In her early 20s, Laura moves to New York with a dream. A songwriter and talented musician, she left Ohio to pursue a career in music. She and her best friend and roommate, Callie, become involved with a guitarist and drummer from a band called The Clips who quickly find fame, and the pair of women begin to chase their musical dreams as well. Perfect Tunes chronicles Laura’s journey as unexpected obstacles come her way—9/11 and other tragedies that set her musical career off track but skyrocket Callie’s. Flash forward years later, Laura is a mother to a daughter Marie and while music is still a constant in her life it has taken a backseat to all that motherhood entails.
This was a good book but I felt like I needed more connection to the characters. It seemed to skip over big parts of Laura and Marie's lives together when I wanted to know more. Overall a good read but not one of my favorites.
Thanks to Emily Gould, Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

I’m having a hard time describing Perfect Tunes. From the publisher’s description, you’d think it was a little more eventful. It’s definitely character driven and because the main character, Laura, is not a very dramatic person, even the action seems a little subdued. Because of this, it can be easy for the book to seek a little boring or unfinished. It seems like some of the characters could have been fleshed out more.

That being said, I really enjoyed reading this. It was quick and easy and it held my attention. I also DNFed three books directly before it, so it definitely wins points for holding my attention.

I didn't love or hate this book and nothing in the story drew me in, but what i can say is that this was a solid 3/5 star read. Thank you, Avid Reader Press for this gifted copy via NetGalley.

Laura arrives in New York City with a dream and a plan, but when her plan gets tangled and twisted, she finds herself in the same place 15 years later, with a daughter in tow. Her daughter has questions, and Laura isn't sure she has the answers. Laura's created a stable world for the both of them, one that looks little like the life she set out to have when she first arrived in the city - but one she's content with, nonetheless. Or so she things. Set in the buzzy world of trying to make it as a musician, Perfect Tunes is a mother-daughter tale you don't want to miss.

While I enjoyed PERFECT TUNES for the most part, I do feel that it's not an entirely memorable read. Maybe it's because the singer-songwriter-moves-to-NYC-to-pursue-their-dream trope is highly overdone in literary fiction at this point, but I felt that this book was just okay. Nonetheless, while I think it's important to be critical when writing reviews, I like to focus more on the positives rather than negatives since my reasons for not liking a book do not dictate how others will react to it, and I hate to discourage readers from picking up a book simply because I didn't have an amazing experience with it. That being said, PERFECT TUNES does have its merits. I enjoyed watching Laura's relationship with her teenage daughter, Marie, develop throughout the course of the novel, and overall I think Emily Gould's writing definitely has a certain spark that has a lot of potential for growth and intrigue. I'll be curious to read what she publishes in the future (and I also want to add that I absolutely LOVE this cover design -- the illustrator gets 5-stars from me!)

"It’s the early days of the new millennium, and Laura has arrived in New York City’s East Village in the hopes of recording her first album. A songwriter with a one-of-a-kind talent, she’s just beginning to book gigs with her beautiful best friend when she falls hard for a troubled but magnetic musician whose star is on the rise. Their time together is stormy and short-lived—but will reverberate for the rest of Laura’s life.

Fifteen years later, Laura’s teenage daughter, Marie, is asking questions about her father, questions that Laura does not want to answer. Laura has built a stable life in Brooklyn that bears little resemblance to the one she envisioned when she left Ohio all those years ago, and she’s taken pains to close the door on what was and what might have been. But neither her best friend, now a famous musician who relies on Laura’s songwriting skills, nor her depressed and searching daughter will let her give up on her dreams."

I truly wanted to like this one, but it fell short for me. I was intrigued by the description and the beginning started well, but I lost interest as the timeline jumped ahead without any context or content. Not for me.

"Gawker alum Emily Gould’s second novel takes us back to NYC in the early aughts, where we meet recent transplant Laura, fresh from the midwest with a guitar and a dream. Soon, she’s running around the LES with Dylan, a dreamy-yet-aloof musician in a buzzy band, and playing at small folk venues. From there, Perfect Tunes takes an unexpected detour—and reveals itself as a story of loss, young motherhood, and the pursuit of self-fulfillment despite life’s twists and turns."

