Deep Cuts had all the ingredients to be a book I’d love—music, the chaos of your 20s, and early 2000s nostalgia—but it didn’t fully click for me. There were moments of sharp, insightful writing, but they were buried under rushed pacing and underdeveloped relationships that made the central romance feel hollow. I appreciated the music references, though I didn’t always connect with them, and the time jumps made the story feel disjointed rather than immersive. That said, I can totally see this working better as a movie—fingers crossed for a killer soundtrack and a lead actress who makes the protagonist more compelling.

I thoroughly enjoyed Deep Cuts but didn’t adore it. There’s something rather knowing and arms length about it that didn’t quite let me invest in Joe and Percy's relationship. The music choices veer from familiar to very obscure ( maybe an age or UK thing?) that didn’t let me get as involved in the music parts of the book as much as I wanted to.
Having said that, it’s an excellent debut and I felt for Percy as she was sidelined as Joe’s career takes off. I also loved her relationship with Zoe - a true soulmate. Sometimes I wanted to shake both Joe and Percy as they wilfully walked away from their relationship but who hasn’t done something like that? Loved the ending too, rang true and felt honest.
A book for anyone who loves a messy 20 something relationship story.

I absolutely LOVED Deep Cuts. As someone who has been branded a music snob in the past "by loser boys with zero taste" I absolutely loved Percys inner monologue (and out loud opinions) on music throughout the book. Admired HOW MUCH of a slow burn this was however I really wanted a different ending (but maybe i'm in my fuck men and their mediocrity being championed era). Such a great journey throughout this book, 100% would recommend

I absolutely devoured this book. I love a book about songs, singers, bands, playlists.
The author knows her music and it was interesting to see the songs analysed by Percy and Joe. Especially their perspective.
I liked the friendship between Percy and Zoe and how they looked out for each other I also liked Nomi. Also the relationship Percy had with her Mother.
I knew most of the songs and the ones I didn't it made me want to go and search them out.
It reminded me of the conversations with friends about favourite songs and also the mixed CD's I made for them and they for me.
I just wanted to keep reading to see what would happen with Percy and Joe.
Percy wasn't perfect and she made mistakes and I liked that she was human and you felt she could be a friend. She was also smart and willing to stand up for herself. Joe also had his flaws but ultimately they made a good partnership.
The descriptions of the people and the clubs, songs, lyrics and places all add up to a really good read.
I definitely want to be in Percy, Zoe, Nomi and Joe's gang.
Thanks for the Spotify playlist Holly. Looking forward to the next book.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.

‘Deep Cuts’ by Holly Brickley is a story of a love triangle involving college students Percy (Eileen, but don’t call her that) and Joe, who meet at Berkeley. The third main character isn’t Joe’s high school girlfriend Zoe - though she is a fabulous part of the novel - but music… Percy’s writing and Joe’s career as a musician are both motivated by the transformative experience of a perfect song.

I really loved the structure of the book, which spanned over a decade of Percy and Joe orbiting each other and providing inspiration, criticism and angst. With chapters named after songs and paragraphs of deep musical analysis scattered with recollections, the pages sang to me.

The will-they-won’t-they romance was full of chemistry and tension and definitely reminded me of two of my favourite books - ‘One Day’ and ‘Normal People’. While I’m often a sucker for a neat HEA, books that capture the emotion and wistful pining of two people desperately searching for the right circumstances for their attraction to blossom into stability have more staying power in my mind.

This is going to be adapted for the screen, starring Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. I adored the TV adaptation of ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ - especially the way it brought fictional songs to life - and I can’t wait to hear the original music so deeply discussed among this novel’s pages, as well as the abundance of classics explored by Percy!

I was addicted to the feelings this book gave me and didn’t want it to finish, which is perhaps why I found the ending slightly rushed. I’d have also loved to get more of an insight into Joe’s motivations. Overall, this gets 4.5 stars from me.

I received an advance Digital Review Copy of this book from the publisher Harper Collins UK via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Alright, let’s get real about Deep Cuts. I went into this book thinking it would be my new obsession—music, messy relationships, early 2000s nostalgia? Yes, please! But by the end, I was left feeling like I’d just listened to a song that had a great beat but no real heart.

The premise sounded cool—Percy, a music-obsessed but musically talentless English major, meets Joe, a songwriter, and their relationship unfolds over the years through their shared love of music. But instead of the deep, emotional, slow-burn dynamic I hoped for, I got a lot of musical name-dropping and two characters I couldn’t bring myself to care about. They were toxic, moody, and spent more time being mad at each other than actually collaborating. And for a book under 300 pages, it felt so long.

