

Sometimes I'll spend up to an hour flipping through my playlist until I hit the exact right piece to begin a paragraph or a chapter, or form the backbeat for a difficult scene I'm struggling to capture. I absolutely cannot write a novel without music, and it has to be the right music. In her own words, here is Susan Vaught's Book Notes music playlist for her novel, Freaks Like Us: If you don't have Spotify yet, sign up for the free service.

Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. Susan Vaught's Freaks Like Us is an intense, honest, and rewarding young adult psychological mystery narrated by a schizophrenic teen. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Kevin Brockmeier, George Pelecanos, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, David Peace, Myla Goldberg, Heidi Julavits, Hari Kunzru, and many others.

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
