Lo Fi

by Liz Riggs

“Swoony, sexy, and melancholy. . . a tattered love letter to youth, music, and Nashville.” —Daisy Alpert Florin, author of My Last Innocent Year

In the sweaty music clubs and late-night house parties of Nashville, an aspiring songwriter tries to make friends, find love, and write songs—without losing herself

Alison Hunter came to Nashville for the music, a town where everyone—herself included—wants to make it in the business. Most nights, you’ll find her at The Venue, the kind of sweaty Nashville spot that’s on the circuit for bands like Bon Iver and Death Cab. Sounds glamorous—but not for Al, who stamps hands at the door with Julien, the quiet coworker who treats her like a little sister. She bums drinks from the tattooed bartender and watches the bands, wondering if she’ll ever finish a song of her own after her disastrous attempt to play in public. After a once-in-a-century storm hits and her lead singer ex-boyfriend shows up at the door, Al finds herself stuck in a perpetual cycle of late nights, new flings, and old flames. Obsessed with the disappearance of a troubled indie star, she slowly starts to lose it herself—until one reckless night threatens to derail everything. As propulsive and sexy as the rasp of a static-driven amp, Lo Fi is an open-hearted tribute to the messy truth of the creative life, the clash of lust and love, and the yearning to be heard.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Music, Audiobook, Adult Fiction, Literary Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 9, 2024

Reviews

[Judson · Rating 5 out of 5]

desperately awaiting hulu adaptation

[libraryofren · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone whose dogs are named after Ziggy Stardust and Led Zeppelin, has a playlist for everything, and loves the nostalgia of reading books about characters being a little messy in their early 20’s this book felt tailored made.

This book was sooo good, and the music mentioned? Elite. Lo Fi made me want to move to Nashville and find a job in the underbelly of the music scene, or at least have a friend who does so I can tag alongside them. The vibe reminded me of the movie Almost Famous and Daisy Jones and the Six. Al felt like a more new age, overthinking, relatable, working girl Penny Lane/Daisy Jones mix.

[Lauren Q · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m giving two stars for the author who is very talented. Zero stars for the story. Book is about an unlikable 22 yo female who is an alcoholic who pops benzos having unsatisfactory sex with baristas and bar fellows. She drives drunk and murders a dog, but this does not cause her to do self reflection on her drinking problem. She ends up liking the guy she works with at the door at the bar. Not a love affair by any means. She ends up getting the confidence to sing her songs which is the lone positive.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was truly difficult to read. The way it was formatted was atrocious and really hammered home the absolutely terrible vibes to me. Reading the dialogue literally hurt my eyes. I have never in my life read a book with such an unlikable FMC who wasn’t straight up evil until this book. Like, she wasn’t supposed to be a villain, I want that to be clear, but I still wanted to shake her the entire time and scream at her to go to therapy because she doesn’t really seem to have any real problems. She certainly has no problems that aren’t her own invention.

If you want to read a book where a relatively privileged 20-something white girl stumbles through her life in the early 2010s drunk and high the whole time while sleeping around a whole lot…this is the book for you. There’s not much plot. It’s very meandering. Her character barely arcs—really only in the last 20% does she seem to feel any remorse for any of her actions. The last 5% she is finally, FINALLY making some changes. You don’t even get to see what happens because of course. Why would you after this clusterfuck of a book?

[Emma Bates · Rating 2 out of 5]

Holy cow I have never hated an MC more in my life. Also WTF was with this writing style??? Use quotation marks!!!! This whole book made me feel gross.

[Alex Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I graduated from Belmont the summer of 2010, just when the book starts. The nostalgia I felt reading this was so intense it physically hurt. Riggs absolutely nailed my Nashville experience to the point that it felt like she wrote this book just for me. But even if you aren’t me, even if you’ve never been to Nashville, I think all it takes is a love for music to make this heartfelt novel feel just as personal to you.

[Annabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like it was inevitable I would l like this book; as a 23 year old who feels a little lost and like she should be doing something she's passionate about but isn't, who mostly wants to drink irresponsibly and have no responsibilities but also I'd like to be taken seriously, Al is an easy character to relate to. She's an amalgamation of the best and worst parts of that feeling, because at least she wants SOMETHING (music) even if she doesn't know how to get there; I want to want something that badly. But she's also messy and chaotic and selfish and it's freeing to read about her because I don't want that for my real life but it sometimes comes up as an intrusive thought, like, what if I worked nights and treated people carelessly and spent most of my time not sober? What if I lived like Al?

