The Vinyl Princess

Yvonne Prinz
HarperTeen (2009)
ISBN 9780061715839
Reviewed by McKenzie Tritt (age 16) for Reader Views (01/10)


Sixteen-year-old Allie holds a full-time job at Bob & Bob Records in Berkeley, just the place she wants to be. See, Allie is, and always will be, a vinyl junkie. She loves the smell of vinyl and the scratchy sound that starts up before the music plays. Allie loves everything about vinyl and she sees it as her mission to stop the downloading trend. She wants to unite music lovers and revert to the old ways. She does this with her new blog, The Vinyl Princess. Allie also prints and passes out a musical zine through the store. She hopes to connect with other music geeks that she thinks are out there. Bob & Bob Records is the perfect place for this creativity, you see, as Allie can guide customers in their purchases and talk some musical talk with the other store employees.

All is not well in the world of the Vinyl Princess, however. A group of criminals is running rampant throughout Berkeley, breaking into and stealing from independent stores and businesses. Tensions are high, especially when Bob & Bob Records could be next on the list. Is the staff there safe, or is trouble creeping their way?

The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz follows a rather interesting premise, a love for vinyl and musical blogging. I’m no expert on music, but it was still okay to read about. I especially enjoyed the blogging aspect of the book. The characters in the book were fun, between the bashful Ravi and Allie’s cool mom. Allie was spunky and had a good sense of humor, but I found her hard to relate to because of all of the focus on music.

The plot started out interesting, but I found that at times it was rather dull. Nothing important seemed to happen for quite a while, just little, unimportant events. I grew bored at times, but, still wanting to know the end result, carried on. That is to say, there’s nothing wrong with this book. It just didn’t have that extra something, the thing that makes a book special, which I was hoping for. Readers who really enjoy music, however, will probably get more of a kick out of “The Vinyl Princess” than I did.

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