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dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
*Thank you to Riverhead Books & Penguin for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own*
I had a really fun time with this book.
Al, my imperfect narrator, stumbling through life a bit unsure like most of us are. You don’t always agree with the choices she makes but you understand who she is (because you’ve been her or been friends with someone like her).
The book felt like vignettes of Al’s becoming. Stepping into herself in her early twenties. And I think it’s a mark of a good book that I want to know more. Who is she in her thirties? Does she make it big, sell her songs? Do the ‘Dead Air’ showcases become the event everyone who’s anyone dreams of playing when they get to the city? What’s next for Al & Julian?
I had a really fun time with this book.
Al, my imperfect narrator, stumbling through life a bit unsure like most of us are. You don’t always agree with the choices she makes but you understand who she is (because you’ve been her or been friends with someone like her).
The book felt like vignettes of Al’s becoming. Stepping into herself in her early twenties. And I think it’s a mark of a good book that I want to know more. Who is she in her thirties? Does she make it big, sell her songs? Do the ‘Dead Air’ showcases become the event everyone who’s anyone dreams of playing when they get to the city? What’s next for Al & Julian?
emotional
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
For me, this book was a time machine back to my early 20s, when I was making bad choices about where I partied and who I spent time. I spent a lot of time at dive bars watching bands perform. This book is 100% too old to be this angsty vibes, and I’m here for it. Listen, the title alone tells you what mood you’ll be in while reading this book. I found this incredibly relaxing.
What I Liked:
-playlists for particular moods
-the slowest burn romance ever
What Didn’t Work:
-can I get a quotation mark?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Drug use, Alcohol
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Thank you so much to Riverhead Books and the author for my gifted ARC.
What a stunning debut! It’s made it on every list as a must read new release and many of my favorite authors blurbed it. I desperately wanted to love it and am so glad I did!
At its core, this is literary fiction about being 24, a person in the world, and figuring out who you are. It’s about being an artist and what that even means. It’s about music and its power and draw. It’s about Nashville and stasis vs. change. It’s about mental health. It’s about everything and nothing and all the in betweens. It’s deeply atmospheric and just captures that *feeling* so profoundly. I felt this in my soul.
What a stunning debut! It’s made it on every list as a must read new release and many of my favorite authors blurbed it. I desperately wanted to love it and am so glad I did!
At its core, this is literary fiction about being 24, a person in the world, and figuring out who you are. It’s about being an artist and what that even means. It’s about music and its power and draw. It’s about Nashville and stasis vs. change. It’s about mental health. It’s about everything and nothing and all the in betweens. It’s deeply atmospheric and just captures that *feeling* so profoundly. I felt this in my soul.
Gosh, I loved this. The writing is absolutely STUNNING. I was blown away by sentences that evoked such strong associations and transported me. I don’t typically enjoy annotating but I wish I had annotated this one - I will on my reread. This definitely litty lit fic so don’t go in expecting a plot driven story (prepare yourself: there are no quotation marks, but it actually didn’t bother me and I quickly adjusted).
Ugh, I’m just so excited for everyone to read this. An added bonus layer is the music and the musical references. I will admit, I am both deeply uncool and deeply unknowledgeable in my music tastes (it’s really just Taylor Swift and the Six the Musical soundtrack on repeat), so I didn’t get most of the musical references, but it didn’t take away from my experience at all and will be an added bonus for those of you who are far cooler than I am.
Read this book!
emotional
reflective