‘Deep Cuts’ by Holly Brickley, reviewed by Ceire

Set against the lively backdrop of the early 2000s music scene, Deep Cuts follows Percy Marks, a UC Berkeley student whose talent lies not in playing music but in her sharp, passionate critique of it. A chance encounter with aspiring songwriter Joe Morrow sparks a years-long partnership.

Percy’s voice—self-aware, biting, relatable— and her tendency to dwell and over-analyse makes her a vivid and flawed protagonist. Her excitement and vulnerability as she connects with Joe at the bar sets the tone for their entire relationship. Percy’s fascination with, and adoration for, music, despite not being a musician herself, is a reminder of how passion alone can make us feel like insiders even when we’re on the periphery.

Through her obsessive listening and analysis, she has developed a deep, almost instinctual understanding of what makes a song great. Joe, despite his undeniable talent, relies on Percy’s wit and nuance to craft his most successful songs.

Their collaboration is exhilarating at first, each pushing the other to be better. But their ambitions and insecurities collide, disrupting their briefly idyllic relationship. Percy struggles with being a sidekick to Joe’s success—the uncredited architect of his best songs. Brickley navigates these tensions with honesty, beautifully articulating the mess of pride and jealousy that comes with the intimacy of a creative partnership, highlighting how creativity can both unite and isolate.

The settings—from Brooklyn dive bars to San Francisco’s vibrant dance floors—are richly drawn, capturing the spirit of the era while grounding the characters’ emotional journeys.

Brickley’s writing is playful and descriptive without being overwrought. Music is constantly weaved into the narrative - at the bar, in their flat, in her writing, in his playing - but this feels natural, unforced. And the playlist Brickley has created to soundtrack the book is fantastic—eclectic, unpretentious, full of bangers.

Deep Cuts examines the cost of collaboration. Percy is forced to question whether their partnership is helping her grow or holding her back—a relatable question for anyone who’s struggled to balance shared goals with personal identity. It’s a sharp, heartfelt novel about the messy, exhilarating process of finding your voice— in art, love, life.

We really enjoyed Deep Cuts and are very grateful to The Borough Press at Harper Collins for giving us advance copies of the book! The book will be coming to stores near you in March 2025, and if you are living in London, we will be giving away ten copies of this at our upcoming silent book club.

Finally, a huge thank you to our South London member Ceire (pictured below) for continuing to write such excellent book reviews for us! If you would like to become a review writer for us, please email us.

‘Think Again’: Wilson’s beloved characters have grown up with us

Those who say never meet your heroes have never spent anytime in the company of Jacqueline Wilson.

My love for reading started when I was a child, to be specific it was the day I discovered author Jacqueline Wilson on the shelf in my school library.

Before I knew it, I had read her entire collection of children’s books.

I recall being quite a worried and anxious character yet I gained great comfort from her writing about the struggles of growing up.  

Fast forward from the 1990s to 2024, Jacqueline Wilson released her first adult fiction book: Think Again. This story covers the wonderful, unpredictable and puzzling journey of living life as a female.

This book features the characters from her beloved children’s novels but this time as adults: three girls in their forties.

Her writing style is engaging and captures joy in the most mundane and ordinary life events. The book therefore took me on a trip down memory lane and makes me so grateful the iconic author is back!

Wilson has taught me many things. One being how to feel comfortable in being myself, during an era when being an introverted and cautious kid was often viewed by society as a fault 

We live in a time where doing what makes me truly happy, and making decisions about my career and lifestyle which go against social normalities, are seen as acts of rebellion.

The launch event of Jacqueline Wilson’s latest novel ‘Think Again’

 On the day ‘Think Again’ was released, I attended the launch event with Dame Jacqueline Wilson. It was a very uplifting and wholesome evening.

I sat on the front row, with my copy of a signed edition in hand. Seeing Wilson come on stage was hard to put into words, I felt as if she is a life-long friend of mine, and this was the first time we were actually meeting! It was a very exciting evening filled with genuine and honest conversations, ahead of me starting to read the book.

 Think Again is sure to be a fantastic read for those discovering Jacqueline’s novels for the first time. She navigates new, fun and occasional choppy waters. Wilson still creates characters with such depth and relatability and the book is full of heart-warming friendships and an empowering reminder to all women: its never too late to change course. 

