Music Match-Up is here again! This is a celebration of books and music. I take a book and pair it with a song that either reminds me of the book, has a similar feel to it, or maybe just has a random connection that only makes sense to me.
This week, the connection didn’t come to me until I randomly heard the song on the radio. Once I heard it, the cover of this week’s book choice flashed into my mind, and the connection was made!
The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett// “Wildflowers”
This is the story really of Hawthorn Creely and her obsession with the disappearance of popular-girl Lizzie Lovett. Hawthorn’s mom is a hippie and even has her hippie friends camping out on the front lawn for a good portion of the book. It was this part of the novel that made me think of “Wildflowers”. At first, I connected the song to Hawthorn, but then I realized it’s more about Lizzie. This is one aspect I really liked about the book- that there was more to Lizzie than what everyone saw on the surface. I didn’t really connect with Hawthorn, but Lizzie intrigued me. You belong somewhere you feel free. That was how I felt about Lizzie by the end of the novel.
This has always been one of my favorite Tom Petty songs. It’s both sad and hopeful at the same time. The simple acoustic guitar sounds add to this simple message– that this wonderful girl deserves something better. This is why I don’t think the song belongs to Hawthorn. She doesn’t seem so wonderful in my eyes. For all her complaints about how people treated her, she certainly didn’t treat people very well. Unfortunately we only saw Lizzie through Hawthorn’s eyes, but in those rare glimpses through Lizzie’s boyfriend’s eyes, I thought she was deserving of these lyrics. I enjoyed this book, but maybe not for the same reason everyone else did. I really enjoyed Lizzie and learning more about her.
