Saturday Review: “A Mix of Grief and Mystery” a review by Cody Messer of Matthew Fiander’s Ringing in Your Ears (2023) in NCLR Online Spring 2025
Messer describes Fiander’s debut novel as “a slow, gut-wrenching tale of attempting to overcome grief and judgement, with a flair of melancholic ‘90s alternative rock thrown in for good measure.” Classic rock plays an important role in this narrative, even lending the book its name. As Messer writes: “Music is integral to the feel of this work.”
The main plot of the story is not focused on music however, but on the mystery surrounding the death of the main character’s sister, Christine, and Blue’s investigation into “the choices that led her to that terrible fate.” Messer argues that choice is an important theme in the novel. Even Christine’s death was the result of choices made by an unknown person. According to Messer this idea “encapsulates much of what Ringing in Your Ears is about: everything involves choices; sometimes these choices are just not yours.”
If you like your books with a side of rock music, you’ll love Senior Associate Editor Christy Alexander Hallberg’s podcast, Rock is Lit!
Read the entire review here! And order a copy of the book here.