This review was written by book club member, Kerry.

If you would like to submit a piece for our blog, please email us.

2023 Book Club reads

London Feminist Book Club has had a wonderful year of fun, fantasy and feminist friends, so we thought we’d take a moment to reflect on all the books we’ve read for the book club, and get some of our members feedback!

As always, and we would like to take a moment to thank all of you for your support in 2023. We literally wouldn’t exist without you - so to our book club members, our volunteers, our board members and to all the authors and book shops and venues who have hosted us, thank you so much.

Now back to the books…

Across South and North London Feminist Book club, we have read a range of fantastic, women-written books (listed on the following pages) which have taken us on journeys of tragedy, comedy, difficult relationships and liberating revelations.

Not only have we read some amazing authors, but we’ve met some too! It has been our pleasure and honour to welcome authors such as Tice Cin, Amy Key, Rosie Wilby and Jyoti Patel into our community to share some insight into their creative practices. We are so excited to host more author events in the new year.

This year also saw the launch of the London Feminist Book Club Festival! This would not have been possible without every members’ support and passion to help us bring this to life and we simply cannot wait to do it all over again in 2024.

We have so many plans and aspirations for the new year ahead and we are so excited and thrilled to have you as part of this journey!

We hope you enjoy this blog, and remember to follow us on our socials - we have South and North London, London, and now Sheffield and Bristol, were also on LinkedIn, X, and Tiktok. That’s a whole lot of content for you!

January

‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow'
Gabrielle Zevin

Spanning 30 years, and travelling through a myriad of destinations, Zevin's ‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’ is an intricately imagined novel that examines the nature of identity & failure, and above all, our need to connect. It is a love story you haven’t read before.

February

‘Lessons in Chemistry'
Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality.

Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s scientific approach to cooking isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

March

‘The Things That We Lost'
Jyoti Patel

When Nik’s grandfather dies, he has the opportunity to learn about the man he never met. Armed with a key and new knowledge about his parents' past, Nik sets out to unlock the secrets that his mother has been holding onto his whole life.

April

‘I’m Glad My Mom Died'
Jennette McCurdy

A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy. Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’ is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.

May

‘Keeping the House'
Tice Cin

Centred on North London’s Turkish heroin trade, and the overlapping leaves, are the stories of its players. There’s Damla, a Turkish-Cypriot girl growing up in Tottenham, and her mother Ayla. There’s Mehmet, a mover in the trade, and Ali, who’s got big hopes for Ayla.

'Keeping the House’ is a bewitching debut that lifts the lid on a covert world, with a dynamic introduction to a fascinating new voice.

June

‘Really Good, Actually'
Monica Heisey

Maggie is fine. She’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s broke, her graduate thesis on something obscure which is going nowhere, and her marriage only lasted 608 days, but at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée.

This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

July

‘Arrangements in Blue’
Amy Key

Now in her forties, poet Amy Key sets out to explore the realities of a life lived in the absence of romantic love, using Joni Mitchell’s Blue as her guide.

‘Arrangements in Blue’ explores the painful feelings we are usually too ashamed to discuss: loneliness, envy, grief and failure.

September

‘I’m Sorry You Feel That Way’
Rebecca Wait

A compelling domestic comedy about complex family dynamics, mental health and the intricacies of sibling relationships.

As adults, Alice and Hanna must deal with disappointments in work and in love as well as increasingly complicated family tensions, and lives that look dismayingly dissimilar to what they'd intended.

October

‘Yellowface’
R. F. Kuang

When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the pseudonym Juniper Song.

‘Yellowface’ grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media.

November

‘The Breakup Monologues’
Rosie Wilby

This book is a love letter to Rosie’s breakups in a celebration of what they have taught her. With anecdotes from illustrious friends and interviews with relationship therapists, scientists and sociologists. Rosie delves deep into the modern age of ghosting, breadcrumbing and conscious uncoupling.

December

‘The Woman in Me’
Britney Spears

‘The Woman In Me’ reveals Spears’s incredible journey to reclaiming her own freedom. Written with incredible candor and humor, This ground-breaking book illuminates the power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.