant moments with specific people. Whether with her for a short or long time, these are people she has lost and that loss had a massive impact on her life. We first meet Ella when she’s a little girl, living in a Glasgow tenement and spending time between her home and that of her friend Rene. Rene has a beautiful guitar, made for her by her father and Ella is quite jealous of it, wishing she had a father who could make such things. One evening, after school Ella wants to avoid going home and keeps Rene out in the cold on a local playground. Rene has asthma. The next morning, when Ella wakes she senses something wrong and when she goes into the main room where her parents are up and making breakfast she sees Rene’s guitar and knows immediately. Her friend is gone.

This loss when she is so young, sets in motion events that will resonate throughout her life. First, it brings her into contact with Rene’s brother Robert who is a few years older. He brings her a parcel and she expects something terrible, some retribution or punishment for what she sees as her culpability in his sister’s death. What she opens is a block of ‘tablet’ a Scottish fudge-like sweet made by their mother with sugar and condensed milk. This gift cements their friendship, one which will last their entire lives. Secondly, after vowing never to look at Rene’s guitar she decides to learn and her father takes her to a music shop for a beginner’s guitar book. Yet Ella is drawn to something different. She picks up a book of seven guitar exercises featuring songs that encompass stages of life, from the child to the crone. Called The Songs of the Dead, the shop owner is unsure whether it’s suitable for a child but Ella is sure. It is each of these exercises that separates the sections of the book. The structure is incredibly well done, it feels natural and organic rather than a forced device.

Each section comprises the song, the memory and then Ella’s present situation with an unusual element - each person she has lost returns from the past with her. It is never explained whether this is a supernatural element, whether Ella is hallucinating these characters or whether they’re a way of expressing how she remembers these people’s contribution to her life. Each one brings something to the present whether it is the mechanical expertise wanted to pump out the water in the hold, or a philosophical context to Ella’s experience. I loved how her friend Sandy describes life, death and time using the vinyl record as inspiration. He believes that we all still exist in time, even after death. In the same way other music tracks exist on a record, even while we’re playing a different one. The other tracks are always there, we have the memory of playing them, or anticipate hearing them again. They’re not wiped the moment a needle leaves the groove. There’s also the concept of two types of time; the time measured by clocks, work hours and timetables and a different kind of internal time. It’s something I discovered through meditation, but we all experience it from time flying when we’re having fun or the feel that summer holidays used to last forever when we were children. Time seems to speed up as we get older, it barely seems like we’ve got one Christmas over before another is round the corner. As adults we need to find positive ways to slow down our internal time such as mindfulness. For Ella, time is coming full circle, and she’s slowly revisiting each life that touched hers either for a moment or for a lifetime. Each character is so fully realised. I loved Lester, a one time lover of Ella’s who helps her cope with the baby when he’s ill. I found Mai, a young woman who met Ella briefly in the labour ward as they both gave birth to their children. In finding each other again Ella can fill in the gaps in Mai’s knowledge and reacquaint her with a son she never knew. In return Mai can help Ella face a loss she hadn’t fully apprehended. Each person’s story is so emotional and so real. I love that the author doesn’t judge any of the characters we meet, even where their influence on Ella isn’t always a positive one. We see them as fully rounded people and with such fondness, possibly because we’re seeing them through Ella’s lens and her love for them shines through.

The settings are also vivid. I throughly enjoyed Ella’s period in London, playing as a session guitarist and sharing a flat with Robert. Musicians come and go, and the flat is a whirlwind of jam sessions and parties. The 1960s were equally exciting as Ella becomes very sought after and chance finds her playing on tracks with some famous names. Of course the party can’t last and not all Ella’s experiences are happy ones, but she learns from each one. Her time as a nurse in a burns unit was also well drawn and as anyone who cares for others knows, there are patients who will remember what you did for them and others who get under your skin and stay with you forever. Like every life there are moments of bliss, excitement and love. Similarly there are moments of grief, dislocation and despair. All the time Robert is there, repeating like a musical refrain, rippling quietly under the surface of the music or occasionally becoming the main melody. We all have those people who come and go, who don’t always figure in our everyday lives, but who are constantly there. There were so many points where I thought of my own life. I thought of my friend Elliot who I was close with through school, and after university, and who I see intermittently but think of constantly. My friend Nigel who died only a couple of years ago, we were only friends for a few years but he taught me so much, made me laugh and simply let me sit in his house and relax when I was a full time carer and desperately needed an escape. I am one of those people who fall in love with people I meet regardless of age, gender or situation in life. So, when I’ve worked in care there have been patients who have stayed with me forever, especially a little 90 year old lady called Mary who could sit on her own hair. I would go in on my days off and wash and dry it for her and she often used to sneak up and put her little hand in mine and follow me about while I made beds and doled out biscuits. I’ve often wondered when my time comes who would come to meet me. For anyone who has lost someone this story is especially poignant, but somehow it manages to stop short of sentimentality. Instead it feels profound, honest and raw and left me with such a beautiful bittersweet afterglow.

