gillianraye's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
5.0
Goes into nice detail about his young life, a very nice book for fans of his music.
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug use
rick2's review against another edition
3.0
Lyrical and emotional. It reads like an extended RHCP song about Fleas childhood. Dealing mostly with his childhood and briefly his time as a musician before the RHCP. I was a bit taken aback by how detailed the recollection of 1st grade, 2nd grade, and so on were. I expected more rock-n-roll and less spiritual retelling of schoolyard squabbles.
Overall a mostly enjoyable and honest memoir. The telling was a bit fried and disorganized, I don't think I've taken nearly enough drugs in my life to really connect with this. Don't read it for rock-memoir purposes. Read it for the poets view of a turbulent upbringing. Think Bukowski if he smoked some grass after a weekend at the spa.
Overall a mostly enjoyable and honest memoir. The telling was a bit fried and disorganized, I don't think I've taken nearly enough drugs in my life to really connect with this. Don't read it for rock-memoir purposes. Read it for the poets view of a turbulent upbringing. Think Bukowski if he smoked some grass after a weekend at the spa.
miss_e's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
rochellehickey's review against another edition
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this book. I usually love reading firsthand accounts of people’s pasts but this one was basically constant stories of drug trips, the emotional ride of said trips, and little tidbits in between such as the immensely small section about how awesome the Walkman was when it came out. I don’t feel like I actually learned anything about Flea’s past that wasn’t really already public knowledge.
The entire book leads up to the first performance of The Red Hot Chili Peppers and moves around in time that sometimes it’s hard to figure out the progression of time.
He talks about his friends with love and fond memories, which is refreshing and feels personal.
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for sending me an copy for my honest and unbiased opinion.
The entire book leads up to the first performance of The Red Hot Chili Peppers and moves around in time that sometimes it’s hard to figure out the progression of time.
He talks about his friends with love and fond memories, which is refreshing and feels personal.
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for sending me an copy for my honest and unbiased opinion.
vernscul's review against another edition
3.0
This was really just... ok. The only thing that "saved" this for me was Flea's narration. As a physical book this would easily have been a DNF. You can tell when someone really wants to write a book and has a lot to say, and when someone just writes a book "because an editor asked me to".
momster13's review against another edition
4.0
What an amazing ride! Next step, listen to this for Flea's narration.
erinmitchell's review against another edition
2.0
I gave up and DNF at 80%. I’m just a casual fan of RHCP, but even so, this book is a coming of age story about Flea’s childhood/teen years pre-RHCP.
Flea defies stereotypes and overcomes a difficult upbringing, with quite a few bumps along the way. While his writing is thoughtful and lyrical, the chapters were so short and disjointed that it didn’t work for me. He introduces us to so many people that I felt disconnected and I soon lost interest.
He certainly has a story worth telling. This format just didn’t work for me. I listened on audio.
Flea defies stereotypes and overcomes a difficult upbringing, with quite a few bumps along the way. While his writing is thoughtful and lyrical, the chapters were so short and disjointed that it didn’t work for me. He introduces us to so many people that I felt disconnected and I soon lost interest.
He certainly has a story worth telling. This format just didn’t work for me. I listened on audio.