I think realistically my rating is 4.5 stars because I don't think this is a 5 star for everyone, for most people even, but sometimes stories find you at the right time in your life and you just feel seen. But even if you're not feeling lost and uncertain and a little depressed even though nothing bad has happened to you ever, you'll probably still like this -- more than anything this was fun and entertaining and Nashville really comes to life in the pages. I kept thinking, should I get really into music? Should I move to Nashville? Should I get a job checking people's IDs at the door to a concert venue? (Funnily enough this was actually a job I tried to get a few months ago because I thought it would be cool).

This reminded me of Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler, another favorite that I read at the right time. Also sorry this review turned out to be mostly about me, hope you enjoyed the book.

--

3/22/25 reread: 5 stars again ❣️

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

It just wasn’t for me. At first it made me a little nostalgic for my college days, making me wish I had been more in the music scene, but in the end I did not envy this character’s life. I like a spicy book every now and then, but most of the scenes involving sex were written in a way that repulsed me. I wanted to like this as a Nashvillian, but I just didn’t.

[Lee Collier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is my take. This is a 3.75, I will buff it to a 4 because I don't feel ok putting three on the scale.

I loved (most) of this book because it made me relive my life 15 to 20 years ago. I felt so at home in Liz Riggs world because I lived this life. I was a scene kid, I sang in the front row every word to Tell All Your Friends and then graduated to indie acts like Broken Social Scene, Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, etc. This book talks about so many of those favorite listens from the mid aughts and just made me reminiscent the whole way through.

The thing is, there isnt much going on in this novel. If you didnt live this raucous life, you probably won't care about Alison Hunter and her life. The story centers around Aly's early twenties and how difficult it can be to find love, purpose, and security with the backdrop of the music/venue industry.

I felt like Liz's writing style was special, she was able to hit the points quick and there are blips throughout the book where she lists out worries that are inside of Aly's head in a way that makes you feel her concern, juggling all of the weights of this world without much security in hand. There are also lists of songs to listen to in certain situations and I felt like they were curated well. But overall, the story is not mind blowing, it is a love story wrapped up in an homage to the world we lived in as indie kids in the early 2000s.

[Emily Mayo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stephen Fishbach I am sorry but this book was so terribly boring I could not do it. gets two stars bc I can tell it’s a fiction MFA writing project like all the individual sentences are good but wow I really struggled to care

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liz Riggs, the author of this novel, just out this past week, is married to an online acquaintance/friend. It likely wouldn't have been on my radar otherwise, but I'm very glad that it was.

It's an excellent lost in your early 20s, existentialist-tinged getting your shit together/coming into your own artistically and emotionally novel.

Its evocation of a music scene, Nashville of the late aughts, feels right, even though I wasn't there to vouch for it. Allison, Al, works taking tickets at a music venue and navigates her post-college haze in and out of various relationships

The music is spot on and the voice and prose are utterly believable. It felt like finding music and listening to it and trying to write your own. Riggs makes you feel it.

While these are very inexact comparisons, it evoked High Fidelity and About a Boy by Nick Hornby and Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell for me, and the title story of Jill McCorkle's Final Vinyl days. It's it's own thing, but could comfortably sit on the same shelf with those, for me, the previous standard for music scene adjacent novels.

Highly recommended!

[Stacey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did the main character learn anything in this story? I wanted to like this book, but I was annoyed the entire time. Also, the choice to use - instead of quotes for dialogue was very confusing.

[britt_brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Sweetbitter” vibes, but with an aspiring songwriter and a fictional Nashville music spot blandly called “The Venue.” Many real places appear, though, so fun nostalgic elements. Lots of great music referenced, too. A decent read by a local Nashville author. And look, I love Yeungling, but it’s mentioned so many times, it feels like product placement.

