In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Sarai Walker’s novel Furious Violet is a propulsive literary thriller imbued with social commentary.
Library Journal wrote of the book:
“With this brilliantly bonkers, fast-paced social critique of, well, everything from feminist literary theory to true crime, with jabs at diet culture and academia sprinkled in, Walker once again proves that she’s among a select few authors who have brought Margaret Atwood’s complex edge into the 21st century….her exploration of what motherhood means today and her bold contributions to the discourse on the societal value of peri- and post-menopausal women make this the perfect next read for those who found the wildness of Miranda July’s All Fours compelling, along with fans of Mona Awad’s ‘Bunny’ horror novels.”
In her own words, here is Sarai Walker’s Book Notes music playlist for her novel Furious Violet:
Furious Violet, my third novel, is a literary thriller about a 49-year-old true crime writer named Violet West Shelley, who goes by West. Her mother was a Sylvia Plath-like poet who became a feminist icon after her tragic death. The novel mixes these elements of West’s life, the low-brow world of true crime and the high-brow sphere of her mother’s poetry, which was a lot of fun to write. West narrates the story, and she can be cynical and snarky and also funny, but at the same time, she is being hunted by a stalker who claims she’s their mother (she doesn’t have children), so it’s scary as well. Like me, West was born in the 1970s, but is a child of the 80s, and became an adult in the 90s. Gen X nostalgia, and the angst of middle-age (particularly for a perimenopausal woman), are important parts of the novel.
When I was writing Furious Violet, I made two different playlists—one with instrumental music that I would often listen to as I worked (I usually find vocals to be too distracting while I’m writing), and then another playlist of songs with vocals that helped me channel a certain mood or era, which I would listen to when I was just thinking about the novel. Music is really important to me, but I usually don’t share what I’m listening to, because I’m not a snob when it comes to music (unlike with books) and I just listen to whatever I want, even if other people think it’s garbage. The songs in my playlist to follow—none of them garbage!—are drawn from the two playlists.
“Violet,” Hole
I really didn’t have a choice but to begin my playlist with this song. My main character’s name is Violet, although she goes by her middle name, West. The novel takes its title from a fictional poem called “Furious Violet,” and as in the song, violet is used to describe the sky, but I go on to use it in other, more disturbing ways. Hole’s quintessential 90s song is full of feminine fury and rage, which makes it a perfect fit for my novel, and I also love that it plays with the connection between violet and violent.
“Killing Me Softly With His Song,” Roberta Flack
The mood of this song was really influential to me early on, as I was trying to write my main character into existence. I didn’t pay attention to the lyrics, it was just the whole melancholy vibe that captured something important about West for me. On the surface, she can be jaded and tough, she lives off fast food and Mountain Dew and Advil, and she can be fearless, venturing into prisons and interviewing serial killers, but deep down she carries around pain over her mother’s early death and her father’s abandonment. There’s a tender place inside her that she doesn’t let many people see, and listening to this song helped me channel that.
“Karma Police,” Radiohead
This is another track with a melancholy vibe, a mood I really love in music and films in particular. I listened to this song a lot early on, along with the previous one, which helped me connect with West. Radiohead is an essential Gen X band, and their 90s songs in particular were influential to me as I wrote this novel about a perimenopausal woman who is reflecting on growing older.
“Hedonism,” Skunk Anansie
I have loved this song, another delightfully melancholy track, since it was released in 1997, and I think it deserves to be more widely known. West became an adult in the 90s, like me, and so this decade is an important anchor point in her life. Listening to songs like this helped me to channel the 90s instantly while writing, and that was helpful for me as I developed this character.
“I’m Not in Love,” Tori Amos
This remake of the 10cc song is from Strange Little Girls, Amos’s album covering songs by men, which is a brilliant concept, executed to perfection. This track is my favorite. Not only is the music effectively moody, but I respect how Amos puts a female spin on these male lyrics. In my novel, West, as a crime writer, has to navigate the male-dominated field of law enforcement to do her job, and she’s in regular contact with violent men, including serial killers. I’m very much interested in how female voices and perspectives can be subversive in male spaces.
“Rocky Mountain High,” John Denver
I knew I wanted to set this novel in the Mountain West. I grew up (mostly) in Utah, and while some shorter sections of Furious Violet are set there, Utah has too much cultural baggage to make a good setting for the main action of the novel. I chose Colorado as a setting, where my dad and his family are from. John Denver’s music was the soundtrack to my early childhood in many ways. As a kid, we went camping a lot in the summer, and traveled to places like Yellowstone; my parents would play John Denver’s music on 8-track tapes and so whenever I hear it now, I think of those times. When I went on a research trip to Colorado for Furious Violet, I played his music in the car for fun and nostalgia.
“Halloween,” John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, Daniel Davies
This is a 2018 remix of the original Halloween theme song, made for the reboot of the franchise. West makes references to horror movies in the novel, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Shining. I love listening to film soundtracks while writing, and when I came across this particular track, I was surprised to find myself liking it. It’s a cool “pop horror” tune that manages to convey a sense of fear and foreboding, while also being a little bit beautiful.
“Doom Beach,” Mark Bradshaw
I often use film scores to channel a mood while writing. Mark Bradshaw’s soundtrack for Top of the Lake: China Girl is eerie as hell, and also gorgeous. This is just one of the tracks from this album that I would listen to when writing some of the scarier scenes in the novel.
“Giver,” K. Flay
My favorite genre of music is alternative. In the novel, West is listening to alt-rock via satellite radio during a particularly pivotal scene. While I don’t specify the song, this is one I listened to a lot while working on the novel. It’s very female and punchy and hypnotic. I love it.
“Only the Young,” Journey
As a crime writer and wanderer at heart, West spends a lot of time on the road, which is her true home. I’m an unabashed fan of 80s rock bands like Journey, Foreigner, Van Halen. I love to blast this song on road trips, and I can imagine West doing so as well while driving on the highway out in the middle of nowhere. It’s pure, heart-pumping 80s nostalgia for people of a certain age.
“Live to Tell,” Madonna
Speaking of 80s nostalgia, I put this song into my rotation recently, just coincidentally, when early reviews of the novel were starting to come in and I began doing pre-publication interviews. As I listened to it, I realized just how perfect the idea of living to tell is for Furious Violet, on so many levels. I won’t explain further to avoid spoilers, but this track is the ideal way to end the novel’s playlist.
Sarai Walker is the author of two previous novels, The Cherry Robbers and Dietland, which was adapted as a television series for AMC. Her work has been published in more than a dozen countries.