Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie

Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie: Book Review 

*Warning: This review contains spoilers*

*Content Warning: This review mentions drug usage and addiction* 

Introduction 

Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six will either gladly eat this novel alive out of how similar it is to the former, or they will decry it as a rip-off. While the two are very similar in plots and themes, they’re written in drastically different styles. As far as their similarities, there’s only so much difference that can be made between two novels that are both loosely based on 70s musicians, with Daisy Jones and the Six being inspired by Fleetwood Max and Songs in Ursa Major being loosely based on Joni Mitchell’s career. It’s sex, drugs, & rock ‘n’ roll both ways, so obviously similarities are to be expected. So I don’t hold the similarities against Ursa Major too much, even if I personally preferred Daisy Jones. 

Summary & Review 

Songs in Ursa Major gets a lot right when it comes to staying true to the roots of the 1970s culture in which the story is set in whilst also remaining appealing to its 21st century audience. It includes characters who have diverse racial backgrounds or identify as LGBTQ but doesn’t pretend that racism or queerphobia didn’t exist in the seventies, but at the same it doesn’t utilize homophobia or racism as plot points. The novel centers around a woman’s experience in the music industry and accurately depicts the misogyny therein without ever being overtly gross or feeling compelled to include sexually based violence or harassment. Jesse’s struggle with addiction neither demonizes him for suffering nor does it glorify this part of the seventies rock scene. His story is met with compassion and empathy but still not giving him a free pass for the mistakes he made just because he is suffering. There are also discussions on mental health and the stigma surrounding mental illness in the seventies.

Jane’s character is also very compelling, she’s so wonderfully driven and makes for a great protagonist to root for. She’s not perfect and has realistic flaws. There are definitely some moments where I feel like she was in the wrong, like lying to Jesse about claiming that her mother was missing when she was really in a mental hospital. And also when she pushed the boundaries of how much she could get away with after being given multiple chances by her record label. Obviously there are times when we root for her in this—like when she stands up to misogynistic pigs who won’t let her record her music the way it’s written just because it’s “chick music”—but other times it feels like she’s just milking their generosity, like when she flits off to Greece, blowing off the five tour dates for her album’s promotion. Obviously her record label was furious with her and weary to promote another one of her albums after the blatant blow off on her part. It’s hard not to blame Jane for her own recklessness putting her in that position in the first place. 

None of this ever really makes Jane an unlikable character though. It’s all part of her drivenness, which sometimes borders on recklessness and stubbornness, that has been a major part of her character development from the start. She’s realistically flawed, but still likable, and that’s better to me than if she were a Tragic Hero Who Does No Wrong and Only Suffers. 

The most major flaw of this novel to me is the twist involving Jane’s mother Charlie. Obviously I understand not giving away the plot twist before it happens. But at the same time, you shouldn’t just be pulling stuff out of your pants that literally doesn’t make sense with the context of anything you’ve written thus far for the sake a plot twist. It’s important for authors to find the right balance of subtle foreshadowing that will make everything click into place when a plot twist is revealed, but keeping that foreshadowing subtle enough to still surprise your reader. Brodie doesn’t really do that here, unfortunately. 

From the very beginning of the book, we’re told that Jane’s mother ran out on her family when Jane was a little girl and hadn’t been seen since, and that it haunts Jane. Later in the novel, we learn that her mother actually has been seen again. That she suffered a psychotic break, was institutionalized by her sister, and in order to prevent her suffering stigma regarding mental illness if she’s ever released, the family decided to perpetuate the story that they didn’t know where she was, so that Charlie could reintegrate into society more easily if she ever recovered, as they feared for her future in society if everyone knew she’d been in a psychiatric hospital. It’s actually a good twist and a decent commentary on the flawed way that society treats people suffering from mental illnesses. The issue with this plot twist is with Jane though.

