Songs and First Encounters

Percy, a sharp, opinionated college student, meets Joe, a soulful, aspiring musician, in a bar in Berkeley in 2000. Their first conversation is a playful, passionate debate about what makes a song "perfect," revealing their shared obsession with music as emotional language and the emotional weight it carries. This initial spark is complicated by Joe's relationship with his girlfriend Zoe, and Percy's own insecurities about her musical "talent." The trio's dynamic is set: music is both a bridge and a barrier, and every encounter is charged with longing, wit, and the ache of wanting more from life and each other.

The Art of Critique

Percy's role as Joe's critic and collaborator emerges as she gives blunt, insightful feedback on his songs, pushing him to improve. Their creative partnership is electric but fraught—Percy's critiques are both a gift and a wound, fueling Joe's growth but also exposing his vulnerabilities. The process of songwriting becomes a metaphor for intimacy: each suggestion, each revision, is a negotiation of trust, ego, and desire. Their connection deepens, but so does the tension, as Percy's inability to create her own music leaves her both indispensable and envious.

Musical Soulmates and Triangles

The trio of Percy, Joe, and Zoe forms a complex friendship triangle. Zoe, Joe's girlfriend and Percy's eventual confidante, is sharp, political, and searching for her own identity. The three bond over music as emotional language, late-night conversations, and shared outsider status, but under the surface, desire and jealousy simmer. Zoe's sexuality and her eventual coming out add layers of complexity, as does Percy's growing attraction to Joe. The triangle is a crucible for growth, heartbreak, and the search for belonging.

Finding Voice in Chaos

Percy's journey is marked by her struggle to find her own voice. She writes columns for Zoe's zine, Ring Finger, and later starts a music blog, Walgreens Songs, where she explores the intersection of music and personal experience. Her writing is raw, self-deprecating, and searching, as she tries to make sense of her place in the world and the meaning of her obsessions. The chaos of college, parties, and the early 2000s music scene becomes the backdrop for her self-discovery.

The Promise and Its Price

After a near-romantic encounter, Percy and Joe make a promise not to cross the line into romance, fearing it would ruin their creative partnership. This promise becomes a source of both safety and pain, as it preserves their collaboration but stifles their desire. The unspoken tension shapes their interactions, fueling both their best work and their deepest regrets. The promise is a metaphor for all the boundaries—emotional, creative, sexual—that define and confine them.

Jealousy, Talent, and Gender

Percy's envy of Joe's musical talent and public recognition is a constant undercurrent. She grapples with imposter syndrome, the gendered dynamics of credit and authorship, and the pain of being "just" a critic or muse. Joe, in turn, is both inspired and threatened by Percy's intellect and honesty. Their relationship exposes the ways gender, class, and creative ambition intersect, and how women's contributions are often minimized or erased in male-dominated spaces.

Heartbreaks and New Beginnings

Percy's romantic life is a series of false starts and heartbreaks: a disastrous first sexual experience, a tender but ultimately doomed relationship with Raj, and the long, slow burn of her feelings for Joe. Each relationship teaches her something about herself—her needs, her fears, her capacity for forgiveness. The end of her friendship with Zoe, the collapse of her romance with Raj, and her eventual estrangement from Joe all force her to confront her own patterns and desires.

Cities, Scenes, and Selves

The novel moves from Berkeley to New York to San Francisco and beyond, each city reflecting a different stage in Percy's journey. The music scenes, subcultures, and social dynamics of each place shape her sense of self and her creative ambitions. The cities are both playgrounds and battlegrounds, offering opportunities for reinvention but also exposing the limits of escape. Percy's search for belonging is as much about finding the right place as the right people.

Collaboration and Competition

Percy and Joe's collaboration is mirrored in other creative partnerships—Joe's band, Zoe's zine, Percy's work with other musicians. The line between collaboration and competition is thin, and the desire for credit, recognition, and control often leads to conflict. When Joe uses Percy's words in his hit song without proper credit, the betrayal is both personal and professional, forcing Percy to reckon with the costs of giving herself to someone else's art.