That said, the writing was solid, and I know this book will have its audience. If you love music and don’t mind characters who are a little (okay, a lot) self-absorbed, you might love this. I just wasn’t the right reader for it. 2.5 stars, rounded up.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the review copy.
#DeepCuts #Netgalley

Unfortunately I just don’t think this was for me

The comparison to Daisy Jones initially pulled me in but I didn’t feel any of the same enjoyment
It seemed to go on and on and the music stuff was a bit too much
I didn’t connect with any characters

Percy and Joe meet as students and are drawn together by a shared love of music. Their relationship is very strong, both creatively and personally, and they struggle over many years to find a way to be comfortable with each other.

Will they/won’t they follows them over the years as they do a lot of growing up apart and together, meeting and re-meeting in different situations over the years.

It’s a great story, told by Percy whose career as a writer skews your trust of everything she says and leaves room for you to question her version of events.

It is a very compelling read and very touching at times, Percy’s relationship with close friend Zoe is lovely and there are wider family and friends who are carefully drawn.

Packed with cultural references and deserving of a playlist of its own, it’s pacy and fresh and its ending is just right.

This is truly an INCREDIBLE book! It's so captivating, engaging and unlike anything I've read before.

If Lily King's Writers & Lovers, Daisy Jones & The Six and Normal People had a child, this would be it!

Deep Cuts follows Percy Marks and the ups and downs of her life as a music lover and writer, as well as her relationship (in its many different forms) with Joe, a musician she meets when they're both studying at Berkeley, in 2000. Their connection felt like a mix between Marianne and Connel's and Daisy and Billy's - raw, inevitable and, at times, toxic. Their relationship - a mix of friendship and romantic love - was magnetic and messy, and I just wanted more and more of it.

I adored the way the author talks about music. I didn't know most of the songs mentioned in the book, but I was still able to really connect with the commentary about them during the novel and felt like all of them meshed so well with Percy's journey. I would definitely recommend reading this book while listening to the novel's playlist, as every chapter is the name of a song, and they sometimes even matched how long it took me to read each given chapter, which was just perfect. Holly Brickley's writing felt incredibly immersive, and I just didn't want to leave that world.

I don't usually reread books, but Deep Cuts begs to be experienced once more, so I am so happy I was also able to get the audiobook version of the novel through NetGalley. The fact that this is a debut is just astonishing; it means I'll have to read anything Holly Brickley writes from now on.

If you love stories about music, messy relationships and journeys of self-discovery like I do, then this one is for you! I'll be raving about this book any chance I get!

Thank you so much to Borough Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC and the ALC!

Deep Cuts takes us on a journey into the lives of Percy and Joe, who meet whilst at university and really bond over their shared love of music.

As the years go by, they are drawn back together over and over again, yet they both still make the decision to focus on their respective careers and not allow a relationship to damage anything for them individually.

And to put it bluntly, this story broke me!. I found myself struggling to put it down!


*Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.*

Set in Berkeley in the year 2000, we meet students Percy (Eileen technically, but no one calls her that), and Joe. They meet in a bar and immediately bond over music. Joe is talented and seems destined to be a star, while Percy has a gift for writing/fixing Joe’s songs. It seems like they should be together but fear a romantic relationship could ruin the music-magic they share. Percy wants to make Joe happy so keeps helping him, but is their collaboration holding her back from finding her own voice? Set between New York, LA, and Miami, and covering most of the 2000’s, this is an addictive read you’ll quickly become immersed in.

This one’s for the millennials.
Gen Z; look away, now! 😅

All jokes aside, this was a serious walk down memory lane, aided by the accompanying soundtrack. I read this on ebook, and every time a song was mentioned, I popped it on Spotify.
I felt I was with the characters in that moment. Especially as some of the music; LCD Soundsystem, The Knife etc., are all reminiscent of specific times, that I’ve lived through too.
When Percy said she couldn’t stop dancing to Hey Ya and Crazy in Love when they were released in 2002, I was like, yeah, me too gal! 😅
This is the first time I listened along to chosen songs with a book as they appeared in the story, and I feel it added so much to my experience of reading it. Recommend!

My only gripe with this one is the music-lingo tangents that happen frequently.
I love music but I’m not into the nitty gritty of song writing, so that lost me a few times. I would imagine though that if that is your thing, you’ll love that element of the story.

