The Music Room

by Margaret Farrell Kirby

249 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 24, 2026

About the author

Margaret Kirby retired in 2012 after a career of working with homeless individuals in Washington DC. Following her retirement, she enrolled in writing classes and invested time in pursuing creative writing.

Margaret is inspired by authors of character-driven novels—Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Berg, Anna Quindlen and others—who take time to explore the inner thoughts and motivations of their protagonists and hopes that her book might appeal to readers who enjoy their work.

Becoming Nora is a 2022 Independent Press Award Distinguished Favorite in the category of
Literary Fiction.

For more information about the book, visit www.margaretkirby.com.

Reviews

[Paul Wagenbreth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cath Taylor, the eminently likeable protagonist of Margaret Farrell Kirby’s “The Music Room,” had entertained thoughts earlier in her life of being a writer, had even been enrolled in a college literature and writing curriculum, until cancer claimed the life of her mother, with whom she’d felt an especially close bond – the room of the title refers to the place at her father's house where she can still feel an abiding connection with her musical mother – and she came to regard writing as frivolous and opted instead for a nursing career, with its caregiving emphasis.
But as the novel begins some thirty years later, with her now in her fifties, she has come to feel an unfocused discontent with her life, a vague feeling she’s unable to share with her psychiatrist husband, making for some tension in the marriage, and at someone’s suggestion she enrolls in a writing seminar where participants write about the grief that each has felt over various sorts of trauma.
Andrea, for instance, with whom Cath comes to form a close bond, is getting over domestic violence she suffered for years, while Will, whom Cath initially finds endearing, is anguished over his marriage having ended in divorce after he and his wife couldn’t conceive.
So companiable, indeed, do the three become that they start meeting for coffee after the writing sessions, where Will, both there and at the writing sessions, begins exhibiting unsettling behavior, even erupting at one of the writing sessions over someone’s suggestion that his memoir isn’t giving sufficient due to his ex’s perspective, to which he angrily responds that it’s his memoir, not hers.
Indeed, truly scary his anger becomes as the novel progresses, with his telling how he has staked out his ex’s residence and expressing a desire to shoot the man she’s now seeing, displays of aggressive sentiment which will only escalate as the novel proceeds to its climactic conclusion in a dramatic second half.
Particularly compelling reading it makes for, the novel's second half, in contrast to the first half, which will no doubt prove captivating to many of its female readers, with its close depiction of a woman’s grief-stricken state of mind, but which I found somewhat slow going and certainly more static than the more dynamic second half.
Still, largely engrossing, Kirby’s novel, especially for anyone like me with a strong interest in writing.

[Louisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Music Room has a beautiful premise, centred around our main character Cath working through grief from her mother’s death and the choices she made in the face of it, 30 years ago. I was instantly drawn in as I lost my mother 5 years ago and it derailed my life at that time, and I've often wondered how different things could be.

The first quarter of the book was lovely, the titular music room being Cath’s space to commune with her mum and feel her presence. This was described beautifully, a real emotional anchor for the confusion and troubles Cath is trying to sift through. Once Cath delves into a writing workshop to reignite the passion of writing that she gave up when her mum passed away, the book lost me. The grief is relegated to a plot device for her to start writing again, and I was met with parts marital discord, quasi-thriller and psychoanalysis.

Due to this, I did not enjoy this book greatly as I felt it lost its way to tell a completely different story. If I hadn't resonated so much with the initial plot of Cath's grief over her mother, I likely would have enjoyed the narrative it evolved into more, but that core storyline was what really caught me.

I think the story suffered from being told in third-person rather than first-person, particularly as it is character-driven - I felt an emotional distance from Cath and the other characters. Some of the dialogue, particularly when talking about her mother, felt stilted, which I think could have been helped with that dialogue instead being introspection.

This book wasn't for me - as I said, the turn the story took was not what I was hoping for from this book, but I do think it was well-paced and well-plotted. The later events are interesting and do draw you in, and Cath is an interesting and empathetic character to follow. I wish there was more weight to her grief rather than marital discord, as that seemed to take over doing the brunt of the heavy emotional lifting. 2 stars out of 5.

[Tess Ailshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose for some this is a captivating story. I found myself wishing for more; after a full book, I still don't understand why Cath was so traumatized by her mother's death. I understand the initial decision to leave college, and the inertia of career and caregiving, but never felt emotionally connected to the trauma. Surprisingly, the only characters I was drawn to were Matthew and Jessie. I never understood what Cath gained from moving out for a time; I never felt the conflict was resolved.

Part of my disappointment has to do with the prosaic sentence structure. Subject-verb-object; rinse and repeat. Though I did like the use of the music room and the redbud tree as recurring threads.

In my opinion, one sentence made the rest of the book inevitable: "It was the last time they would see Will." That gave the story away to me. Yet I didn't understand the nervousness, the anxiety, the angst of Part III.

[Paige Moulton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Music Room immediately conveys a sense of quiet elegance and emotional depth. The title suggests a story shaped by memory, atmosphere, and the subtle emotional currents that define human experience.
There is something inherently evocative about the idea of a music room, a space where sound and silence coexist, where emotion is carried not only through words but through what is felt beneath them. It hints at a narrative that may be reflective, intimate, and deeply attuned to the inner lives of its characters.
Margaret Farrell Kirby presents a title that feels thoughtful and atmospheric, one that invites curiosity and promises a layered emotional experience. For readers who appreciate literary fiction with a strong sense of mood and introspection, this carries clear appeal.