The Power of the Bridge

The "bridge as transformation" in a song—a section that departs from the verse and chorus—becomes a central metaphor. Percy's talent for writing bridges, both literal and figurative, is her unique gift: she helps others cross from one emotional state to another, to find release, climax, or resolution. But being "the girl in the bridge" also means being stuck between worlds, never fully the star or the audience, always the catalyst. The bridge is where transformation happens, but it's also a place of risk and exposure.

Fame, Ownership, and Betrayal

Joe's band, Caroline, achieves indie fame, propelled by songs Percy helped shape. When her contributions go uncredited, Percy is forced to confront the realities of authorship, ownership, and the gendered politics of the music industry. The betrayal is compounded by Joe's romantic entanglements and the shifting dynamics of their friendship. As Percy finds her own success as a writer and producer, she must decide what kind of recognition—and what kind of relationships—she truly wants.

Forgiveness and Self-Discovery

The aftermath of betrayal, heartbreak, and creative disappointment is a long process of forgiveness—of others and of self. Percy's correspondence with Zoe, her reflections on her mother's choices, and her eventual reconciliation with Joe all point toward a hard-won acceptance. Forgiveness is not a single act but an ongoing practice, a way of making peace with imperfection, loss, and the messiness of love and art.

The Girl in the Bridge

Percy finally claims her place as a creator, not just a critic or muse. She co-writes and produces songs, starts her own projects, and learns to value her unique perspective. The "girl in the bridge" becomes a symbol of agency: the one who connects, transforms, and endures. Percy's journey is about learning to inhabit that space with pride, to see her own story as worthy of being told.

Letting Go, Moving Forward

As Percy and Joe reconnect, they acknowledge the impossibility of separating their creative and romantic lives. They decide to try again, this time as equals, aware of the risks but hopeful about the rewards. The future is uncertain, but Percy is no longer defined by longing or regret. She has learned to let go—of old wounds, old roles, and the need for perfection—and to move forward with courage and curiosity.

Music as Meaning

Throughout the novel, music as emotional language is more than a backdrop—it is the language through which characters understand themselves and each other. Songs are memory, prophecy, confession, and comfort. The search for the "perfect song" is really a search for meaning, connection, and transcendence. Percy's story is a testament to the power of music to shape, heal, and define a life.

Deep Cuts, Deeper Healing

In the end, Percy realizes that the songs that cut deepest—the "deep cuts"—are the ones that stay with us, shape us, and help us heal. Her journey is about learning to honor those wounds, to turn pain into art, and to find joy in the messy, imperfect process of living and loving. The novel closes with Percy and Joe, older and wiser, ready to write new songs together—not in spite of their scars, but because of them.

Characters

Percy Marks

Percy is the novel's narrator and emotional core—a fiercely intelligent, self-deprecating woman whose love for music as emotional language is both her salvation and her curse. She is a natural critic, quick-witted and unafraid to speak her mind, but haunted by insecurity about her own creative abilities. Percy's relationships—with Joe, Zoe, Raj, her mother—are shaped by her longing for connection and her fear of vulnerability. Over the course of the novel, she evolves from a passive observer and muse to an active creator, learning to claim her own voice and value.

Joe Morrow

Joe is Percy's creative soulmate and romantic foil—a gifted songwriter and performer whose charm is matched by his emotional volatility. Marked by early loss (his mother's death) and a complicated relationship with his father, Joe seeks solace and meaning in music. His partnership with Percy is both a source of inspiration and a site of conflict, as he struggles with ego, ambition, and the need for validation. Joe's journey is about learning to accept help, share credit, and risk intimacy.

Zoe Gutierrez

Zoe is Joe's girlfriend and Percy's confidante, a sharp-tongued, principled woman navigating her own coming out and search for identity. She is the anchor of the trio, often mediating between Percy and Joe, but also wrestling with her own desires and insecurities. Zoe's journey is about claiming her sexuality, finding her voice, and learning to let go of relationships that no longer serve her. Her friendship with Percy is a model of chosen family—messy, loyal, and transformative.