Following a girl as she grows from a troubled 20-something year old to an unplanned mother, Perfect Tunes was easy to read, I'll give it that. I finished it in a day. But I found it to be too short and with no real depth to it. Scenes jumped forward in time when I felt like they should have been ruminated on and explored. In a way, it almost felt lazy on the writer's part, because it kept her from having to further explain how certain things got to where they ended up. None of the characters were particularly likeable, but I did find it easy to sympathize with the main character toward the end. If someone asked me whether or not they should read this book, I wouldn't tell them no, but I won't go out of my way to recommend it to anyone. It's pretty forgettable.

Unfortunately, Perfect Tunes was a dud for me. If you've never been to or lived in the city, this one won't resonate much - it's really a book made for those people who have called NYC home at one point, especially if you're a young woman lost in her art/talent like MC Laura. I think a lot of this also stems from my not being able to relate to the book for other reasons - a lot of Laura's decisions were ones I didn't fully understand, and I didn't care for many of the side characters, especially Dylan - but the writing also threw me off. It all felt very flat, with little to no emotion in the tone of voice nor in the character's actions. I need a bit more of both, so it was a struggle to get through this one - but I'm determined to finish a book, especially if I'm already half way in. The only truly redeeming part was Marie - I at least felt a bit of something for her story in the later half of the book. I'd skip this one, and if you're looking for a book where a young woman is trying to find herself through her musical talent, pick up Daisy Jones & the Six instead.

In the year 2000, Laura moves to New York City to become a musician. She is just starting to play shows with her best friend and find a small bit of success, when she meets another young musician and starts a brief but intense love affair with him. Soon, nothing is the same for her relationship, her career, or really, her life. Fifteen years later, Laura is living a completely different--and much less glamorous--life in Brooklyn, with her husband and teenage daughters. Her daughter, Marie, begins asking questions about the father she has never met, and Laura must figure out how to navigate this. I really liked this book. It was well-written, and was funny at times and sad at others. It did a good job at looking at regret, and how our lives can turn out so much different than how we expect when we are young. The ending felt a little abrupt to me though. I didn't dislike it; it just had me wanting more. I think she must be planning a sequel!

Memory Tape
Gawker alumni Emily Gould wrote a sensitive little ditty set in Manhattan in 2001 that brings back so many memories it’s like she got some of my old forgotten film rolls developed at the local Walgreen’s. Perfect Tunes isn’t perfect but it starts strong and mellows out--much like the aughts--opening with a twenty-something ending with a forty-something and many boys in bands in between. The beauty here is the main character is a gurl with a guitar and lyrics bouncing around inside her. Read it--you’ll want to know how the story plays out.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

Perfect Tunes by Emily Gould was a story of music and motherhood that spans three decades in New York City. It was very nostalgic for me, and brought back a lot of memories. I feel like I came-of-age around the early 2000's indie rock scene in New York City, and this was very much a book about that era. Dylan reminded me of Julian Casablancas and other rock stars of the time. I love reading about music and the music scene, and really enjoyed that aspect of this book.

That being said, I felt that all three parts of the story were disjointed, I understand that Gould was trying to portray different parts of Laura's life and different aspects of motherhood, but the three parts of the story almost felt like three different books. I also found the characters to be incredibly unlikable. Laura was a total pushover. Her best friend Callie was a self-centered narcissist. Dylan was condescending and too drugged up to care about anything at all. Marie was a monster! She was rude and irresponsible. What bothered me the most though, was that the characters often acted totally out-of-character and in ways that were not at all consistent with their personalities. It was confusing and unrealistic.

All in all I actually did enjoy this one for the nostalgia factor, but it had everything to do with having posters of Julian Casablancas on my walls twenty years ago.

