I received a free copy of the audiobook through a randomized giveaway on StoryGraph. I did not receive any compensation for this review.

What happens when you mix a traumatic past with sudden fame? For music superstar Alora (and her intern-turned-manager Eva), the answer is both “you get everything you always wanted” and “you lose what you had.”

Delphine Seddon’s debut novel draws on her decades of experience in the music industry. Darkening Song is the story of a young record label intern who boldly becomes the manager of a 16 year old musician with superstar potential. The narration follows two threads: Eva describes the history of finding Alora, getting her signed to a contract, producing an album, and going on tour. Alora’s story is primarily told from an inpatient rehab center, where ends up after the weight and trauma of her meteoric rise become too much to bear.

Because you know early on that Alora is in rehab, the plot unfolds more as a “how did we get there?” instead of “where are we going?” The two threads are somewhat disjoint at first and converge as you approach the end. Instead of being confusing, Seddon uses the back-and-forth to build excitement, resulting in a book that’s hard to put down.

The characters live lives that are completely foreign to me, but they seem like authentically real people. They have flaws, some of which they grow out of, some of are made worse by success. The realness of characters is what keeps Darkening Song from being a “lol look at how messed up famous people are” story.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot, although the ending felt a little too out-there for me. But the style is good and the audiobook narrators were terrific. I gave it 4.25/5 stars on my totally-consistent-and-reasoned review scale.

Darkening Song is available later this month from Macmillan.