[Elise DeJarnatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This book tapped into so many feelings and memories I didn’t even know I could remember. The writing is truly beautiful and evokes so much on its own, and the way this book truly made me feel like I traveled back in time to my own first few years in Nashville really blew me away.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you were a musician or music lover in Nashville circa 2010 this is both wonderfully and painfully nostalgic- but even if you weren’t I think you could love this story.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in one night. I couldn't put it down. It sounds trite, I know, but that's part of the reason I give it five stars. Something compelled me to power through this entire book in the span of 3-4 hours. It's rock and roll, the heartbreak and poor decision making of your 20s, a will-they-or-won't-they love story, figuring out who you are and what you want, and it just struck a chord in me (no pun intended, I swear). It encapsulates a specific period of time, perhaps a little after my formative years and not quite the right bands, but nonetheless evoked many, many memories of the delicate period between young adulthood and adulthood where you haven't quite figured out where you fit or that you deserve far more than you think (aka NOT dating guys in bands).

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher, via Netgalley, for an advance e-galley for honest review.

The vibes are absolutely on point with this one. Music fans, this one is for you, with Al's playlists interspersed, with references to songs and bands throughout, and even the fictional characters feel very true to form, with the nebulousness of crafting a life in a creative field. It also hits the nail on the head way to accurately when it comes to Al's existential, twenty-something, floundering crises, and her choices made me cringe for her, while also remembering that adulthood but not knowing anything life stage well.

[Maddy Colbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a real and raw story about that weird/hard time in your early twenties. I was so invested in these characters! Plus the setting of Nashville was fun to be able to picture and know exactly where/what the author was describing!

[Rachel Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you riverhead books for this ARC!

Alison, Al, is a 20 something recent college grad who has moved to Nashville and works the door at The Venue. Al is an aspiring song writer who is just trying to find where she fits in this world.


This story resonated with me so much. Al is such a relatable character for those that have had the fresh out of college existential crisis of WHAT DO I DO NOW. The endless feeling of being lost and trying to figure out how you fit into the world while everyone around you seems to be moving forward. A story filled with the chaos of bad decisions and reckless behavior, this book felt like a tribute to the desperation and loneliness that your early twenties bring.

I highly recommend this book, especially for the ones who feel music in the depths of their soul. The playlists throughout were fantastic + really helped you understand the characters. If you loved Daisy Jones and The Six you’ll enjoy this one!

[Courtney Nordstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the setting and how it made me feel like I was at all the concerts described. The music references felt spot on as well as the sections of all the things you hear people say at concerts. Her writing was unique and I liked that change of pace. I wasn’t a fan of the sexual content throughout, so that’s why it’s getting a 3 stars. But overall fun, different read, into a world that I’ve always found interesting, the music venue scene/ industry.

[Galen Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn’t written with me in mind and that’s okay. I spent my teenage years through my mid 30s in Nashville and this book completely captures what it felt like to work as a bar back, server, songwriter or music biz person in the early 2010s. It was so completely comforting to read the familiar street names, venues, local musicians, dive bars, and neighborhoods. The attention to detail is pitch perfect and I often felt like I was in the room with these characters (all of whom I’ve met some variation of at one point or another).

But, the story wasn’t for me. It’s a familiar tale of an aimless 20-something-mess hung up on a couple of guys, where one strings her along and the other, who is the clearly obvious choice, minds to himself in the background. With such an amazing city captured in such an immersive way, I’m not sure why this was the story the author chose to tell in it.

The prose are often beautiful and read like poetry. Some of the locations the author chose to obscure were interesting. The place where most the action happens is clumsily called “The Venue” but it’s clearly modeled after the now-defunct Mercy Lounge (and its “Second Space” The High Watt). With so many real locations mentioned and visited, it kind of pulled me out of it to keep reading the words “The Venue”. There’s also multiple mentions of “the bar with the taxidermy fox”, which was a nod to the now-closed Crying Wolf and makes for a fun little Easter Egg.

The author is a very talented writer and I’m curious to see where she goes next, but the story is too much like an old song you’ve heard one too many times.

Closer to a 3.5

PS: The book is kind of like a spiritual successor to High Fidelity?