Occasionally the self-introspection from the characters, especially Percy, felt a bit insufferable. We’ve all been that age though, so I guess I can make allowances 😅 Overall though, I did love the writing in this book. It’s unsurprisingly lyrical, and often interspersed with beautiful descriptions.

If you love a storyline where two people that are meant to be together spend years orbiting each other, but potentially never quite making it work, then this is for you.
Think One Day, Talking At Night, and Slow Dance. I enjoyed all of those books, so it’s no surprise I really liked Deep Cuts too.

With many thanks @netgalley and for my early copy. #DeepCuts is available to buy now. All opinions are my own, as always.

Are the lovers? Worse!!! And I ended up destroyed, so thank you very much.
For the reviews I've read that said that Deep cuts is kinda the love child of Normal people and Tomorrow x3 but with music in the mix, I totally agree, it definitely have those same vibes.

Written more like a coming of age contemporary fiction than a romance, this books follows the back and forth of the relationship between Joe and Percy acrosss several years, trying to find their places with each other but most importantly, in the world and in their own skins, with music as their main form of connecting with one another.

The story its told by Percy's pov. She is a very complicated character to like sometimes, but I did it anyways. Nothing comes too easy for her, and it was very interesting to read how the connections with others, her relationships with her friends, her family or even with sex are always hard for her to explore. Her love language is music and that's the main reason she bonds so deeply with Joe. He is a songwriter/singer, she knows she can make his music better just by pure intuition and that's the thread that connects both of them through heartbreaks, poor decisions, long distance and just growing up.

Holly's way of writing is so beautiful and inmersive, that I was hooked to my kindle till I finished, it even made me emotional at times. This book perfectly captures how vulnerable and messy it feels sometimes to be young, to want things and not knowing how to fight for them in the right and healthy way. As for the romance, it felt intense, angsty and a little dysfunctional in the best posible way and the ending was really good tho a little fast paced in comparison with the vibe of the rest of the book, I would have prefer a slower finale.

On a side note, where is the official playlist for this book???!!!! Tho I have already found some of the songs I need a link to all of them.

So, yes, I strongly recommend this book. It is a little niche and it won't resonate with everybody but it's so worth the time specially of you like this type of vibes.

I had the privilege to be sent an Advanced Reader Copy of this gem, thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley. Deep Cuts explores the complexities of music, fame, and personal struggle. The author knits together a narrative that is as much about the heart-wrenching nature of relationships as it is about the deep, haunting power of music. This book will deeply resonate with fans of music-driven fiction and has been widely compared to Taylor Jenkins Reid masterpiece Daisy Jones and The Six.

If you loved the emotional rollercoaster and character-driven storytelling of Daisy Jones & The Six, Deep Cuts is an equally compelling read that captures the soul of an artists rise and fall. I absolutely loved this book and will recommend it to anyone that will listen!

For fans of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Normal People, this is a novel which delves into the thorny and complex nature of creative relationships. Focussed on Percy, a music fanatic with exacting standards, and Joe, a budding singer songwriter, the novel opens as they first meet and build a working relationship producing the songs for his band's debut album in their senior year at Berkeley and then spans through until their early thirties, charting the choppy course of two people linked by a passion for music and a passion for one another. Their relationship is at times toxic, twisted by their own respective desires for success and acceptance into the world of music, and yet their connection is undeniable and Joe haunts the pages and Percy's narrative even in the sections when they are apart. Unlike Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, this novel leans into the "Will they? Won't they?" dynamic of missed chances more akin to One Day, and you find yourself eager to discover what the ultimate conclusion will be: will music come between them or will music draw them together?
Percy is an endearing protagonist who starts the novel having yet to find her place in the world or her people, and her painful navigation of her twenties feels relatable. Her relationship to sex is particularly refreshing and allows space for experiences that are rarely voiced in literature. There are moments of devastation where you feel genuine distress for Percy and the moments of rejection, in their many forms, are painfully tangible. Joe is allowed to be complex rather than simply chivalric, mired by a difficult upbringing and chasing his own dreams even when they do not align with Percy's, and their relationship is never perfect, but their interactions are always engaging. They are rarely kept apart by circumstance, it is nearly always their own emotions, thoughts and actions, and this keeps the book feeling fresh and the path of their relationship real.
The third main character is undoubtedly the setting: both the time period and the music that soundtracks it: every page of this book drips with musical references spanning across the centuries and celebrating particularly the rise of indie music in the early noughties. I am not surprised that, in an age of nostalgia and remakes, this book is already being turned into a film - it lends itself perfectly. I found the indie sleaze and "trendsetter" social commentary particularly fascinating, especially as a prelude to the current influencer culture we live in today.
The prose is elegant and fluent, and I enjoyed reading the book whenever I picked it up. It is a four star read for me, however, as I never found myself compulsively reading and, while a relatively short read, the pace felt strangely slow comparative to its length and the events covered. I would also have enjoyed the opportunity to see inside Joe's mind, especially during particularly long absences from Percy's life as, while it worked to keep his character opaque from her perspective, I feel the reader would benefit from some time in his headspace, too.
Overall, a perfect read for any music lovers, anyone nostalgic for the noughties or anyone who wants a complex, twisting tale of two people and their love for one another.