When the Music Stops is lovely, it just is. The story goes through Ella’s past and present, and takes us to meet a lot of people who meant a lot to her at different points in her life. It starts with Ella on a boat with family, and we soon realise she is old and it seems like she has dementia. The boat sails into a storm, and water starts sweeping into the rooms. Ella gets hurt, and can’t find her daughter, but her baby grandson is there, so she needs to help him. Then we float to different parts of her life. We learn her childhood best friend Ruth is the reason we loves the Guitar, and that also plays a huge part in the story. After each chapter is a sheet of music from from a songbook Ella picks up as a child in a shop. Each song fits in with each chapter, and I loved this part of it. I do wonder if the music has been recorded anywhere, it would be interesting to listen to.

The characters throughout the story are really interesting, and I did like Robert quite a bit. He cares a lot for Ella, and it shows as he pops back into her life at difficult times. Ella goes though a lot of hard times, and it was interesting to see the different routes life took her down, from drugs and rock and roll, to being a nurse. But music is always there in the background throughout, and tha gives the story something different.

I adored When The Music Stops, it was exactly what I needed to recuperate after an operation. The characters were the highlight, Ella the shining star, from the little girl who had to deal with grief, the aftermath of war to the grandma who looked back on her life and the people she met along the way.

And what an unusual setting Heap chose for eighty seven year old Ella’s journey back in time, a last holiday, a boat on stormy sea’s, a baby to keep safe and most importantly to love.

It was that love for the baby that took Ella back to pre war Glasgow to her best friend Rene, and Rene’s brother Robert, the one constant in Ella’s life. Their shared love of music bound them together, yet you knew there was more, an unsaid love that never quite emerged. Heap dangled the will they or they won’t they before us, but instead Heap kept them apart, as other loves, and people stepped in the way. We read as Ella, swayed between jobs, between bank, post office before London beckoned and she found herself tangled in its musical backstreets, in the underground cafes and the wonderfully colourful people that came along with it.

I loved how Heap managed to capture the feel of the era, of the smoky venues, of the hedonist lifestyle Ella found herself wrapped up in before the wheels fell of and Heap lept forward to a very different Ella and a very different job and finally up to the present. Each leap was almost like another reinvention of Ella, of maturity, of making do, of a fleeting reconnection with Robert, of wondering if this could finally be the time that they would be together. I think this is what kept me furiously turning the pages, that need and want for them to have that happy ending.

In between the memories we were taken forward to the present to Ella on the boat, to the water that swished throughout, to the baby who somehow energised Ella to steer the boat to dry land and safety. Each look back brought a new person to the present, until Ella had her own crew, a crew that helped her steer the boat, that reminisced alongside her, that uncovered her all abiding love of music and its power to heal.

In the hands of many authors this may have felt clunky, out of place, too far fetched, but for me it was the right thing for Heap to have done. It was ethereal, emotional, and the latter parts had me in absolute bits, but in a good way, in that you knew Ella had found some sort of closure and peace with those she had shared her life with and most importantly herself.

In simple terms I adored this book! It follows the lives of Ella and Robert from their birth place of Glasgow, living in London and then finally into suburbia and family life. It’s a tale of missed opportunities and adventure, love and loss, hope and despair. It’s structure is just music itself and it definitely strikes a chord in my heart.

