‘Utopia Avenue’ by David Mitchell

But the Queen of Freedom is this: to be free of labels.

‘Utopia Avenue’ by David Mitchell is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! It follows the short career of the fictitious psychedelic folk rock band Utopia Avenue. Set in 1967 and 1968, the band meets all the famous pop and rock stars we know! (Check out the Utopia Avenue playlist on Spotify!)

The plot follows folk singer and keyboardist Elf Holloway, divine guitarist and singer Jasper de Zoet, blues bassist and singer Dean Moss, jazz drummer Griff Griffin, and their Canadian manager Levon Frankland. And although it’s about music, the book is also about friendship, love, sex, drugs, politics, family, grief, mental health, and so much more!

Additionally, the language is just beautiful! In many books, I don't find the dialogue convincing. But the dialogue here is so realistic that I’m not sure I’ve ever read better.

There's plenty of queer representation, as well as references to other Mitchell books, such as Cloud Atlas.

CW: queerphobia (including threats and violence), mental illness, suicide attempt, drug use and addiction, sexual assault and coercion, domestic abuse, grief and loss, misogyny and sexism, racism and racial slurs (period-accurate but still harmful), medical trauma, graphic depictions of war memories and PTSD