Book Review: Indie Darling by Lauren Nossett
Solid Story Of Legacy And Family Marred By Prominent Hyper Leftist Politics. As far as the tale as a whole here goes, this is one of those tales that is actually at least somewhat like The Great Gatsby: The beginning is a bunch of *utter* shit, but once you get beyond it into the actual meat of the story, it actually opens up into a rather spectacular tale... that in this case returns to at least some of the utter shit deeper in, but at least at this later point it is more "shit flavored" than straight "eating shit".
The base story - of a single mom PI investigating the threats to an indie band and the fallout thereof (without going to spoilery) - is truly great. There's a lot of strong and interesting characters here, and the more meta level discussion of legacy, fame, family, and even death is truly well done.
Which is why the inclusion and prominence of such hyper leftist politics is such a shame, because it will lead to many readers either never picking this book up, actively defenestrating it if they do, or at bare minimum DNFing it and likely leaving a lower starred review than even this one - and every bit of this is absolutely a self inflicted own goal that truly wasn't necessary.
Specifically, as is my style in my reviews, these are the reasons stars were lost:
Hyper feminism to the point of active and pervasive misandry. Yes, there are a couple of decent male characters here. But the utter hatred our main character shows for essentially all things male utterly drips from the page, particularly early on, and when we finally find at least one source of this character's hatred - a looming threat throughout the book, lurking in the background - it turns out to be a perfectly reasonable nothingburger *far* from the active threat the tale before the reveal had made it out to be.
Note here that I actually *do* have some of my own experience with some of the very issues raised here. I'm not denying the reality of *some* cases whatsoever. I worked for a District Attorney many years ago, and among the cases I personally worked on were one where a woman came to us for a restraining order, got it... and the man she got it against murdered her days later anyway, as well as another involving a father raping his own daughter. One scene from the trial of that last case there in particular will haunt me to my dying day, because I had personally been sworn in as a witness for that specific trial when the Defense accused me of not copying all digital evidence (I had), and thus I was actively in the courtroom for the utterly horrifying and sickening moment that ultimately sealed that person's fate. I doubt I'm the only one present that day who will remember that specific moment the rest of their lives, and to be clear this was roughly 16 yrs ago now, or over 1/3 of my own lifetime ago. I've seen the depths of evil even in this Millennium's South worse than even the book portrays here - those are just some of the cases I've worked at a professional level, I've dealt with others as bad or worse on a personal level as well - and yet I haven't let that lead me to such general hatred of all things man. Nor women, when women have been just as evil. (And yes, I've seen a lot of that too.) So like I said, absolute own goal here.
The other star comes off from the anti-gun politics, even as a gun is actively used here in a situation reminiscent of both the Butler, PA assassination attempt of President Trump during the 2024 campaign and the 2017 Las Vegas concert festival shooting - to the level that those particularly traumatized by those events should likely skip this book if you're not mentally prepared to handle a scene portrayed very close in nature to those two events. Again, absolute own goal here where the scenes could have worked *even better* without the political diatribes.
But hey, maybe you like those kinds of politics. In which case you're absolutely going to love this book. Truly. So if you're one of those types of readers, *please* pick this book up. Read it. Review it. Leave a glowing review praising everything about this book, including the politics. Reach out to your political allies and tell them of this wondrous tale.
But if you're more similar to me and have more issues with such politics, particularly in your fictional books you read largely to try to escape politics and simply have a great tale, yeah, just skip this one. Spare Nossett the more scathing review, as I think I've done a reasonably balanced one here and perhaps you may be more inclined to be... "less gentle". Maybe the book deserves that, but Nossett herself is simply a person writing a tale she clearly believes in and enjoys, and she doesn't need your rant. Arguably doesn't even need this one, but again, I like to think I'm reasonably well balanced and I am in fact in these last two paragraphs alone actively telling those I think will enjoy this book to read and spread it and those I think won't like this book to simply avoid it - which alone speaks to a reasonable balance, to my mind.
Overall, again, truly a strong tale for what the tale itself is... but the politics included herein are absolutely going to determine which readers enjoy it to what levels.
Recommended, if you agree with its political bent.
This review of Indie Darling by Lauren Nossett was originally written on July 29, 2026.