I had high hopes for this one, and at first I though I might end up really loving this, but things quickly fizzled out for me. I loved all the music talk, because even if it was pretentious at times, the MC was also aware she was being pretentious and it was always clear how much she loved music. The story itself wasn't as compelling for me, though. It mostly felt like something I'd read before, and I didn't feel invested in the will-they-won't-they between the MC and Joe.

If you are looking for a romance novel then look no further. This is a fantastic 'will they/won't they' and the sexual charge in the book was palpable! I did especially like the ending and really had no idea which way it would go.

We follow the friendship of Percy and Joe as they meet in their early 20s and develop a shared bond over music. Percy helps Joe write and edit songs and is clearly her muse and inspiration. The chemistry between them on the music sheets is clear, but will it transfer to 'between the sheets' (sorry, but also not sorry)? You will have to read the book and find out.

The book starts with Percy and Joe at college. I wouldn’t say it’s immediately obvious when this is – until the musical references start (and 9/11 happens during the timeline of the book). I have to say it made me feel a bit uneducated about the late 90s early 2000s music scene – I knew some of the bands references – such a No Doubt – and whilst I could name you their commercially successful tracks like ‘Don’t Speak’ or ‘Just A Girl’ – the book focussed on more obscure tracks. This happened for many of the referenced artists – and perhaps someone a bit more nerdy about music than me, and maybe slightly younger, would have enjoyed that, I was spent wondering if they were real tracks or made up specifically for the book.

Each time you revisit Percy and Joe, or Percy and not Joe, you’re left wondering if they will get together. Both have other partners throughout the book too – but you always feel like they’re ‘the one that got away’ for each other.

You really feel Percy growing up over the course of the book – getting older, if not necessarily wiser – and the different US locations are well described, and fit well with Percy’s various circumstances.

I’d read a review that said Deep Cuts was ideal for fans of Daisy Jones and the Six – and I can see the reference point music wise, similar it’s been likened to ‘One Day’ – and with the main characters meeting up over a long timeline – I can also see that comparison (albeit Percy and Joe aren’t meeting on the same day each year).

Overall I enjoyed the book – but I wonder if I am slightly too old to LOVE it. I also wonder if I had super high expectations as it had been described as THE debut novel of 2025. A good read, particularly if you’re a music fan – and out tomorrow (13 March 2025) if you like the sound of it.

Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for my ARC.

Stayed up 'til past 1am to finish this short but dense love letter to music that's had me ruminating on long after I finished reading. I felt fully immersed as it captures Percy, Joe and Zoe spending their 20s as the hopefulness of 2000 gives way to the post 9/11 world that hurtles towards the 2008 GFC. I loved all the deep dives into songs which I subsquently listened to while reading (The Knife's beautifully haunting Heartbeats has now been in my head all day).

Percy and Joe are pretentious (though lovable) music nerds, dissecting and debating the minutae of songs and musicians. Percy is so compelling as a character. She's frustrated she's not a musician, but has the ear to turn Joe's raw musical talent into indie hits. Like so many women, she's stuck on the sidelines with her contributions properly credited and subjected to sexual assault at a gig in a way that was/is so normalised as an experience of being a woman in music.

The romance is a raw, messy, co-dependent, push/pull, break each other's hearts experience. Unfortunately, this was the weakest part of the book that I wish Brickley delved deeper. Joe is the typical male musician who pushes away Percy first to enjoy the groupie life, using the excuse he'd 'mess it up', but then wants her so she can fix songs. The book needed to see Joe grow during their estrangement where he acknowledges his behaviour and has proven he's changed and is fully 'all in'. A real shame because what should've been a high note felt a bit flat.

