The Next Big Thing

The world probably doesn’t need to know how much I dislike this novel. I say that for a couple of reasons. I don’t like much of what I read. Writing is difficult, at least for me. The number (admitted ruff estimation here) of ways to muff a good fictional concept far exceeds ways to finish it satisfactorily. The other reason is that my blog has received a few dozen visits from non English speaking countries around the world. I sometimes wonder if WordPress hires economically disadvantaged people to jack up the hit count on scarcely visited blogs.

The Next Big Thing received many positive reviews and won the 2025 Discovery Editors’ Choice Awards along with three other novels. I like literature inspired by, or at least infused with music, so this might have been an enjoyable read. It started out as an interesting novel about a mid grade musician’s life of drugs, sex and rock’n roll (why does the music always come last?).

The novel starts with Danny, first person narrator, riding a wave of somewhat success and enjoying all the benefits that level of success brings, namely enough income to afford an excessive cocaine habit and women willing to have sex with him. From there it is all downhill for him. A steady drone of paranoia, despair, inflated self esteem, derogatory observations about modern life, increasing drug habit, decreasing lack of sexual self control yawn, yawn yawn. This is what earned a negative review.

There was an interesting aspic to the plot. Danny, as observed above, led a life of excess. At the beginning of the novel, the lead guitarist, Si, writes a song that becomes a hit. He writes more songs which the label loves and may produce more hits. It’s at this point, the start fame, Si starts drinking and doing drugs. He starts living a life of excess. After his death, Em, the bassist, writes a tribute song which becomes a big hit and then writes so many songs that Danny’s songs get squeezed off the set list. Em starts lighting incense in the green room, takes long walks before shows and dictates healthy fare in the green room. In a new-agey sense, succumbs to extreme.

The notion of ‘success breeds excess’ could have guided this novel and that would make it a better read. Instead, it reads like a dropped theme and missed opportunity.

The pivotal point in the novel is when Danny snaps a shot of Si and Em having sex and posts it in social media. Previously, Danny characterizes Si as middle class and in a committed relation ship with Olivia. Si takes his own life as a result of the exposure.

Em, for her part, owns the relationship. No one blames her for her part in Si’s demise. On the other hand, many people blame Danny even in the absence of evidence.

Eventually Danny writes another song. Like Danny, it is mostly crap. I thought it may be better for Danny to write his own tribute song, so I wrote this:

I’m just gasoline; you’re the fire.

You set your life ablaze; I fanned the flames.

Those were my dreams to which you aspired.

You were the one caught on film; I’m the one everyone blames.

Birds put their feathers out, pluck’em.

They start feeling clingy, chuck’em.

They hunt you down in the pub, duck’em.

Don’t let them get too close, —-’em.

I saw you with her in the photograph.

I just wasn’t you, so I had to laugh.

When the whole world saw, it wasn’t a gas.

All you worked gone for a piece of ass.

The girls get too hot, chill’em.

Give all you got, thrill’em.

They make too much noise, still’em.

They block your path, kill’em.

The life I lead takes more than you can give.

You need to let water roll off your back to live

An excessive life of sex, drugs and rock and roll,

So even without a push you’d crash into a pole.

You did it all for’em.

Gave it all you got for’em

It cost you a lot for’em.

Think of all you lost for’em.

Okay, it isn’t very good, but it’s a start.

Danny, the lead character and first person narrator, is a grade above mediocre musician, but just one grade. He led his band to some success, and he is recognized in public by fans but not so much that he needs/has an entourage to keep fans at bay. He identifies as a working class Brit. In my mind, he looks like Billy Idol but sounds like lead singer of Cage the Elephant (even though Matt Shultz is an American who moved to England).

The novel starts with Danny at the top of his career. His guitarist wrote, recorded and submitted a song tho their label, and the music execs loved it. From there Danny spirals down as Si(mon)’s star rises. Just before the pivotal point in the story, Si tells Danny that Em(ily) is writing songs which they should record.

Previously, Si had been described as middle class, bland, and stable. He has a female partner with whom he plans to marry. Here he is drinking heavily, doing drugs, and later

Danny takes a picture of Si having sex with Em.

For me, this is a screeech as a needle-lifted-off-a-vinyl-record moment. Si is not behaving as Danny described. I think it is more a lapse in writing than an unreliable narrator thing.

Later, Danny discreetly leaks his photo and Si doesn’t react well to the publicity. His girlfriend leaves him and keeps sinking into depression before taking his own life. Not only does Danny feel guilty for Si’s death, several people want to blame him. The police even investigate, looking for the photo’s source. Emily, for her part, owns her involvement with Si and no one blames her for any part of Si’s death.

Danny continues to spiral down. Up to Si’s death, the novel seemed slow paced and afterwards, the pace slows further still. There is simply too much description and too little interesting action. Important plot points, like Danny’s dismissal from the band, aren’t just foreshadowed, they are overly foreshadowed. One or two references pulls readers, like me, into the story. Five or six references feels like a waste of words and my time.

This novels reads like a singer stuck on the same note. Occasionally the song moves on, but mostly it sounds like stretching one good lick till it bores its audience.