It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night. Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice? Moving from Brooklyn bars to San Francisco dance floors, Deep Cuts examines the nature of talent, obsession, belonging, and above all, our need to be heard.
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To start, I’m a fan of how novel is structured - with songs being interwoven into the narrative and how each chapter revolves around a song (fictional or real). Everything a mixtape should be, it tells a story through the songs chosen and this playlist and appearances of some familiar songs (and some that I’ve never heard before!) just adds a layer of immersion, making the whole reading experience so much fun and vivid, like I was there with the characters, appreciating and listening to the songs mentioned. Reading this, and seeing Percy’s (and Holly Brickley’s!) love for music made me more aware of the songs I already enjoy, and reminds me to listen more closely to them moving forward too.
Perhaps the aspect about this book that really hooked me in was the main character and her journey. While reading this, I didn’t expect to see so much of myself in Percy. I understood her - her jealousy and frustration towards the talent and success of others (particularly Joe’s) that seem to come so easy, as well as her lack of self-confidence and courage to chase the dreams and ambition she believes are lost to her.
I found Deep Cuts a very enjoyable read, particularly because of the vivid setting and its flawed and relatable main character. I’m looking forward to the movie adaptation. Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler? I can see it in my head already!
Big thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the ARC!
0I wasn’t sure how I was feeling about this one at the beginning, but I ended up really loving it.
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