Perhaps this was written for a younger audience, who wants to cut to the chase. I felt it left out a lot of details. Loved the premise, I just kept expecting more.

Oh how I wanted to love this. The summary was compelling and I was so looking forward to it. This just fell flat. A bit meandering and pointless at times. I picked it up and put it down so many times that I am surprised I finished. I simply wasn't sucked in.

This book embodies the contemporary fiction I enjoy most- something that you can get stuck into easily, that is the literary equivalent of watching a smart yet humorous show, that is expertly plotted but not in an obvious way. I had the great pleasure of attending a Zoom book talk with Emily Gould where she spoke with Stephanie Danler and Rufi Thorpe about her process and how this book came to be, and I found it incredibly interesting to know that she had written the "perfect dick" scene first and that the book germinated (pun very much intended) from there.

What I think is unique about this book is that it sticks with its protagonist past the point of coming of age and sees her through to motherhood and all of its complications. The voices of all of the characters ring true and are well-wrought, in particular those of the teenage characters, which can be hard to accomplish.

I would very much recommend this book to fans of Stephanie Danler's Sweetbitter and Lily King's Writers and Lovers. For an unexpected pairing, I would read this alongside The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton for two very different looks at New York and the possibilities afforded to young women more than a century apart.

This was a nice character driver story about motherhood. Definitely a quieter book and the plot was a little slow moving at times. If you like family stories that are more nuanced this would be a great book for you.

I rarely highlight quotes when I’m reading, but did so often in “Perfect Tunes." Emily Gould writes beautifully about heartbreak on all levels, from the friends/family/lovers who hurt you to the collective hurt of a national tragedy (the turning point of the book takes place around 9/11, though it’s never explicitly stated).

For example:⁣
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“When she caught herself weeping silent tears while walking down the street, she knew that people assumed that she was crying for one of the other dead people, and again she felt like a liar.” ⁣
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I really enjoyed this book, which has “Daisy Jones & the Six” vibes but with a zoom lens on the mother-daughter dynamic as it changes over multiple timelines. It made me sad that a lot of the hurtful behavior by other characters was never really addressed or acknowledged by the main characters, but I suppose it was true-to-life in that respect.⁣
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3.5 stars - would recommend, especially if you love a New York novel with strong women!

I found this novel to be well-written and thought-provoking. As someone the same age as Laura, the main character; I could relate to a lot of the cultural and political discussions. I love the beginning portion when Laura has moved to NYC and is trying to make it. Being young, with no responsibilities but rent and a dream of becoming a musician was both exciting and sad.
The second section, once Laura had Marie, felt a little of tone. Trying to survive and provide for her daughter while most of her friends were free from responsibility and being in the weeds while trying to take care of toddler and feeling constricted at the same time. Motherhood feels like this but also a lot of Laura's reasons for doing the things she did were unexplained.
The third section, when Marie was a teen, I loved. I found it so relevant and the tone harked back to the first section. Overall a decent read.

My Thoughts: Perfect Tunes was one of the books I was most looking forward to from my Spring Preview 2020. The story of a young woman who came to NYC with dreams of making it as a musician sounded ideal for me. I also was intrigued by the idea of her life fifteen years later with a daughter asking questions about who her father is. I expected a lot, but sadly for me Perfect Tunes just didn’t deliver quite what I’d hoped. What bothered me most was the main character, Laura. She hit difficulty early on that derailed her career, and that felt real and right. The part that didn’t feel real was Laura turning down opportunity after opportunity to get back into the music scene. She always had reasons for not doings so, but I never felt like she truly looked for solutions, ways around the obstacles. As women, we all have to do that, and I didn’t like that for so long Laura couldn’t fight for herself. Perfect Tunes was an easy book to read. It held my interest, that is when I didn’t feel like throwing it across the room!

Note: I received a copy of this book from Avid Reader Press (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

“She like to always have a boyfriend who she wasn’t in love with so that she could have sex whenever she wanted and not have to worry about going on dates or having her heart broken or catching diseases.