6 Music Fiction Books for People Who Never Leave Home Without Headphones
They capture the highs and lows of fame and heartbreak.
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Music fiction can be a niche genre, but it’s one with unmatched drama. Pairing lyrical writing with big emotions and dramatic twists, books about singers or bands can dive deeply into the highs and lows of fame and beauty. Some music fiction books are about sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. Others are emotional reads about the power of music to connect us across time and circumstance.
Music fiction lends itself particularly well to adaptation, so as a bonus, some of these books come with their own TV or movie soundtrack to listen to as you read. Whether you’re a musician yourself or you simply don’t go anywhere without your headphones, these are the best music fiction books to read right now. Don’t forget to join the GH Book Club for more great book recommendations!
This book is both a GH Book Club pick and a Read With Jenna selection!
Elle Harlow is a famous folk singer who disappeared one night without a trace. Marijohn is a mandolin player stuck in the small town where she was abandoned as a baby, and her dad was one of the last people to see Elle alive.
A meteor and a broken mandolin unite Elle and Marijohn’s lives in stunning ways in this scrappy story about music, heartbreak, and resilience, from hardscrabble mountain living to the cutthroat lights of Nashville.
Told as an oral history through a series of interviews, this Fleetwood Mac-inspired book follows the rise and fall of the titular band in the 70s.
Beautiful but self-destructive vocalist Daisy can’t stay away from band leader Billy Dunne, who is struggling with unexpected fatherhood. Their explosive chemistry takes them first to the top of the charts and then to their own personal rock bottoms as they struggle with fame and their simmering attraction.
A lavish birthday party at the house of the vice president of a South American country is hijacked by gun-toting terrorists. In attendance is Roxane, one of the greatest sopranos in opera. As the hostage situation unfolds, both the terrorists and the hostages realize they are united by music as surprising bonds develop in this emotional literary fiction.
If you have 90s boy band nostalgia, this book is for you. After a recent divorce, Annie finds herself—somewhat unwillingly—on a four-day cruise themed after her childhood favorite boy band. She’s skeptical, but seeing her old favorite band members up close reignites not only her nostalgia but her openness to life when she starts a surprising friendship with one of the band members.
This kaleidoscopic Pulitzer Prize winner is a series of intertwined narratives with different main characters. What they all have in common is that they know Bennie Salazar, a former punk rocker and aging record executive, or Sasha, his troubled employee. Leaping forward and backwards in time as well as around the world, it creates a deeply layered story about aging, music, and chance encounters.
Opal is an Afro-punk singer with a powerful voice. When she teams up with white singer/songwriter Nev, they form an up-and-coming rock band in the 70s. But when a rival band displays a Confederate flag and Opal protests, it sparks a fatal encounter. Decades later, as Opal and Nev consider a reunion tour, a music journalist uncovers new layers to the night that changed everything.
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