Scan barcode
mrchuckles's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
shelfimprovement's review against another edition
3.0
This might be a lot more fun for a certain type of reader than it was for me, sort of a hipster-meets-Marlowe kind of story. Full review to come.
shelleyrae's review against another edition
3.0
I couldn't resist the premise of Libby Cudmore's debut novel, The Big Rewind. I have a cracked vinyl case full of mix tapes, including the odd one or two given to me by ex-boyfriends that I have never been able to throw away, even though I haven't had a working cassette player in more than a dozen years.
Wannabe music journalist Jett Bennet is rocked when she discovers the bloodied body of her neighbor and friend KitKat while dropping off a mis-delivered package containing a mix tape full of songs about love and heartbreak. Despite a lack of grounds, police suspicion falls on KitKat's missing boyfriend Bronco, but Jett, who temps as a proofreader at a private investigation firm, speculates that the mysterious compiler of the mix tape may have motive, and with the help of her best friend, Sid, hunts for the sender.
The Big Rewind is a murder mystery and a love story. As Jett searches for the person responsible for KitKat's murder, she reminisces about her romantic past, browsing her own collection of mix tapes from former lovers. On her mind is the one that got away -Catch, even as her feelings for best friend Sid begin to change.
"There isn't a better feeling in the world-not an orgasm, not a first kiss, not even that glorious soaring sensation you get when those first few notes of a new song pierce your chest and fill your whole body with absolute bliss-than acknowledgement that your mix tape was not only received and played but enjoyed. It's a dance of sorts, balancing songs you think the listener will love while trying to say everything that otherwise dries up in your throat before you can get out the words."
I liked Jett, though given she is aged only in her mid twenties or so, her sense of nostalgia is a little excessive and her fixation on her lost loves is a little unhealthy. Her motovation for solving the murder is a little flimsy but she unpicks the mystery in a way that makes sense given her lack of experience.
The Big Rewind has a turn of the century hipster vibe what with Jett's mentions of Trader Joe's, French Press coffee makers, kale and pot brownies, and visits to vegan bakeries, strip joints, retro vinyl record stores, and basement clubs which is a little painful, but also kinda fun.
What I probably enjoyed most was Jett's eclectic taste in music, dozens of songs mostly from the 1980's are referenced throughout the novel, playing to mood and emotion.
The Big Rewind is a quick and easy read, quirky and fun.
Want a playlist to listen to while you read? You might like to start with the following songs mentioned:
Keep Me in Your Heart - Warren Zevon
What You Doing in Bombay - Tenpole Tudor
Simply - Sara Hickman
Champagne - July for Kings
Truly Madly Deeply - Savage Garden
Pure - Lightning Seeds
The Book I Read - Talking Heads
2 became 1 - Spice Girls
All for Love - Bryan Adams
She is My Sin - Nightwish
I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) - The Proclaimers
Bury My Lovely - October Projects
Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First) - John Mellencamp
Sunrise - Simply Red
Waiting for the Weekend - The Vapors
quietjenn's review against another edition
4.0
Although this occasionally skirts a little too close to the edge of twee and precocious, I mostly really liked this. Which has been called a "hipster cozy" someplace or other (Bookriot? One of the review journals?) It's an apt summation. Sort of like if Rob from High Fidelity had a baby with Weetzie Bat, babysat by Veronica Mars, who moved to Brooklyn and stumbled on a murder that she decided to solve. Some of the relationship stuff got a little tedious and there were details and plot points that seemed all about color and didn't really add to the story, except maybe to amp up the drama and/or quirk unnecessarily, and once the culprit was introduced, it was easy to figure it out that they did it. But I had a blast reading it and if I were a wee bit younger, with the higher tolerance for hipsters that I had back then, I probably would've liked it even more.
kfrench1008's review against another edition
5.0
I picked this up because I thought it would be a light crime novel and the music theme looked fun. But I wasn't expecting it to be so astoundingly well-written. Also, it became clear early on that the crime part just keeps things moving. What this book is really about is love, both new and lost, and how songs can either amplify or substitute for our feelings. I absolutely loved this book and want to buy copies for all of my closest friends. Very highly recommended.
disassociated's review against another edition
2.0
What does it say about a book when the names of the characters, Jett, Catch, Bronco, etc, (something that bothered some readers, though not so much me) are more colourful than the characters themselves?
Jett's neighbour has been murdered, and together with friends and contacts, Jett sets out, by way of a long winding road, to try and bring the killer to justice.
The story has its moments (I'm not referring to the romantic aspects, any of them), but I read through to the end to see whodunnit. In that, there was some intrigue I thought.
Jett's neighbour has been murdered, and together with friends and contacts, Jett sets out, by way of a long winding road, to try and bring the killer to justice.
The story has its moments (I'm not referring to the romantic aspects, any of them), but I read through to the end to see whodunnit. In that, there was some intrigue I thought.
wordnerdy's review against another edition
3.0
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2016/01/2016-book-19.html
I finished this book a little while ago, and still can't decide what I think about it. It's the story of Jett, a 20-something in Brooklyn, temping instead of following her dream career as a music journalist, part of an extremely hipster-y community--when one of her friends/neighbors is MURDERED! But like, it's not a straight up mystery; it could just as easily be a sort of New Adult/women's fiction story, because so much of it is Jett thinking about old relationships, and music, and mix tapes (this book VERY MUCH nails young romance, music, and the connections therein). So it's sort of both of those kinds of stories, but also neither? Which is cool? But confusing? I definitely wished this actually had been more of a mystery. I want to see a series where Jett sets up as a hipster PI. I would read the hell out of that. B/B+.
__
A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on February 2nd.
