Recommended If You Like: A Novel

by Adam Voith

What happens when your taste is real but your world is fake? When your longing is legit but channels for expression have been defanged and sanitized?
RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE is a novel built from the recorded cassette tape monologues of Anderson Humphrey, a music obsessive and aspiring snob known curiously as The Christian Humper in a vast but isolated underground scene in the 1990s. The stories are oral but recall zine culture at its photocopied peak, when music was still a total identity machine.

A chance encounter with a wildly unsuccessful punk band and a newfound zeal for life beyond church camp lead The Humper and his friends on a chase for selfhood, status, and cool inside a world designed to stifle all three.


Took me on a surprising tour through a life I did and didn’t lead. I found familiarities in deep places I wouldn’t have without this story. So complete. So beautiful and fun. Totally and utterly a home run.
- JUSTIN VERNON, Bon Iver

Under the surface, or maybe blending into the surface so smoothly you might miss it, there are countless undergrounds beyond those commonly celebrated in word and song. R.I.Y.L. lovingly but unsparingly details the Christian punk scene of the early to mid '90s. What is it like to love something that will someday belong to an earlier version of yourself? Voith's immensely readable book explores a side of being young both familiar and strange. Recommended if you like mirrors.
- JOHN DARNIELLE The Mountain Goats

Please Kill Me from inside a confessional. Get in the Van after being baptized.
- KEVIN MORBY

"Brutally honest, and it’s beautiful. Get on this book immediately.”
- DAMIEN JURADO


Andy’s tapes are a vulgar comedy of compromise peppered with micro-economies, status games, moral codes, humiliations, delusions, and little bursts of joy as he and the band attempt to cover up their scarlet letter and avoid paying the Christian Rock tax.

For the three years he records, Andy’s dispatches are conversational, breezy, and funny, but the jokes belie the depth of The Humper’s project as he wrestles with doubt, shame, and embarrassment while seeking adventure, autonomy, and validation.

Genres: Fiction

271 pages, Paperback

Published August 4, 2026

Reviews

[Nick Spallucci]

“Almost Famous” if Cameron Crowe went to vacation bible school and had a Substack.

[Joey Hedger]

If the words “Tooth and Nail” mean anything to you, this book was written for you too! Loved it.

[Emma McCoy]

I haven’t read something so funny since DT Robbin’s Leasing. Not my niche, but a super fun read

[Nathan Z]

A really endearing portrait. It takes a minute to get used to the subject matter and form, but the earnestness in the approach is quite heartfelt. Buy this book for $0.00 from Little Engines and support indie rock scenes

[Keith Long]

I saw this book floating around Substack and I if you know me you know I am always up for a free indie read. Recommended If You Like is a book by @Adam Voith masquerading as a collection of cassette tapes. In the words of the book,

“If you’re listening, you’re part of a small crew; there won’t be many. If you dig it, please spread the good word. Make copies and pass them around. You have my blessing.”

So I shall. These tapes review Christian rock bands in the late 90’s, but more so follow the life of the Christian Humper. He’s a roadie, kind of, for a Christian band.

RIYL bears that easy feeling of a well-written book, the one that makes you think maybe you could write a book like this because they make look easy only for you to try,  then realize that deceptive sheen you thought was ease is actually the polish of good editing and control of craft. It is a book of subtlety, where a lot of the main character’s growth goes on between tapes (chapters) and isn’t so neatly laid out. It makes it an interesting exploration of not only underground music, but 90’s evangelical faith too. You get these snatches of where the characters are, and sometimes it’s years after the previous chapter. I enjoyed it, especially listening g to the author narrated audio version, and would say it is recommended if you like The big T by @Clancy Steadwell or The World Outside @Rosalind Stanley or Mars in Retrograde by @James Worth or Black Diamond by Jed Doggo (@r-complex press )

[also side note, almost if not all of the RIYL books I listed there at the end are free here on Substack or are worth you shiny pennies]

https://losersfiction.substack.com/p/...

[Corey]

I’ve always known about Christian rock and like most people thought it was lame. It was fascinating to read/ listen to a book that was about escaping the stigma of Christian rock. As a story though it just does enough to be engaging. The writing is very simple, a lot of”I said/mom said/james said” and I wish the dialogue was funnier. But all those small critiques aside it was a very fun listen. I was born in 89 and got into punk as a young kid so I was familiar with a lot of the bands mentioned here and I also romanticize the notion of the scrappy band in a van barely able to live let alone thrive. Just doing it for the love of the game. So I got a lot of enjoyment out of this.

[Riley Brown]

I didn’t play in bands in the 90s, but I can say that this book totally nails what it was like to play in a band in the Midwest in the 2000s. Church shows, begging touring bands to come through your city, dealing with sketchy promoters who prey on the young guys [Mike Judy you still owe Mailbox Baseball our $80]. Fun read.

[Madison]

Such a fun book. Great writing and endearing characters. Definitely worth the read, especially if you’ve ever been to a church punk show.

[Jeremy B]

I happen to be part of the niche audience who would dig this book. 5 stars.

[Duncan]

This was a lot of fun - took me back to my youth group days, where I tried to fit in by acting like I knew any of these bands. Glad to hear they were faking it just as much as I was.

[Bobby Vanecko]

brother, read this book

[Anthony]

An ode to doing what you love for $48.

[Reader]

Hilarious, with a brilliant and curious structure. Put me onto an entire generation of heinous underground Christian rock—the one before mine. I really appreciate the way Voith explores Christianity among young men as more of a subculture than a faith, largely leaving Jesus out of it (the way we often did).