Hope and healing found within the darkest depths of grief, The Future Saints is a cry of pain yet also an exultation in the release of letting go.
Theo Ford is the one they call at Manifest Records when things go wrong, and when he’s sent to The Future Saints, they’re in turmoil. Lead singer Hannah Cortland is drowning in grief, her pain flowing out of her into the lyrics of new songs, completely different from their old style. But mixed with their attention grabbing antics they’re generating more buzz than ever. She’s a bright star at risk of going supernova, and now the whole world is watching with cameras in their hands.
We get a backstage pass to the whirlwind ride of The Saints, seeing Hannah’s grief play out, and Theo awestruck from the side of the stage, dragged into their current as he becomes more and more bewitched by the lead singer. The excerpts of coverage, from tiktok videos to reviews and articles are the final shading that bring this vibrant band of characters to life, creating a media frenzy that’s all too believable. While skillfully telling a story of grief, fame and love it also manages to cast a critical spotlight on the insatiable public hunger for drama, the willingness to poke the bear and sit back and marvel at the fallout as a source of entertainment. The frenzy feels claustrophobic, that feeling increasing throughout the book as the fame grows, but also as you understand more and more about the characters. The world of The Future Saints is brought to life further with the inclusion of Hannah’s heartfelt lyrics. As I read it amazed me the skill on show, to not only write a book - bring characters, settings and scenes to life - but to also imagine up supporting music and lyrics. The sheer level of imagination and creativity required to not only put together a story of this kind, but to make it feel effortless, baffles me.
Both Hannah and Theo are flawed characters that could easily have been written into a hero and damsel story. However, Theo’s tendency to fall on his sword and rush in to save others is rarely shown as a good thing, and the only one that’s going to save Hannah is herself. It’s a gritty, wounded sort of love story that is all the more satisfying for it. A heady adrenaline rush of a read that is all consuming, I whizzed through it in a couple of days, feeling slightly dazed when I came up for breath.