I don’t think I have ever seen a book structured in this way before. Ella buys a score of songs when she is first learning to play the guitar and each of those songs relates to a section of the book with the song printed at the start of it. I wish I still could read music as well as I used to as I’m sure the songs would be beautiful and haunting especially when you relate it to the narrative.

I think ‘When The Music Stops’ grabbed me so much was due to the characters lives beginning in Glasgow. I could recognise so much of my home city and I could visualise scenes like those set in the docks vividly. It captures the essence of Glasgow in the 1950’s and I could even recognise my grandad back from the war and visually altered to those he loved. Ella and Robert would have been the same generation as my Mum and I remember her stories of being discriminated against in the workplace due to her gender, just like Ella. So much of this section of the book resonates with me and it grabbed and hooked me in so much so that I read the book in one sitting!

I loved how Ella and Robert’s stories intertwined with one another - they would connect and then disconnect, connect and then disconnect, an ever revolving door. There are just some relationships like this - never meant to be, or are they? Does timing work out for them? Well for that you will need to read the book which is something I completely encourage you to do. An easy 5⭐️ review from me!

When The Music Stops has to be one of the most unique books I have read! It’s beautifully written and highly emotional which makes it a very compelling read.

There’s something very interesting about following one person throughout their life, especially if they have lived through some significant historical events. I found it fascinating to follow Ella and to see how certain things have shaped her life. That being said I never really warmed to Ella as a character as I found her to be very prickly and some of her decisions incredibly questionable. I did feel sympathetic towards her however and although I didn’t agree with her choices I had to admire her bravery.

The story is told in two timelines one following Ella through the important events her life, while the other focuses on elderly Ella who is trapped in a sinking boat with a baby. While she is trying to work out what’s happening and care for the baby she is visited by old friends who help her make amends for past mistakes. I have to admit I enjoyed the flash backs to Ella’s life much more then the present day as I found it quite stressful reading about Ella trying to care for the baby. It was a weird situation as I wanted to keep reading to see what happens to them but at the same time wanting to skip that part as I found the tension too great.

Overall I really enjoyed this absorbing and intriguing read which will definitely stay with me. I think I went through every emotion as I read, laughing and crying alongside the characters. I will be recommending this book to everyone and will definitely be buying a few copies as Christmas presents.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Harper Collins for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

The book’s structure, revisiting seven key moments and people in Ella’s life, was, according to the author, inspired by the ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech from Shakespeare’s As You Like It. However, as Joe Heap also writes, “This is a book about music, inspired by music” so cleverly incorporated into the story are the seven modes that have been part of musical notation since ancient times.

In When the Music Stops, each of these modes is represented by a song in a music book Ella acquires when she first takes up the guitar. Although other elements of her memory have faded by the time we first meet her as an old woman – alone, in rather strange circumstances – the tunes are still at her fingertips, evoking memories of significant stages in her life – and the people who shared them with her. As she muses, “There are seven songs. I have to play all of them, though I don’t know what will come at the end. I just have to play them.”

The ability of music to evoke memories is just one of the fascinating concepts explored in the book, along with the nature of memory itself and how we experience the passing of time. I’ll leave others to explain Einstein’s theories on the latter but I liked the metaphor Robert, Ella’s friend since childhood, employs. He compares time to a long-playing record. While you’re listening to the second verse of a song, he explains, the first verse is still there but you’re just not listening to it anymore.

As the reader learns, Ella’s life has been punctuated by moments of loss, often signalled by that thing we’ve probably all come to dread – the unexpected early morning or late night telephone call. Robert’s earlier metaphor is applicable here too. As he confides to Ella about a person they both knew, “I don’t think she’s really gone… I just think we can’t see her anymore.”

Another key theme of the book is that of the missed opportunities in life, especially between people like Ella and Robert. ‘The Road Not Taken’ of Robert Frost’s poem, as it were. Their encounters over the years are populated by falsely reassuring thoughts such as “There will be other chances” and fateful hesitations, “The door of possibility stays open, waiting for her to walk through, but she stays put”.

I admired the way the author recreated the atmosphere of each stage on the journey through Ella’s life, referencing the clothing, the television programmes or even the food of the time: the school playground gift of tablet (a sweet similar to fudge for you non-Scots out there) or a corned beef and pickle sandwich prepared for a picnic.