Thanks to HarperCollins UK/The Borough Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

With thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

This book resonated with me although I'd have said I was far too old at 56 to remember or sympathise with the young adult angst it deals with. Others have said they found the two protagonists unpleasant, but unlike my hostile feelings towards Sally Rooney's twenty-somethings, I thought Joe and Percy were perfectly sketched as two kids in their early 20s just feeling their way out of childhoods that had knocked their confidence in different ways, and into adulthood at a time (the early 2000s) when much that we took for granted about the world order was being thoroughly shaken up.

Music is the thread that holds the story together. Percy is passionate about songs, tracks, albums and she has an unerring sense of what makes the perfect pop song. Joe has the makings of a very good singer-songwriter. They meet as undergrads at Berkeley and are the perfect songwriting partnership, until their feelings for each other start to complicate matters.

Each chapter title is the name of a song, which provides the soundtrack to Joe and Percy's journey even without Percy's analyses of lyrics and music. There's a Spotify playlist with all the songs on, which I'm listening to as I write this and wallow in nostalgia for the only slightly older adult I was at the time this book is set in. I also nostalgically enjoyed references to such excitements of my young adulthood as Napster, the Discman, MySpace, Virgin Megastores, CD collections.

The degree to which you enjoy this book will probably depend to a fair degree on how important music is to you. I don't think you need to love the actual songs referenced here - I certainly detest some of them though some of my all time favourites are here too. But you need to have felt the power of music to move you, to express your feelings better than you ever could, to be a life force.

I guess in the second half of the book, when Percy's path diverges from Joe's for a while post-Berkeley and NY and takes her to LA, she is also documenting a slice of social history through documenting the indie sleaze scene. This resonates less with me, but that's ok.

I saw this as a book about growing up, dealing with choices made young and impetuously, dealing with the envy which is at the core of what Percy has to work through in order to become her own person - from seeing herself as someone who hasn’t got the musical talent she craves and admires so, to a recognition that there are different aspects to making music, and sometimes it takes more than one person, and that's what relationships of the heart are too.

I loved the glorious nerdiness of it all, I loved the characters who are young and did induce a degree of impatience in me, but who are consumed by the power of music to lift, transport, transform, underline a life, and to nurse you through the good and bad. Richard Thompson has a line in a song (Happy Days and Auld Lang Syne, off The Old Kit Bag, in case anyone's wondering) which almost perfectly describes what this book captures:
"sometimes you never connect with a song till it's telling the way that you feel, putting words to your story, all the pain and the glory, how can it be written so real."

It's not a perfect novel, but it made me feel, and took me back, and made me care, and gave me some new songs to listen to, and just somehow resonated with many years of my life. And for that I am very grateful.

Deep Cuts is the shockingly powerful and raw debut from Holly Brickley. It’s the type of book that you don’t just read, but actively consume and deeply feel. It’s the type not easily forgotten, where you’re left hoping for the best for its characters after it’s over, and yet it still has a perfect ending.

In Deep Cuts we follow Percy through her life from her time as an undergrad at Berkeley through to her 20s, via New York and San Francisco. Whilst at Berkeley she meets two people who will both change and shape her life, Joe and Zoe. Joe is an aspiring musician, in whom music obsessed Percy can see something incredibly special. Through her blistering critiques she helps to transform Joe’s music into something extraordinary but in doing so inadvertently places herself off limits him. It’s clear that there’s an undercut to the music they’re making, that will lead them to either love or heartbreak. Whilst Zoe, Joe’s girlfriend, will grow to be Percy’s very own guiding light in a world we she often feels disjointed.

This book is as stunningly beautiful as it is utterly devastating, and I think that’s because it all feels so incredibly real. It’s grounded so deeply in its sense of time and place, be it through world events, politics, location and of course music, that it feels so very alive. This book hums, it will not be put down and it demands to be read; gosh I loved it.

It’s a book that is filled with so much love, first and foremost Percy’s obsessive love of music, the detail with which Brickley analyses music through Percy is astounding. There is of course Percy’s often unrequited love of Joe, of which I have so much I could say but don’t want to because of spoilers; but my goodness was this a case of finding your person but never the right time. There is the gentle and soft love of Raj, and then I think my favourite of all the beautiful, sisterly platonic love in the friendship of Percy and Zoe. You feel so acutely for these characters that their highs and lows feel as though they are your own, so beautifully crafted they each are. I was so sad to say goodbye but yet so hopeful for what might be in store for them next.

This book blew me away and that it’s a debut is even more incredible. I cannot see how this book won’t be everywhere upon its release and I can’t wait.