Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by the Total Book Geek. The purpose of this bookish variant is to match a book with a particular song; whether it is character defining, a narrative element, or just an overall book defining track.

So why am I doing this? Well if I had to choose to only have one of the five traditional senses, it would be sound perception above all else. And hey I think it’d be neat to share music I listen to on a daily basis!

This Week’s Song:
Pompeii – Bastille

Book Selected:
What We Hide – Marthe Jocelyn

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Initial Thoughts:

I just realised (well not really just realised but it’s been simmering) that I haven’t posted for this meme in a while. With the recent read of What We Hide by Marthe Jocelyn; for which the review can be found by clicking here. The pair just seemed to match up in my head and I just had to write this entry. Easy.

The Novel:

What We Hide, in a nutshell, follows several intertwining lives at a boarding school in England. The narrative switches POVs every chapter and provides different styles of narration including: default prose-fiction, written letters, and screenplays to detail the plot. Readers learn slivers about each distinct voice (there’s eight in total) juggling their internal struggles with their outward facades. The story questions the value of secrets that individuals hide in trying to remain relevant and present. Understanding the cost of a secret is only half the battle. It’s the point of reflection and revelation which mindfully engages how individuals can truly move forward when being bound by themselves.

In the novel, readers immediately learn about what each person hides in their closet for fear that if exposed, it’s game over…and there is no replay button. But as the story progresses, you find some individuals reflecting on their past decisions and seek a form of salvation because they know they can’t keep living like this.

The Song:

An English band for an English-set novel. No problem.

Bastille’s Pompeii, to me, revolves around the continual struggle individuals face every day. Whether internally or externally, there’s a true inclination that we are masters of our own demise. So when something has gone awry, we often pretend that it’s not true—that we can delay the inevitable from ever occurring because if it does happen, we aren’t sure what’s behind door number one, two, or infinity. Yet if we take a moment to reflect, even just by closing our eyes… we wonder if we’ve really taken any steps to rectify what’s bothering us so we can move on or if we’re simply in a continual loop to repeat the same mistakes again and again.

Excerpt from Pompeii:

And the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Great clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from above

But if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
You’ve been here before?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

Oh where do we begin?
The rubble or our sins?
Oh where do we begin?
The rubble or our sins?

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Afterthoughts:

I hope all of that somewhat made some sort of sense! I truthfully only recently discovered Bastille a while back and some of their tracks have made it to my regular playlist! So I hope you enjoy this week’s audible sharable and as always: happy listening!

Cheers,
Joey