The standout section for me, entitled ‘The Rebel’, was Ella’s experiences as a session musician in 1960s London, rubbing shoulders with many famous, or soon to be famous, bands of the period. (In his acknowledgements, Joe mentions Carol Kaye, “a trailblazing female musician” who played guitar and bass on many hit records and was the inspiration for Ella.) I also found the section entitled ‘The Matron’ particularly moving.

At one point in the book, a character mentions ‘fantastical thinking’ and I think that’s a great description of the premise of this clever but very touching novel. At the online book launch, Joe Heap mentioned fantasy as making up some of his own early reading – books by authors such as Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman – and it’s easy to see that influence in elements of the book. However, more than anything, When the Music Stops is an emotional story of love, loss and the power of the human spirit. I think it would make a great book club choice.

I was hooked by the blurb for this book but still wasn’t prepared for how the story started and how we meet Ella. The story starts with a storm which leaves Ella holding her baby grandson on a damaged boat, trying to keep him alive until rescuers find them.

During the time stranded on the boat, Ella revisits seven key moments in each decade of her life and meets seven people who she had lost during her lifetime. Each meeting is also linked to a piece of music, from the book of music Ella chose with her dad in Glasgow. The audio book version will include the songs played in full.

Ella’s journey takes her from Glasgow to London. Joe’s writing brings each of the seven periods in time to life, from the school days in Glasgow to the first flat in London to being in a maternity ward as a geriatric mother. I’ve read many books this year whilst furloughed, and this is one of the most poignant. This book is full of emotion and I was caught up in each story, shedding a few tears along the way.

This is a no spoiler review, so you will need to read the book to find out if Ella saved her grandson. A five star book in my humble opinion, a lifetime of experiences captured in one stunning story. It will also make you think about who you would like to meet again, to maybe have a different conversation with. I’ve had Joe’s debut novel, The Rules of Seeing, on my Kindle for months and I look forward to reading it soon.

Book launch event:

On Thursday 28th October I attended Joe’s online book launch event organised by his publisher. It was fascinating to hear about Joe’s inspiration for the book, from how his grandparents met to becoming a father himself, to linking The Seven Ages of Man by Shakespeare to the life of a woman linked by music. The Jack Shapiro who wrote the music in the book is a work of fiction based on Jack Sands, his grandfather.

This is a beautifully written story about an elderly woman with dementia, told as a series of flashbacks as characters from her past come back to visit her on a very momentous night.

When we meet 87 year old Ella she is confused about why she is on a boat, with a young baby for company (who she believes to be her grandson). The boat appears to be sailing on very choppy seas and Ella is unsure what has happened to her daughter and son-in-law. As her mind tries to come to terms with her situation it takes her on a journey into her past, from her humble beginnings in Glasgow through her career as a musician and life as a wife and mother. Along the way there has been a lot of tragedy for Ella, and a number of significant people from her life visit her as her story unfolds.

Music played a huge part in Ella’s life, as it does for a lot of people with dementia and memory loss - only this week on the news we’ve seen a story about a former music teacher with dementia who demonstrated the healing power of music as his piano playing from memory went viral. In When The Music Stops, what could easily have been a depressing and mawkish tale was in fact a very moving and uplifting story about a woman’s determination to overcome tragedy and find hope. I really enjoyed it.

Every now and again I come across a book that is so unique, so different, that I am left reeling. When the Music Stops is one of those books.

The story takes us through the ‘seven stages of woman’ (inspired by Shakespeare’s seven stages of man in As You Like It *) – from Ella’s life as a child in Glasgow and her first experience of losing someone close to her when she was still a child, to now, when she is old. She is on a boat. It is starting to sink and is gradually filling with water. Ella is 87 and alone apart from a baby which she discovers in a room which has been turned into a nursery. The baby is very young and needs looking after. This part really stressed me out while I was reading. I kept praying nothing would happen to him.

As she grows up, she meets a lot of people while playing the guitar in various bands and as a session musician. A few of those people have a marked impact on her life and some of them die too soon – I’m sure we have all experienced this. My friend Sally suddenly left school one day when we were about 14 and never returned. We all knew she was ill. I didn’t see her again until she was 35. In the intervening time she had married, divorced, miscarried twice, had kidney failure and a heart attack. She died a few months later. She was 36. I think she would be on my boat if I had one, along with my sister who died before I was born.

