Robert

Although this is a breezy read, it's not as fun as it should be, based on its premise. A Brooklyn-based hipster living in her grandmother's rent-controlled apartment intends to give her neighbor a mixed tape that she accidentally received, only to discover her body. She hopes to find killer through that tape, but her hunt sets her off on a journey through her own romantic past and its soundtrack. Unfortunately, the dual threads of the narrative lack drive and never really gel, while the setting and the narrator's voice feel forced. The name-dropping of locations and pop-culture references is over-the-top and kept throwing me out of the story instead of connecting me to it. And for an alleged music obsessive, amateur sleuth Jett has pretty pedestrian tastes.

A disappointment. Most readers with a passing interest in this genre will already be familiar with the content. Sadly, it's not even a fun read - the poorly edited manuscript repeats sentences frequently, and the insistence on a chronological structure means that the emphasis is more on the narrative of a few well-known bands as they flame out. A more thematic approach would have allowed the writer to delve more deeply into the music, and offered readers the opportunity of discovery. As it is, the book reads like a second-rate “behind the music,” focused on melodrama, with most content drawn from music magazines.