Crescendo

About Crescendo

Crescendo is the second installment in Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush Saga, published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Picking up after the events of Hush, Hush, the novel finds Nora Grey navigating a relationship with Patch that is deepening but increasingly strained. When Patch begins pulling away and appears to be spending time with Nora's long-standing rival, Marcie Millar, Nora is left questioning everything she thought she knew about him — and about herself.

Alongside the relationship tension, Crescendo introduces a more personal mystery: Nora becomes obsessed with understanding the circumstances of her father's death. He left for a trip to Portland years ago and never returned. As she digs deeper, she begins to find connections between his disappearance and the Nephilim bloodline she carries — a heritage she didn't choose but cannot escape. The investigation leads her into dangerous territory and forces her to rely on people she's unsure she can trust.

Plot and Depth

Fitzpatrick expands the mythology of the first novel significantly in Crescendo, introducing new fallen angel lore and complicating the world she built. The Nephilim element — humans descended from fallen angels — takes on greater personal stakes here. Nora's identity is no longer just externally threatened; it's the thing she has to interrogate from within. What does it mean to carry a bloodline you had no say in? What choices are actually yours?

The novel also develops its supporting cast more fully. Vee Sky, Nora's best friend, provides humor and grounding. Rixon and Scott function as both complications and foils. The pacing moves between domestic high school life and genuinely high-stakes paranormal sequences without losing coherence.

Why It Has Been Banned

Crescendo has been removed from Escambia County Public Schools in Florida. Like the rest of the Hush, Hush Saga, challenges to the series cite the romantic relationship between Nora and Patch, the dark supernatural content, and the presence of violence and moral ambiguity. Critics argue that the books depict dangerous relationship patterns in a romantic light inappropriate for school-age readers.

Defenders of the series note that the challenges and mistakes Nora makes — and the consequences she faces — are part of the story's design. The series is not presented as a guidebook; it's a thriller with romantic elements, and the tension and danger are the point, not an endorsement of the behavior depicted.