Suddenly Ella is no longer alone on the boat. Her first visitor is someone we know to be dead. We then go back to Ella’s twenties, where someone else close to her dies and they also turn up on the boat. We know they are dead and that Ella is not, and I still kept worrying about the baby, not being sure if he was really there, other than the fact that he needed feeding and changing. Like the dog in the laundry basket in The Sixth Sense, to begin with I just wasn’t sure if he was also dead.

One constant in Ella’s life is Robert, also a musician – music is the theme that runs through Ella’s life – and the older brother of her best friend Rene. He is always there, yet not there, and neither can admit how they really feel. They seem to live parallel lives, which never come together. As the reader you really want them to.

Towards the end I was totally overwhelmed and had to take a break or I would have started crying and not been able to stop. Writing this review made me cry. It is rare for a story to have such a profound effect on me and make me feel so happy and sad at the same time. This is one book I will definitely read again (and I almost never do that). One of my top three books of 2020.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours and to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“All the world’s a stage” – Jacques’ monologue from As You Like It by William Shakespeare *

@currentlyreading__
Book 48 of 2020

One of my favourite books of 2019 was @joe_heap_'s debut novel "The Rules of Seeing" and having it pencilled in my diary that he had the second due for release at the end of October, I was thrilled to be accepted to receive an ARC - thank you to @netgalley, @harpercollins and of course @joe_heap_. Published tomorrow, this is a must-read if you love a character-driven novel; rich with lyrical prose and scenes of real emotional honesty. "When the Music Stops" follows the life of 87-year-old Ella, seemingly adrift in the middle of nowhere, on the boat Mnemosyne and looking after a baby boy. As a dementia sufferer, Ella is confused about her surroundings and what led to the situation she finds herself in. I became totally consumed by her character when the flashbacks to her past ensued from 1936 to 1992. Ella, a feisty young musician finds herself in the company of a rich and varied cast who all appear to her whilst on the boat. Not to include spoilers, these characters all served a real purpose in shaping Ella into the person she became and it is the integral motif of music which really made the book move seamlessly through each part of Ella's life. I loved the inclusion of the sheet music at the end of each chapter and how the score related to that particular part of her life. The title itself, referencing the motif also has another layer of meaning to it as the novel draws to the most beautiful close. The relationships formed were particularly touching but I must admit that I loved the bonds formed between Ella with Rhino and Mai. Camille is a character, with her strong coffee, French cigarettes, Demerol, Percodan and devil-may-care attitude towards life, who will stick with me for some time. The chapter in which she appears 'The Rebel' was the most shocking; partly because of the disconnect between the 87-year-old Ella and the one weaving strange shapes on the dance floor with her long-lost sister in 1966. If you need escapism from the strangeness of life right now, make sure this is on your pre-order for tomorrow's release. I know it's going to be huge! 🎵 🎵

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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This is a beautifully written story of life, love, loss and serendipity. Music and the number seven define the parameters of this story which explores Ella's life and her lifelong love of Robert. The writing is lyrical, as Ella revisits her past at seven pivotal times and introduces seven characters who left their emotional mark on her life.

The flashbacks are vivid and written with historical details and insight. They immerse the reader into the story and make it believable. Throughout, Ella is authentic and flawed. Her mistakes are a reflection of her humanity, and they make you consider your life and choices. The love story is gentle and tragic, but this is real love, and it's ending is worthy of the angst.

I read this in a day and enjoyed it for its originality, realism and supernatural twist.

I received a copy of this book from Harper Fiction via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A very unusual book, a great deal of which resonated with me strongly.
Moving, surprising...funny at times, it made me cry, and sometimes I nearly gave up, it was so sad, but I’m so glad I didn’t. It’s sad, but in a rather optimistic way.
Ella is a complex character, very multifaceted and interesting, flawed and human. I liked her very much!

