WellRead's April 2025 selection was Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley. This book is full of musical history and analysis and we found ourselves listening to our favourite tracks a little differently afterwards.

Use these discussion questions to engage with the book further, whether in a book club with friend, or just on your own as you digest the story. 

Reading questions for Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley: 

• Each of the chapter titles throughout Deep Cuts is the title of a song referenced in the chapter. If you needed to create a 15-track album of the songs important in your life, which tracks would you choose?
  
  

• How did you feel about our trio – Percy, Zoe and Joe? We follow them over a number of years; did their likeability change throughout the story for you?
  
  

• The friendship between Percy, Zoe and Joe takes different forms over the years. How would you describe the roles they play in each other’s lives and the ways in which they find their own voices as they grow older?
  
  

• Percy’s own mother tells her that she didn’t get “music gene”. Do you think this is true? How do you think Percy’s family shapes her own view of herself and the opportunities available to her in life?
  
  

• Percy’s perspective on music differs from those around her and she judges songs by her own metrics “How deep does it cut? How close to the bone? How long do you feel it?” Are these similar or different to the ways that you judge a great song? 

Please note, these questions were written and distributed in April 2025.