Friday night, autumn of 2000. In a bar a few blocks away from Berkeley University, Percy Marks is talking about music again. Hall and Oates is playing on the jukebox, and she, who has no musical talent but has an opinion on everything related to it, indulges in what she knows is her most annoying habit: she can’t stop overanalyzing the song. But tonight things are different. Next to her at the bar is her classmate Joe Morrow, a talented musician with star quality, who could listen to her talk all night.

Joe ends up asking Percy’s opinion on his songs, and the result is the beginning of a collaboration that will last for years, ignite new, passionate desires, and lead Joe on the path to fame. But all of this will hurt them both, trapping them in roles neither of them wanted.

Taking us on a journey from the bars of Brooklyn to the stages of San Francisco, the book talks about talent, obsessions, compromises, and above all the need each of us has to be heard. With a soundtrack of the biggest hits as well as lesser-known songs of the 2000s, with the musical knowledge and romance of High Fidelity, Hidden Gems is a love letter to millennials and to music itself.

WHAT THE PRESS SAID

Sweet as a ballad and thrilling as a pop song.

Coco Mellors

An epic love story and at the same time the story of a woman trying to find her autonomy and the strength to create.

Beth O’Leary

Brickley’s novel lovingly reconstructs the early 21st-century indie scene and skillfully presents the emotional journey of her unbearably headstrong and touchingly vulnerable heroine.

Kirkus