Jane is the protagonist of Songs in Ursa Major. When writing a protagonist who knows more than you want the reader to know right away, this can be a very, very tricky thing to pull off. Because you need to withhold the twist, but you also can’t do that by never having the protagonist never think about or consider The Twist in their internal narration, otherwise readers are going to feel like, “how did the protagonist go the whole time never thinking about this, this is HUGE?!” And they will just feel like they’ve been cheated, like the author dropped a twist with no build up to it at all (which isn’t good writing, anyone can pull random plot points out of thin air and throw them into the story for shock value). The way to avoid this, ideally, is to have moments in the protagonist’s narration that subtly indicate unreliability, like there’s something they aren’t really telling you, or at least not telling you all of it—to foreshadow—but to be subtle enough not to make it obvious, so that when the twist comes, it’s surprising yet still feels earned per what’s already been written. This is extremely hard to pull off, which is why a lot of authors (especially newer authors) avoid it. It’s so much easier to have the character who knows more than they’re letting on not be a POV character. Brodie attempts to make the twist that Jane knew the truth about her mother and withheld it from Jesse, but to me, it honestly never felt consistent with any of her thoughts and feelings about her mother in earlier chapters. 

Whenever she’s at the center (where her mom is institutionalized), we never get the impression that she’s there for any other reason than that it’s just where she works. When she talks about her reoccurring dream about the night her mother left, we never get the impression that Jane is being dishonest when she claims that as the last time she ever saw Charlie. So, the twist doesn’t feel earned. I felt cheated. 

The other problem is that it creates a major disruption in Jane’s characterization as a strong protagonist who was understandably flawed, but never borders on being unlikable. 

It’s understandable that Jane wouldn’t tell Jesse the truth about her mother right away—it’s a huge deep, dark family secret and honestly, she’s only been seeing Jesse for a couple weeks when she told him about her mother. It’s something you don’t reveal to someone you’re just seeing casually right away because there’s a lot of trauma to unpack with it, and it requires a lot of trust. Plus, she’s been conditioned since childhood to lie about it, and it’s hard to break out of that kind of conditioning. Is it a mistake that she lied to Jesse and a character flaw? Yes—but it didn’t make me dislike Jane, I empathized with her reluctance to reveal the truth (even if I didn’t like the way the twist was handled). The issue is with Jane’s behavior when she lied to Jesse.

Brodie, THAT WAS YOUR MOMENT TO FORESHADOW! When Jane first told Jesse that she had never seen her mom again (a bold-faced lie), that was the moment. You should have had her feel a twinge of guilt or a moment or hesitation, something, anything to indicate that there’s more to the story. I get that her recurring dreams are supposed to be the foreshadowing, but alone, those dreams just don’t cut it. And the bigger issue is with the lack of guilt, remorse or even a second thought about it. She lies to Jesse about something really, really huge, and it’s something that is a building block of trust and bonding between them. And while I understand the characterization behind why Jane didn’t feel she could tell him the truth, she doesn’t seem to feel anything at all about one of the biggest building blocks of trust between her and Jesse being built on a lie. 

I get that Brodie’s intention behind this was because she doesn’t want to give away the twist by showing Jane conflicted about the story she told Jesse about her mother, but it mistranslates on page to make Jane less sympathetic. It’s bad enough that she’s put into a position where she feels like she has to tell this lie, but the idea that she can straight up just tell someone that her mom’s missing and could very well be dead when she knows for a fact that’s not true and feel nothing at all (or in Jane’s own words, not even really consider the fact that she’s lying), is wild. She only seems to regret the choice after Jesse confronts her about finding out the truth. I just can’t buy it. I think Brodie could have developed this whole plot twist so much better. 

I also just don’t understand how Jane could possibly believe (without proof) her mother’s claims that she wrote Lavender Fields (or whatever the song title was) and had it stolen from her when she knew her mother was having a psychotic break that caused her to believe delusions. Jane was literally going on the record telling people IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY that a famous and well respected artist had stolen a song from her mom (a serious accusation), all while knowing that her mom was currently in a mental hospital constantly believing she was attending the Grammys with Lucille Ball. And she never questioned the validity of her mother’s claim????? She just accepted it as definitely true???? I don’t get it????

Anyway, I’ve been harping about this point too much. It’s just the one thing that prevents this book from gracing my list of favorite books. 

Final Thoughts  

I would give Songs in Ursa Major 3.5 out of 5 stars. It’s good. It’s got a strong plot and great characters, and it’s very atmospheric. There’s just that one pesky plot twist that I didn’t think got handled properly.