Deep Cuts

Deep Cuts (2025) is a literary romance novel by American author Holly Brickley. Set in the 2000s, the novel follows Percy Marks, a young woman who carries a lifelong obsession with music into her undergraduate studies at Berkeley. When Percy meets a budding musician named Joe Morrow, she becomes instantly drawn to him—and to his girlfriend, Zoe Gutierrez. Over the next eight years, Percy learns to navigate her relationships with both of them while also reckoning with her outsized ambitions, her lack of talent, and her constant need to belong. Brickley uses this story to explore themes of impossible desire, earnestness, and the dynamics of criticism and collaboration.

Brickley drew from her personal relationship with music to create the character of Percy Marks, zeroing in on her status as an outsider to the living, shifting world of pop music. The novel has been optioned for a film adaptation at A24; Sean Durkin is slated to direct, and the film will star Saoirse Ronan as Marks and Austin Butler as Joe Morrow.

This guide refers to the international edition of the novel, published by Crown in 2025.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of substance use, addiction, emotional abuse, sexual content, cursing, sexual harassment, illness, and anti-gay bias.

Plot Summary

The novel begins in 2000 when two University of California, Berkeley students (Percy Marks and Joe Morrow) meet at a bar. As they bond over their shared love of music, Percy’s keen critical ear motivates Joe to share a song that he is working on. Her harsh but constructive feedback vastly improves his original demo, and he invites her to write for Ring Finger, a zine published by his girlfriend, Zoe Gutierrez. Although Percy is afraid of exposing herself in her writing, Zoe becomes an instant fan of her music-themed essays. The three form a close-knit friend group, but Percy starts pining for Joe as she continues to help write the songs that he will debut with his new band, Caroline.

Zoe comes out as a lesbian and breaks up with Joe, giving Percy a chance to pursue him romantically. On the night of Caroline’s first show, Percy tries to initiate sex, but Joe rebuffs her, saying that he doesn’t want to risk his relationship with his “critic.” In response, Percy challenges him to double down on his priorities by making him promise never to have sex with her. To her surprise, he accepts. Zoe later calls Joe “manipulative” for doing this, but Percy defends him, and her stance causes a rift to form between the two women. 

On the week of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, Joe visits Percy and keeps her company. The two of them are afraid of how the event will reshape the world they know. Percy tries to initiate sex once again and is rejected by Joe.

In 2002, Percy begins a graduate course in creative writing in New York. Although she is now among other writers, she gets the sense that she doesn’t belong, especially since much of her writing deals with music that none of her peers have ever heard. Meanwhile, Joe has started touring the United States with Caroline; he passes through New York on the night that Percy goes to an Interpol concert with two of the writers in her program. One of the writers sexually assaults Percy at the concert, leaving her terrified and upset when Joe calls to ask if he can stay over at her place for the night. 

The next morning, Joe takes Percy to a piano showroom, and the two co-write a new song entitled “Bay Window,” which is based on their experience of the September 11 attacks. Percy writes the song bridge when Joe refuses, transforming her feelings of Joe’s rejection into an emotional release. She observes that Joe has depicted her in the song as “the woman I love” (113), but Joe downplays this as a good lyric that simply fits the melody. His dismissive response leaves Percy frustrated as Caroline goes on to tour the United Kingdom.

Percy starts dating a food writer in her program; his name is Raj. Their relationship is warm, and Percy lives with him through the summer of 2003. One day, Joe invites Percy to be his date at a wedding that Caroline has been hired to play. When Percy arrives at Joe’s hotel room, the two of them are suddenly taken with each other and have sex. Later that night, Percy learns that Joe has been sleeping with fans while on tour. This upsets her so much that she breaks a CD of new songs that he needs help with, then retreats to her family home in Indiana. Misinterpreting her mother’s advice to avoid the trap of wanting “more” from life, Percy is inspired to confess her infidelity to Raj and tell him that she chooses him over Joe. However, Raj is so offended by Percy’s confession that he breaks up with her. Percy eventually realizes that her mother was actually advising her to find a sense of belonging outside of romantic relationships. Percy reconnects with Zoe, who coaches her to fight back against her insecurities and helps her to vocalize the envy that she has always had for Joe as a musician.

The narrative skips forward to 2005. Percy and Zoe are now roommates living in San Francisco, and Percy is working at a trends marketing agency, where she gathers brand intelligence by recruiting trendsetters in coastal cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Percy’s work allows her to discover the outsider communities that she has always wanted to belong to. However, her work also prevents her from fully integrating into these spaces, once again rendering her a perpetual outsider. She refocuses her energies into a music blog, where she writes about the music spaces that she visits on her work trips.

Percy is shocked when she learns that a song on Caroline’s second album was inspired by one of her blog posts and even goes as far as to plagiarize her writing without crediting her as a co-writer. When she calls Joe to express her anger, he makes amends and gives her proper credit. When Caroline tours through California, Percy tries to avoid the band, but she ends up seeing Joe perform “Bay Window” in Los Angeles. A fan of Joe’s recognizes Percy as “the girl in the bridge” (217), a moment that thrills and validates Percy. When Caroline’s guitarist, Luke Skinner, quits the band, Percy agrees to help him improve his songs on the condition that she be credited as a co-writer and producer.

Joe gets upset with Percy when he learns that she is working with Luke. Percy tries reaching out to Joe after “Bay Window” becomes a hit single, but he refuses to respond to her messages, and she fears that their friendship is over. Percy’s songwriting and production career soon takes off when an indie musician named Meg Vee reaches out to work with her.

In the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, Percy fears for the future of her career and those of all her friends, including Joe’s. When she insults a potential client at a pitch meeting, she loses her job, and during her last work trip to New York, she visits a bar where Joe regularly performs. Joe admits to having a blog post that Percy wrote as an apology to him, and the two reconcile. He invites her to write music with him again, but Percy declines the offer because she wants to separate her identity as a songwriter from the emotional baggage of her relationship with Joe. 

That Thanksgiving, Joe reunites with Percy and Zoe in San Francisco and asks Percy what kind of song she might write if she had free rein. They have sex as Percy begins to describe her idea: a song about their relationship, albeit from Joe’s perspective. Percy only appears in the bridge of the song, making her “The Girl in the Bridge.” Joe proposes that he and Percy move into a small house in Montana together. Percy accepts, excited by the music that they will write together.