Songs for Other People’s Weddings by David Levithan is not your typical love story—in fact, it’s not a love story at all. It’s an introspective, quietly melancholic character study that explores the friction between love and selfhood, long-term partnership and personal growth, and what happens when one person outgrows the emotional vocabulary of a relationship.

At the center of the story is J, a wedding singer who spends his weekends performing at celebrations of other people’s unions while slowly unraveling his own. J isn’t a particularly warm or likable character—he’s not meant to be. He’s thoughtful, yes. He’s observant and kind to clients and friends, often reflective when dealing with others. But when it comes to his own girlfriend, V, and his own internal life? He’s frustratingly short-sighted. This emotional myopia becomes a central tension in the book: how can someone be so attuned to others and yet so out of touch with themselves?

The narrative unfolds as V moves abroad for work, and J is left behind to stew in his own contradictions. He’s hurt that she’s gone, despite having done the same in the past. He’s confused by her clarity and ambition, because he’s never really sat with his own. What emerges is a story about emotional imbalance in a relationship where love exists, but love alone may not be enough.

This novel plays out like a soundtrack of romantic milestones and missteps, each wedding J performs at acting as a mirror, a metaphor, or sometimes a warning. And yet, while the weddings provide the framework, the real focus is the unraveling of J and V’s relationship—not through dramatic conflict, but through the kind of subtle erosion that comes with years of emotional misalignment.

Levithan’s prose is reliably sharp—full of dry wit, lyrical introspection, and a deep understanding of the quiet tragedies of modern love. He writes with a tenderness that doesn’t sugarcoat the truth. There are no grand declarations here, no idealized romantic arcs. Just flawed people trying to hold on to something they’re no longer sure how to define. It’s a fitting homage: both Lekman and Levithan understand that love, in all its forms, is always tangled up with loneliness, memory, and the desire to be seen.

For readers who like:
-Music as metaphor
-Somber, slice-of-life dramedies
-Character-driven storytelling

Final Verdict
Songs for Other People’s Weddings is thoughtful, understated, and emotionally resonant in ways that sneak up on you. It’s not meant to sweep you off your feet—it’s meant to make you sit in your feelings. A bittersweet, emotionally intelligent portrait of love, loss, and the awkward, beautiful mess of figuring out who we are in relation to the people we love. Levithan’s prose is introspective and incisive, and the presence of Jens Lekman’s lyricism gives the book a gentle, nostalgic ache.

Grateful to NetGalley, RBmedia, David Levithan and Jens Lekman for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

I found the concept behind this book very fresh and compelling. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me at all. I could never connect at all with the characters at all found myself bored. I also didn’t enjoy the musical interludes but that was more of a taste issue- and I should’ve known better.

The premise of this book is charming. A singer-songwriter meets couples, interviews them, and then creates a unique song for their weddings that encapsulates their relationship. Each of the wedding couples felt well-written, interesting, and complicated in the way that only chapter-long relationships can. The settings for their weddings were vibrant, varied, and unusual.

The problem with this book lies in two things:
1. The plot
2. The central relationship

Firstly, the plot relied on NPCs (the wedding couples) to move it forward. Our main character, J, did not act on his own at all in this entire novel. He changed from location to location and learned things about himself and his relationship based solely on other people's relationships.

Which brings me to J's relationship. J and V are in a years-long romance that has fizzled into something that is merely practical. But when V's job takes her to NYC and away from J's home in Sweden, their relationship loses the convenience that was the last thing holding it together.

I think one of the strengths of this novel is also its greatest weakness. J and V are in such a realistic dying relationship that it made the sections of the book that were about them deeply boring. V teeters on the edge of breaking up with J, leading him on over and over again with hugs and hints and invitations to coffees, and the whole time I was just BEGGING her to break up with him. As for J, his lack of self-respect and willingness to be thrown about at the whims of V's feelings toward him made it impossible to root for him as a character. Their relationship is so goddamn real that it felt insufferable to read.

Overall though, despite the annoyance of having to push through pages and pages of a doomed relationship, this book had a lot that I did enjoy. The songs were cute, the weddings were all unique from each other and kept things interesting, and the side characters who came along (Meta and Sky in particular) kept me reading.

Songs for Other People’s Weddings by David Levithan was witty, heartfelt, and thoroughly entertaining. The story follows J, an accidental wedding singer who writes original songs for each couple he performs for—a unique way of uncovering the little quirks and emotional threads that tie people together. But while he helps others celebrate love, his own relationship is on shaky ground as his girlfriend moves to New York, leaving J uncertain about their future.

As he navigates the highs and lows of other people's romances, J begins to question what love really means—and whether it can withstand distance, doubt, and change. The novel beautifully combines Levithan’s insightful storytelling with Jens Lekman’s original lyrics, adding a musical layer that made the reading experience even more special. I especially enjoyed how the songs were seamlessly woven throughout the book, enhancing both the emotion and the narrative. If you enjoy thoughtful, tender stories about love in all its complexity, this one’s a must-read.

As a long time Jens Leckman fan, this was an immediate yes for me. Such an interesting concept for a book and it's executed to perfection.