I love writing these song-book pairings, so I thought I would write a little mini one for fun because I’ve been listening to the same few songs on repeat lately. Plus, I’m gearing up for a Nebraska winter, a.k.a. “I Wanna Reread My Faves to Feel Cozy” season.  

1. “Standing Next to You” by Jung Kook: Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

Half of the lyrics in this song apply perfectly to the fact that the These Violent Delights duology is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. “They can’t divide us, we’ll survive the test of time” just speaks to the timelessness of the star-crossed lovers story.

But what makes me pair this song particularly with the second book of the duology is this line: “I swear that I’ll be right here / Standing next to you / Standing in the fire next to you.” In the interest of not giving spoilers for this amazing duology you should definitely read, all I’ll say is that if you know Roma and Juliette’s story, you’ll get it.

Also, the music video just adds another layer to this pairing. Rich people mafia vibes, fated love, intense dance breaks (replace “dance breaks” with “gang fights” for the book)—how could you not put them together?

2. “Wait for Me” by the Hadestown Original Broadway Cast: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Max/Mirabel is literally an incarnation of Fate in a story of prewritten/predetermined love. One could argue that this story has parallels to the Orpheus and Eurydice myth in general, but I think this song in particular can lend a new angle to The Starless Sea.

Mirabel and the Keeper have lived the same ill-fated story over and over and over again, just as the characters in Hadestown have done. No matter how many Harbors are abandoned or lovers disappear, they start again with new hope. And that hope touches others’ lives, so many that its reach cannot be measured. Even if every iteration of the story so far has ended in tragedy, the hope of a better future can still be found—behind a door, in a song, among the stories and myths.  

3. “Yes I’m a Mess” by AJR: Paper Towns by John Green

John Green is great at showing how small things can seem big to teenagers, neurodivergent people, or anyone really. Basically, AJR is the pop music equivalent to John Green.

AJR literally sing, “So I spent last night blowin’ up my life / Now you won’t see me again” and, “Why should I fix the shit I’ve done / When I could just pack my shit and run?” They could have taken these straight out of Margo Roth Spiegelman’s diary!

Both the book and the song are about disappearing from a superficial life, leaning into the flawed parts of yourself, and doing it all with foppish aplomb. However, while AJR’s song is from the position of someone who has accepted that life can be messy and superficial, Paper Towns follows the journey of one teenager (Q) figuring out that someone he cares about (Margo) is having trouble processing this fact.

Either way, both are angsty and existential and right up my alley.

4. “Angel Pt. 1” by Kodak Black, Jimin, JVKE, & Muni Long: Call Down the Hawk (& the rest of the Dreamer Trilogy) by Maggie Stiefvater

This song is from a Fast & Furious movie, which already makes it perfect for a Maggie Stiefvater book, but more than that, these lyrics could apply to any of the main characters in this series. Ronan, Declan, Hennessy, Jordan, and Carmen are all convinced that they are someone who “break[s] beautiful things,” someone toxic to anyone with an open heart. They each tend to demonize themselves while putting the people they love on a pedestal. Plus, the line “generation curses of disloyalty, we breaking that” could apply to Carmen and her brother, any of the Lynch brothers, or Hennessy and her duplicates.

“The devil on my shoulder he whisper, I told him / Angel, don’t fly so close to me / I’ll pull you down eventually / You don’t wanna lose those wings / People like me break beautiful things.” This line is one of many in the song that subverts the simplicity of “devil vs. angel,” in that the “devil on your shoulder” can give selfless if self-destructive advice. Just like in the Dreamer Trilogy, everything is incredibly complex and nothing is as it seems on the surface.

5. “Social Path” by Stray Kids & LiSA: I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman

I was tempted to pair this song with Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid because of the general “I gave up being young in order to become famous/follow my dreams” theme. However, “Social Path” is a bit more optimistic in nature, about “rising from the ashes” of a difficult journey with “passion [that] always burns eternally.”

I Was Born for This fits so much better because it looks at both sides of a parasocial relationship. Hardcore fans give as much of their personalities to the celebrities they’re fans of as the celebrities put into their art. On the fan side of things, Angel represents the people who are “still in the crowd, alien of the town,” looked down on because of their intense passion for one thing (and for being a young woman in a fandom). On the celebrity side of things, Jimmy (and his bandmates) represent the act of taking this unfounded love (and hate) and “waking the demon that’s hiding inside,” which can be both good and bad.

This is one of my favorite books involving parasocial relationships, and “Social Path” sums up its themes almost perfectly.

Bonus Bonuses:

• “Going to Hell” by Adeem the Artist: Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin
• “Fake Out” by Fall Out Boy: Bloom by Kevin Panetta
• “You’re Beautiful” by The Rose: Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
• “Haegeum” by Agust D: The Way of the Househusband series by Kousuke Oono
• “Yes or No” by Jung Kook: Legend series by Marie Lu

-Ryn PB