Reviews - Deep Cuts | The StoryGraph

2.55k reviews for:

Deep Cuts

Holly Brickley

3.8 AVERAGE

rare_b14's review

3.25

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book had a lot of early 2000s nostalgia and I loved how each chapter represented a song and how it related to the main character's life. There were certain parts for me though that were slow and uninspired, left me wanting more.

stephaniemartinez_72's review

4.0

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

eng3ntado's review against another edition

Boringgg

amybradfield's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I enjoyed this book, it was a good story. But the MCs just came across a little too pretentious for me. I did LOVE Zoe though!

amarahk's review

2.5

reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A well-written yet heavily frustrating debut.

They’re making an adaptation of this starring Austin Butler and Saoirse Ronan and after reading this, I really don’t understand why… I’m sure the adaptation will be just as annoying as the book so I will not be watching!! I also don’t know how it’ll translate since there’s not much of a plot.

——

The Writing:

This was the one thing I liked about this book. Holly Brickley is very thoughtful about her choice of words and original in her writing style. Unfortunately there were way too many music opinions for my liking and a lot of people enjoy that about this book, but I grew tired about hearing about them on every page. It read as if Brickley had some opinions that she needed to share and I’m sorry but I still don’t think songs are as deep as they’re described in the book.

Here are some quotes I liked though:

“I didn’t realise I’d been singing until his smile floated into the periphery of my vision and I felt impaled by humiliation.”

“We knew each other in that vague way you can know people in college,”

“I felt with some certainty that I was watching a star—that the reaction I was having would be the reaction of anyone with eyes and ears, of hordes of college girls and sensitive young dads across America; I was not special. It gave me a sense of vertigo, like I’d leaned too far over the edge of a balcony.”

——

The Characters:

Insufferable main characters a.k.a the worst type of characters.

Percy: Name a more pretentious, obnoxious main character. Just kidding she wasn’t thaaat bad, in fact I was starting to warm up to her until the whole

cheating on Raj

thing happened. If it wasn’t for that, she might have been okay but that subplot was played off by her, as if it wasn’t the most awful thing that really got me.

Plus, she came across as a bit “not like other girls,” and gave me a ‘thinking she was better than everyone’ vibe too. In fact I didn’t like anything about her, but even then she wasn’t the worst character in the book.

Joe: I loathe this man. He was a typical player yet we’re meant to see him as different and not like other boys, or at least Percy sees him that way.

He give me the biggest ick when Percy said

“I have a boyfriend,”

and he replied something like

“F that, I’m your boyfriend,” and then they had an affair.

Like am i supposed to find that cute??

He’s also the biggest hypocrite for saying

he has a gf now so there’s no chance of them having an affair but when Percy has a bf that she cared about, it doesn’t matter to him??

Raj: Possibly the best character in the book? Justice for him please.

——

The Relationship:

A normal people kinda relationship but make it more toxic. So dysfunctional that it hurt. Don’t give me that “oh but real relationships aren’t perfect, so this book is just so real,” because real people/relationships don’t have to be so awful and even if they are, I don’t want to read about them.

I just didn’t buy that Percy and Joe had this deeply strong bond. I don’t get why I was supposed to care about them tbh.

TL;DR: Way too many opinions about songs that I don’t know or care about and a dreadfully toxic relationship. Gorgeous writing, just wish I could say the same for the plot and characters.