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michaelkerr's review
3.0
3.5 stars. Samuel Butler once observed that "life is like playing the violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on." Most of us have probably felt this way at some point (or constantly), but Jake Shears captivating memoir is a truly great illustration of this quotation. A bullied gay kid, Shears used humour and performance as defence mechanisms. He stumbled and fumbled his way through his youth with no clear notion of where he was going - and it all could have gone so wrong at so many turns. Fortunately for us, he fell into music and found his way to the world stage. This is a well-done memoir and will be particularly enjoyed by those of us fascinated by pop culture.
modernmethod's review
3.0
Enjoyable read and page-turner of Jake Shears' early life, exploring his horizons in New York and the beginnings of Scissor Sisters. It captures the excitement of scouting out new music as teenager, his determination of becoming an artist and how he made it happen. There are some parts of his life that he touches on that I thought could have been explored further. It's very much written in his own voice and at times feels like he is speaking directly to the reader. 3.5/5 Stars.
knobbyknees's review
3.0
I'm not a stranger to celebrity memoirs, especially musician's memoirs. (For some reason, I find musicians more interesting than actors, and have read a fair number of memoirs by artists I know peripherally: Jewel, Keith Richards, Posh Spice.) So when the opportunity came up for me to read Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters' memoir, courtesy of Netgalley, I took it, thinking that maybe I'd learn something new. I own their albums and even saw their show once when they toured, so I considered myself a fan (a fairly casual one), but even my familiarity with the group didn't make me love this book.
The book is split into three parts: 25% about his childhood in Arizona and Seattle, 25% struggling in New York, and 50% after the formation of the Scissor Sisters group, from early club-performing days with just Jason Sellards (Jake Shears) and Scott Hoffman (Babydaddy) to the first album's meteoric rise, and brief mention of the second album.
The first half of the book was an interesting slice-of-life experience, describing Jason's upbringing in what was an uncertain time for gay people: the outbreak of AIDS, the social stigma of your sexual orientation being "abnormal." The time he spent in NYC in the late 1990s-early 2000s, when the city was rapidly gentrifying, was a cool look at the culture at the time as well. The settings were great background characters, with their own quirks and tics. I really liked all of Jason's descriptions of his weird apartments and the roommates that inhabited them. Despite all this, the middle of the book really drooped for me and I considered not reading any more, because it felt fruitless.
The second half, when Scissor Sisters were born, Ana Matronic was added to the group, (then a few others,) was more interesting just because I was on more familiar footing at this point. Before, Jason was meandering, describing all of the different jobs he took, places he danced at, men he slept with, drugs he tried, and it felt like a non-linear mess where names dropped with no real purpose. After the formation of the band, he still did all of those things but with the foundation of "and it was while we were doing x or y with the group" — milestones that made sense on their climb to the top, like promo in London, Top of the Pops, chart rankings, etc.
Knowing next to nothing about the group in detail before this — knowing their songs, but not knowing the names of band members — I read trying to glean an idea of who Jason/Jake is. And my conclusion is that I still don't really know, even after reading about his parents' wariness to his coming out, his friendship with an obese woman he met in a chat room to whom the ballad "Mary" is dedicated, and his friendship/relationships with big names like Anderson Cooper and Dan Savage.
Jason/Jake's voice is chattery. He has a habit of describing some problem but then throws the conclusion out later as an aside (from coming out to his parents, to dealing with bad roommates, etc.) He name-drops for no good reason except to show how well-connected he is (and perhaps it's his connectedness that helped the group grow in name recognition; dude hustled). I find it interesting there was a tiny mention of how the NY Times panned the group when Scissor Sisters released their debut album in America, but there was no followup about the controversy it caused. Wal-Mart refused to stock it because of a single with the word "tits" in it, and the group refused to make a clean edit version, which hurt its sales in the US. I had to read about it in the band's Wiki page, but Jake talks about how big they were in the UK and ignores the US for the most part, even though he's an American and the record was cut in NYC.