I finished this book a little while ago, and still can't decide what I think about it. It's the story of Jett, a 20-something in Brooklyn, temping instead of following her dream career as a music journalist, part of an extremely hipster-y community--when one of her friends/neighbors is MURDERED! But like, it's not a straight up mystery; it could just as easily be a sort of New Adult/women's fiction story, because so much of it is Jett thinking about old relationships, and music, and mix tapes (this book VERY MUCH nails young romance, music, and the connections therein). So it's sort of both of those kinds of stories, but also neither? Which is cool? But confusing? I definitely wished this actually had been more of a mystery. I want to see a series where Jett sets up as a hipster PI. I would read the hell out of that. B/B+.
__
A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on February 2nd.
laurapeschroe's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved this! It gave me High Fidelity vibes with a case to solve. Plus Warren Zevon has a special place in my heart. Was there maybe a tad to much going on probably but it was a super fun book with great nostalgia notes.
queien's review against another edition
2.0
My feelings about his book are all over the place... I had a huge, conflicting love-have relationship with the first 2/3 of the book, and then for the last third, I started leaning more toward "hate" but felt too invested in seeing the end to put it down and give up on it.
The good:
The writing is really solid, and the plot is engaging. The pacing is perfect. The music references are such that the reader doesn't need to know the song to understand what is being expressed. There's a lot of great representation in this book, with characters being incredibly diverse. The end message of letting the past stay in the past was nice. If the author has any books that aren't mysteries or romances, I'd read them because her writing style is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for in a book.
The bad:
There's a lot of repetition. Some of it's obvious, like how Jett mentions three times in the first four pages that she's subletting her grandmother's apartment. Sometimes it's less obvious, like how a ton of different characters over the span of several chapters talk about how they're positive Bronco didn't do anything.
There are a ton of contradictions. Jett says she hardly knew KitKat and Bronco, but then, a couple chapters later, she switches it up and describes them as her friends. She makes it sound like she hates hipsters, but all her friends are hipsters and she even seems to describe herself as a hipster at one point. She asks all her friends "hey, do you know anyone with the initials GPL?" but then in a later chapter says "I hadn't asked anyone about GPL because I didn't want to show my hand." She describes herself as a feminist but then slut shames a stripper.
The book uses some of my least favorite tropes to drive the plot. One of them, "character can never say what they mean," is the narrator's main flaw, and it was so frustrating for me... The other one that stood out to me was the "girl just needs to get laid to feel better" cliche.
One thing that's been nagging at the back of my mind is "why couldn't they rewind the tape and listen to it again?" The reason the book states is because the rewind button is broken, but...couldn't you just listen to the A side for a couple minutes and then flip it to the B side again and be right about at the beginning of the last song? On top of that, what did it add to the plot that Jett could only hear the song once? Why couldn't she listen to it a couple times? I don't know why I'm so hung up on this one scene...
The romance was more a soap opera/drama, and I'm just not fond of that sort of story.
There were a lot of other things, but I'm having trouble putting them into words. In the end, the writing was great, but the story itself was not for me, and other things (like the repetition and contradiction issues) made it harder for me to enjoy what parts of the plot I did like.
The good:
The writing is really solid, and the plot is engaging. The pacing is perfect. The music references are such that the reader doesn't need to know the song to understand what is being expressed. There's a lot of great representation in this book, with characters being incredibly diverse. The end message of letting the past stay in the past was nice. If the author has any books that aren't mysteries or romances, I'd read them because her writing style is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for in a book.
The bad:
There's a lot of repetition. Some of it's obvious, like how Jett mentions three times in the first four pages that she's subletting her grandmother's apartment. Sometimes it's less obvious, like how a ton of different characters over the span of several chapters talk about how they're positive Bronco didn't do anything.
There are a ton of contradictions. Jett says she hardly knew KitKat and Bronco, but then, a couple chapters later, she switches it up and describes them as her friends. She makes it sound like she hates hipsters, but all her friends are hipsters and she even seems to describe herself as a hipster at one point. She asks all her friends "hey, do you know anyone with the initials GPL?" but then in a later chapter says "I hadn't asked anyone about GPL because I didn't want to show my hand." She describes herself as a feminist but then slut shames a stripper.
Spoiler
Yeah, the stripper turned out to be a bad guy, but that's still not an excuse to slut shame someone. There were so many other things about that character other than her profession that Jett could've pulled her insults from.Spoiler
When Sid was first introduced, there was no hint that Jett was crushing on him. It was only after Sid started falling for someone else that her emotions started coming through, and the way it was set up, it felt less like "I'm losing the love of my life!" and more "I'm losing my free meal ticket!" And then her love for Sid was further brought into question for me when Jett finally got Sid to herself and she IMMEDIATELY tried to run off with one of her exes.The book uses some of my least favorite tropes to drive the plot. One of them, "character can never say what they mean," is the narrator's main flaw, and it was so frustrating for me... The other one that stood out to me was the "girl just needs to get laid to feel better" cliche.
One thing that's been nagging at the back of my mind is "why couldn't they rewind the tape and listen to it again?" The reason the book states is because the rewind button is broken, but...couldn't you just listen to the A side for a couple minutes and then flip it to the B side again and be right about at the beginning of the last song? On top of that, what did it add to the plot that Jett could only hear the song once? Why couldn't she listen to it a couple times? I don't know why I'm so hung up on this one scene...
The romance was more a soap opera/drama, and I'm just not fond of that sort of story.
There were a lot of other things, but I'm having trouble putting them into words. In the end, the writing was great, but the story itself was not for me, and other things (like the repetition and contradiction issues) made it harder for me to enjoy what parts of the plot I did like.