When The Music Stops by Joe Heap is a beautiful contemporary novel about life with its loves and losses.
The story has a serene atmosphere as we see the life an octogenarian has lived. The novel alternates between present day and significant events in her past.
The stories are linked by her love of music. The music remains even as the memory is going due to dementia. It is sad to witness the struggle for words but the power of past memories is huge. Present day is hazy but the past is rich and very much alive. As life is drawing to a close, far from being emptier, it is fuller as the memories of a life lived well mount up.
Every loss hurts. Each loss is unique. There is no right or wrong way to grieve. You never become desensitised to loss. Loss always cuts us to the core.
When The Music Stops is a unique and very beautiful novel. I read it in just one sitting. Pathetic fallacy was employed as an actual storm mirrored the storms of life but the reader feels protected and cocooned by the calm and loving nature of an old lady.
This is such a beautiful book of memories but most of all it is a book of love of a life lived well.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

This is why I read. For the one book in a thousand that comes along and possesses me, absolutely. For prose so intoxicating, it takes my breath away. And for a character so richly imagined, it’s like she’s stepped from the pages and sat down beside me.

When The Music Stops by Joe Heap has left me reeling. I can barely gather my thoughts to express how beautiful it is. Whatever words I find will not do it justice. Let’s just say, it’s like a precious gem — hold it to the light and every facet will glitter, flawlessly.

Ella Campbell is 87 years old, frail and verging on senile, when the yacht she’s holidaying on with her daughter, son-in-law and baby grandson is caught in a fearful storm. She and the baby are the only survivors. The boat is holed and taking on water. There’s no power and no land in sight.

The narrative moves with the grace of a dancer between two timelines — one following the highs and tragic lows of Ella’s life, the other her valiant struggle to keep her grandson alive.

It is a story woven from the raw threads of human emotion: love and loss, hope and despair, guilt, fear, loneliness, regret. It makes you contemplate life and death, the resilience of the human heart and spirit, and the profound connections we make with people whose paths cross ours.

Heap’s use of musical imagery and metaphor is sublime. Life is a melody, in which music speaks louder than words, in which the record keeps spinning long after the music has stopped.

There are passages in this book that are so visceral, so profoundly moving, they will live with me forever. As for the ending, it broke me completely — I didn’t just weep, I sobbed.

If you read only one more book this year, then let it be this.

This was my first read by this author and I can honestly say it won't be my last. The author has a way with words that pulls you in from the very first sentence and takes you on a journey you won't forget for quite some time. In When the Music Stops the main character Ella is suffering from dementia and the story begins with her on a boat with her daughter and grandson. There's a storm and 87 year old Ella finds herself alone with just the baby when she wakes up.

Music plays an integral part in this emotional story and it is the key to unlocking Ella's memories of growing up in Scotland and her life ever since. It's beautifully told and I loved how each of the characters showed up at just the right time and how through it all, Robert remained a constant. Ella's life is revealed through the narrative as we travel between the present and the past and it is wonderfully done.

I was completely gripped by the story and loved how it unfolded even bringing a few tears along the way. It's easy to give this book 5 stars and if you are looking for a story that includes music and love, this is one that you won't regret reading.

I’m not sure there are words to describe how much I LOVED When the Music Stops by Joe Heap. I just adored everything about it. The premise, the characters, the setting, the writing, the music; they’re all just perfect. I almost want to turn back to the beginning and read it all over again!

It tells the story of Ella’s life through a series of significant or life-changing eras. When we first meet her she’s in her 80s, battling dementia and (almost) alone on a boat in the middle of the sea. We then flashback to her school days before and during the war, and then to various significant periods in her life, meeting her friends and following her careers and different lifestyles along the way. We see how there are certain constant threads that tie her life together, even when everything else seems to change: love, loss and music.

This is such an original and emotional story; I’ve never read anything quite like it. Ella is a fabulous character, and I really admired how she managed to forge a successful career despite, as a woman, the odds being stacked against her. She leads a pretty turbulent life with a lot of difficulties, loss and heartbreak along the way. But she’s a fighter and manages to endure despite it all. From the outset I was invested in her friendship with Robert, a schoolmate and fellow musician who, over the years, she variously loses touch with and finds again. He’s such a loveable character that I couldn’t help but hope that he and Ella would eventually end up together.

When the Music Stops is a book that makes you consider how small actions and decisions might take you on a very different path than the one you originally imagined. It looks at the huge impact that people might have on the lives of others, even if their meeting is only very brief. But most of all it’s just an absolutely brilliant read, one which I unreservedly recommend.