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30th June 2025
05:12pm BST
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Every so often, you come across a book that you know you're going to adore from page one. I've been in one of my best reading grooves in some time after reading Sunrise on the Reaping and Emily Henry's Great Big Beautiful Life, so I knew my next read had to be something special.
A lot of people had been raving about Deep Cuts, but it didn't catch my full attention until Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler were cast in the film version.
The best-selling novel is hitting the big screen, so I knew I had to pick up a copy before the movie was released.
I had high expectations after seeing plenty of rave reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised by Holly Brickley's debut novel. Not only is the book full of heart, yearning, and twists, but it's also quite a moving read and one that will leave you reflecting on your early twenties.
Deep Cuts follows students Percy Marks and Joe Morrow after they meet in a campus bar in Berkley in the year 2000.
From the get-go, you will be hooked by their will-they-won't-they love story, heartbroken by the friends-to-lovers trope that always complicates everything, and filled with nostalgia as Percy talks about indie sleaze, Tumblr, and MySpace.
It is nostalgic for those of us who were young adults in the 2010s, something we don't see enough of in books these days, but also incredibly relatable to the students who are struggling to find their way in the world.
What I loved most about Deep Cuts was the invisible string always connecting Joe and Percy throughout the novel.
You couldn't help but hope they would run into one another or reunite one day. The novel is so full of heart that you end up feeling for them when they struggle or are thrilled when something good works out for one of our leads.
Their complex relationship reminded me of When Harry Met Sally at times, with the novel following Percy and Joe as they enter different stages of adulthood.
And I think that's what hooked me from the beginning, that complicated male-female friendship trope that Brickley has written so beautifully.
'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?'
Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler are set to star in the film adaptation of Deep Cuts.
Director Sean Durkin and A24 have teamed up for the project, with Saoirse Ronan also set to produce.
You can purchase Deep Cuts on hardback, Kindle and audiobook here.
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