by Victoria Bromley, Charlie Fabre, Trina Read
Just in time for our third issue, Sleep, queen Taylor Swift is back with another album all about 13 of her sleepless nights, and here is a book for each of them.
Miss Taylor beat us to the punch, who would have thought two literary/lyrical geniuses would be launching sleep related content at the same time…?!
Seems like a bit too much of a coincidence really, but it’s okay we won’t make a fuss. Instead we have complied a very fun list of some books for each song to fulfil all your listening party bookish needs, you’re welcome.
Lavender Haze – Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
“I just wanna stay in a Lavender haze” gives the dream like quality of Hollywood that this book creates. The idea of being in a relationship in the public eye and having your every move watched is a strong theme in the Seven Husbands.
Maroon – Cleopatra and Frankenstein
“The one I was dancing with in New York” Dancing in New York… Come on, this is obviously Cleo and Frank! Both are literally about losing someone you love because it didn’t work out and getting tired of a relationship not working. The dark, sorrowful tones match perfectly. Both are masterpieces.
Anti-Hero – Sorrow and Bliss
The Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022 shortlisted novel Sorrow and Bliss was 100% the inspo for Taylor’s latest single. You can’t convince me that Taylor didn’t read this novel and instantly write Anti-Hero from Martha’s perspective. The themes of depression in the song mirror Martha’s mental health: “When my depression works the graveyard shift”. The book also shows how her family doesn’t understand her mental health, just like the song, “At teatime everybody agrees”.
Sorrow and Bliss is all about the run up to Martha’s husband leaving her, “One day I’ll watch as you’re leaving” and that she thinks she is the problem.
Snow on the beach – Call Me By Your Name
To me Snow on the Beach speaks to the inevitability of connections and love, and even when they feel odd or uncomfortable, you can’t stop them from happening. There is very little choice when it comes to love, how it arrives and how it goes, and I think that’s what Elio and Oliver’s relationship is about – they couldn’t stop it, it had to happen, and it was “weird but fuckin’ beautiful”.
You’re On Your Own, Kid – Where the Crawdads Sing
Yes, we all know that Taylor wrote Carolina for the film, but she must have been inspired by Crawdads for this song too. Abandoned as a child, forced to grow up alone in the marsh, Kia is literally the protagonist of You’re on Your Own, Kid. The lyrics speak for themselves, “I wait patiently” for Tate to return, “I didn’t choose this town” like she didn’t ask for the discrimination, “I see the great escape” as all she wanted was freedom.
Midnight Rain – The Penelopiad
Hear me out. Penelope from the Odyssey like Taylor says in the lyrics is “making [her] own name”, or at least Atwood is trying to do that for Penelope in this feminist revision of the Odyssey. Penelope is trying to breakaway from just being seen through the lens of being a wife.
Question…? – Normal People
I had a hard time picking a book for this one, but then the lyrics, especially the opening ones, really hit, and it was so obviously Connell and Marianne’s relationship from the “Good girl, Sad boy” to “But one thing after another / Fuckin’ situations, circumstances / Miscommunications” and “Do you wish you could still touch her” this song is them and all the unsaid things through the years.
Vigilante Shit – Gone Girl
“Draw the cat eye, sharp enough to kill a man / you did some bad things but I’m the worst of them,” This song was literally inspired by and written for the hot girl/sad girl lord Amy Dunne. (Swim Press does not believe in the glorification of murder… we do however believe in the empowerment of women.)
Bejeweled – The Great Gatsby
Daisy Buchanan vibes. Diamonds, jewels… all I hear is 1920’s glamour. “I polish up real nice,” and so does Daisy. The whole book is a shimmering veneer and if F. Scott Fitzgerald was here today, he would be listening to Bejeweled on repeat.
Labyrinth – Heartstopper
“Oh no I’ve fallen in love.” This song is sweet and tender, it just screams Nick and Charlie to me as it’s just simple love and a generally beautiful song.
Karma – Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
If you have read Olga Tokarczuk’s wonderful work then you cannot reasonably tell me it isn’t slightly about karma and the various laws of the universe! This is a thriller and a fairy tale set in a village in the Polish woods in which the deaths of the residents strangely mimic the deaths of the forest animals…
Sweet nothing – Conversations With Friends
I mean she wrote this one with her long term partner Joe Alwyn who portrayed Nick in the recent BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel. “All you wanted from me was sweet nothing” screams complicated relationship which this book is full of.
Mastermind – The Secret History
A modern Greek Tragedy? A story of murder and betrayal? Who is the Mastermind? Is it Henry? Julian? Richard? The Secret History is a guide to manipulation and so is Mastermind. Francis Abernathy would have been a Swiftie for sure and this song would give him violent flashbacks to Bunny.
Congrats on the album Taylor, we love you! Happy reading, and happy listening.
swim press 