Mix-Tape Mondays: I Can’t Drive 55

It was my original intent to post the

playlist first and the review second, but it just didn’t work out that way.

1. Spooky – Lydia Lunch

Blue’s a bit of a spooky-ooky girl: a clairvoyant family, amplification of the supernatural, and the whole seeing-a-dead-boy thing. She’s also rather low-key, like this song.

2. Lonely Boy – The Black Keys

This one I picked more for the sound than the lyrics, kind of a bros in a muscle car song. Though the idea of “a love that keeps me waiting” (Blue’s a waitress) tickles me linguistically.

3. Steve McQueen – M83

There is a rather magical, sweeping helicopter ride in the novel. This song spoke to me of that scene, what with the flirting tingles and epic vistas.

4. The Book of Iona – Bruno Coulais (composed for The Secret of Kells soundtrack)

A song for the place in the forest where they begin to find some of the things they’ve been looking for.

5. Page of Cups – Enigma

The bone-chilling episode in Blue’s backyard.

6. Sabotage – Beastie Boys

Gansey’s crew are not the first Aglionby boys to go hunting Glendower.

7. In It to Win It – Saliva

Things get violent on several occasions, in several ways, for the characters of this novel. This song could apply to at least four characters, in my estimation. It’s a testament to Stiefvater’s characterization that it applies to each one differently.

8. The Lightning Strike – Snow Patrol

Everything comes to a head

9. Ghost of You – My Chemical Romance

Another song working double- or triple-duty, when it all shakes out this one is relevant to different characters in different ways. Loss is the common thread.

10. Road to Nowhere – Talking Heads

It’s not over yet for our intrepid heroes: the road is long and they’ve only just begun, however much it has cost them.