Raj

Raj is Percy's boyfriend during her New York years—a thoughtful, gentle food writer who offers her stability and affection. Their relationship is marked by tenderness but also by a fundamental disconnect: Percy's unresolved feelings for Joe, her sexual hang-ups, and her restless ambition. Raj's eventual rejection of Percy is both a heartbreak and a liberation, forcing her to confront her own patterns and needs.

Percy's Mother

Percy's mother is a former musician who chose a "safer" life in Indiana, shaping Percy's understanding of art, ambition, and gender. Their relationship is marked by distance, mutual misunderstanding, and a deep, unspoken love. Her mother's ambivalence about music—its dangers and its joys—mirrors Percy's own struggles, and their eventual conversations offer a path toward forgiveness and acceptance.

Luke Skinner

Luke is Joe's bandmate and later Percy's collaborator—a talented but insecure musician who represents both the possibilities and pitfalls of creative partnership. His rivalry with Joe and his reliance on Percy's input highlight the complexities of authorship, credit, and ego in the music world.

Nomi

Nomi is Percy's friend from her MFA program in New York—a former model turned writer whose confidence and candor challenge Percy to be bolder. Nomi's presence is a reminder of the importance of female friendship, solidarity, and the need to carve out one's own space in a competitive world.

Harrison

Harrison is a fellow writer in New York whose sexual assault of Percy is a turning point in her journey. His presence exposes the dangers women face in creative and social spaces, and the ways trauma can shape identity and relationships.

Melissa

Melissa is Zoe's girlfriend in San Francisco—a grounded, nurturing presence who helps Zoe build a new life. Her relationship with Zoe models healthy partnership and the possibility of happiness after heartbreak.

Alma

Alma is a German commenter on Percy's blog, whose thoughtful responses offer validation and perspective. She represents the unseen audience, the power of art to connect across distance, and the importance of being witnessed.

Plot Devices

Music as Emotional Language

Music is the novel's primary metaphor and narrative engine. Songs are used to communicate longing, grief, joy, and connection—often more powerfully than dialogue. The structure of songs (verses, choruses, bridges) mirrors the structure of relationships, and specific tracks serve as emotional touchstones for the characters' journeys.

The Bridge as Transformation

The musical "bridge" becomes a recurring motif, symbolizing moments of transition, risk, and revelation. Percy's talent for writing bridges is both literal (in songwriting) and figurative (in relationships), marking her as a catalyst for change but also as someone perpetually in-between.

First-Person, Retrospective Narration

The novel is told in Percy's sharp, confessional first-person, blending present-tense immediacy with reflective hindsight. This structure allows for deep psychological insight, self-deprecating humor, and a sense of lived experience. The reader is drawn into Percy's mind, sharing her doubts, desires, and discoveries.

Foreshadowing and Recurring Motifs

Key lines, songs, and metaphors recur across the novel, creating a sense of resonance and inevitability. The "promise," the "girl in the bridge," and the search for the "perfect song" all foreshadow later developments, while callbacks to earlier scenes and conversations deepen the emotional impact.

Blending of Fiction and Criticism

The novel blurs the line between fiction and music criticism, with Percy's essays, blog posts, and zine columns woven into the narrative. This device allows for meta-commentary on art, gender, and culture, and invites the reader to engage with the story both emotionally and intellectually.

Analysis

Deep Cuts is a coming-of-age novel for the music-obsessed, a sharp, funny, and deeply felt exploration of how art shapes identity, relationships, and self-worth. Holly Brickley uses the language and structure of pop music to tell a story about longing, ambition, and the messy work of growing up. At its heart, the book is about the search for voice—creative, romantic, and personal—and the ways we both wound and heal each other in the process. Through Percy's journey from critic to creator, muse to author, the novel interrogates the gendered dynamics of credit, the pain of being "almost" enough, and the redemptive power of collaboration. It's a love letter to the songs that cut deepest, and a reminder that the most meaningful art—and the most meaningful lives—are forged in the spaces between longing and letting go. For modern readers, Deep Cuts offers both a nostalgic portrait of the early 2000s indie scene and a timeless meditation on the costs and rewards of making art, loving bravely, and learning to forgive.

Last updated: May 9, 2025