[Laci Carrera | Book Pairings · Rating 3 out of 5]

“But the real problem...is the way a song or an album or a voice on the radio can fling you authoritatively into the past. Songs are almost always slivers of souvenirs, recollections...” - Lo Fi by Liz Riggs
⁠
That quote perfectly encapsulates how it felt reading Lo fi. I was authoritatively flung back to my college years working at and attending music venues in Austin. The story is actually set in Nashville, but there were a lot of parallels. I’d like to think my early to mid-20s were a little less messy though.⁠
⁠
The story follows Alison, who moves to Nashville to be a part of the music business. She gets a job at a music venue and stamps hands at the door most nights. As the story progresses she finds herself stuck in a vicious cycle of late nights out, drinking too much, promiscuity, and rebounds with old flames. She is also trying to overcome her stage fright and creative block to finish a song she’s writing. A lot is going on in this story, but it works. At its core, it’s a story about seeking belonging - in her relationships, in the music industry, in Nashville, in the world. ⁠
⁠
I’d recommend this to fans of:⁠
- Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler⁠
- Coming-of-age stories⁠
- Situationship stories⁠
- Quarterlife crisis stories⁠

[Thank you Riverhead Books for the #gifted book 💜] ⁠

[emelie!! · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am thoroughly impressed by Liz Riggs. Picking up this novel, I was unsure if it would be my cup of tea, but as I kept reading I quickly familiarized myself with the characters, the drama and of course the setting - the land of wannabe country stars and starving composers - Nashville, Tennessee.

Throughout the story, we follow the youthful Alison Hunter and her journey within the budding music industry in Nashville. She struggles with love and jealousy, relationships, and her inspiration - a lot of things that the youth of America can identify with.

Lo Fi depicts the music and creative industries in a real light. The creative life is messy and heartbreaking. It's lustful and filled with love. It's a cycle of inspiration and obsession and procrastination, and Riggs illustrated it beautifully.

There is definitely room for improvement, but I really love this as Riggs' debut novel.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mid 2010s Nashville fanfic, extremely cringe and the nostalgia didn’t really make up for the unlikable protagonist, lack of plot, and annoying song/place/name-dropping.

Related - given how important music is in this novel, the audiobook narrator could at the very least pronounce all the band names correctly (“Sleater Kinsey” was a particularly bad moment)

[emily hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

took the liberty of making a playlist with all the songs mentioned in this book bc wowzers

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1mG...

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

You'll like it if you love music and are nostalgic for your early 20s.

[Brianna Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like imperfect characters and music, this book is for you. I really liked the writing style.

[carly butler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this a lot more than I actually did. in theory, since the story + characters + city + industry are so close to me, I SHOULD have loved it, but something felt off about it to me. it felt masturbatory, almost - like the gratuitous mentions of people/places/things/songs extremely specific to Nashville felt over the top, at least to someone who lives here. maybe I would have liked it more if I didn’t live here and didn’t work in this industry and didn’t frequent nearly every place she wrote about. it almost reads like a love letter to Nashville from and/or to someone who’s never been here. like the author was trying to convince me how “Nashville” she is through some aggressive name-dropping in a way that really didn’t work for me.

I did think the actual writing was beautiful. a lot of sentences stopped me dead in my tracks. I was in the story invested until the end, despite rolling my eyes every other page. I don’t think I actually liked a single character, though. lots of mixed feelings here!

[Megan Gibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED every second of this book. It was definitely a love letter to Nashville but also to live music, small hole-in-the-wall venues, local and small name bands, and rock and alternative music in general. All of my favorite concerts have taken place in a dark, dingy, jam packed venues and this book made me nostalgic for it. Part coming of age, part slow burn romance, part lit fic, this was a beautifully written book that I won’t soon forget. There are playlists dispersed throughout the book with the likes of Brand New, Death Cab, Kings of Leon, Paramore, Local Natives, etc. and I sure dog eared every single one 🎧🎶

[Gemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

more like a 4.5⭐️. randomly picked this up from the library and loved it! main character irked me so much but grew attached to her as the story went on. Although she did continue to irritate me, she was flawed in a way that was really realistic and provided depth. Also really loved the world building and descriptions in this book too: Liz riggins beautifully captured grimy life of the 2010s Nashville music scene through the lens of a 23 year Al. I also enjoyed the romantic plot of the story too! it wasn’t the main focus of the story but was so sweet and layered and added a lot of depth to the main characters’ journey. Overall great read i liked👍