Should it have been longer, to flesh out these things? I don't think so. Could it have been shorter, to cut out unnecessary jumps to celebrities, one-night-stands, and parties? I don't know, maybe. All I know is, I wish I hadn't been so bored while reading parts of this memoir. And I wish that I could say that I know about Jake a little better.
The book is split into three parts: 25% about his childhood in Arizona and Seattle, 25% struggling in New York, and 50% after the formation of the Scissor Sisters group, from early club-performing days with just Jason Sellards (Jake Shears) and Scott Hoffman (Babydaddy) to the first album's meteoric rise, and brief mention of the second album.
The first half of the book was an interesting slice-of-life experience, describing Jason's upbringing in what was an uncertain time for gay people: the outbreak of AIDS, the social stigma of your sexual orientation being "abnormal." The time he spent in NYC in the late 1990s-early 2000s, when the city was rapidly gentrifying, was a cool look at the culture at the time as well. The settings were great background characters, with their own quirks and tics. I really liked all of Jason's descriptions of his weird apartments and the roommates that inhabited them. Despite all this, the middle of the book really drooped for me and I considered not reading any more, because it felt fruitless.
The second half, when Scissor Sisters were born, Ana Matronic was added to the group, (then a few others,) was more interesting just because I was on more familiar footing at this point. Before, Jason was meandering, describing all of the different jobs he took, places he danced at, men he slept with, drugs he tried, and it felt like a non-linear mess where names dropped with no real purpose. After the formation of the band, he still did all of those things but with the foundation of "and it was while we were doing x or y with the group" — milestones that made sense on their climb to the top, like promo in London, Top of the Pops, chart rankings, etc.
Knowing next to nothing about the group in detail before this — knowing their songs, but not knowing the names of band members — I read trying to glean an idea of who Jason/Jake is. And my conclusion is that I still don't really know, even after reading about his parents' wariness to his coming out, his friendship with an obese woman he met in a chat room to whom the ballad "Mary" is dedicated, and his friendship/relationships with big names like Anderson Cooper and Dan Savage.
Jason/Jake's voice is chattery. He has a habit of describing some problem but then throws the conclusion out later as an aside (from coming out to his parents, to dealing with bad roommates, etc.) He name-drops for no good reason except to show how well-connected he is (and perhaps it's his connectedness that helped the group grow in name recognition; dude hustled). I find it interesting there was a tiny mention of how the NY Times panned the group when Scissor Sisters released their debut album in America, but there was no followup about the controversy it caused. Wal-Mart refused to stock it because of a single with the word "tits" in it, and the group refused to make a clean edit version, which hurt its sales in the US. I had to read about it in the band's Wiki page, but Jake talks about how big they were in the UK and ignores the US for the most part, even though he's an American and the record was cut in NYC.
Should it have been longer, to flesh out these things? I don't think so. Could it have been shorter, to cut out unnecessary jumps to celebrities, one-night-stands, and parties? I don't know, maybe. All I know is, I wish I hadn't been so bored while reading parts of this memoir. And I wish that I could say that I know about Jake a little better.
chymerra's review
4.0
I am not a fan of reviewing memoirs, biographies or autobiographies. I like to read them but ask me to review them, no thank you. So, how did I end up with Boys Keep Swinging? A mistake. I didn’t read the blurb before I decided to push the Read Now button on NetGalley. I was multitasking, which is pretty common. Plus, I loved the cover. Anyways, I will do my best not to bore you guys with this review.
Boys Keep Swinging is about Jake Shears. From his childhood on an island to finding fame with The Scissor Sisters, you can’t help but be drawn into the book. I was captivated from the first chapter and couldn’t put the book down. There were parts where I was giggling and other parts had me in tears.
Jake’s sense of humor came through strongly in this book. The humor in this book is a dry sort of humor, which I like. The snark is strong with this book and I loved it!!
I am going to admit, I have never heard of The Scissor Sisters before this book. But, they have made a new convert. Researching videos for this blog post, I came across the above YouTube video. Loved it. My 4-year-old daughter also loved it. She danced her little butt off for the entire hour and 8 minutes that the video played. She also has demanded that the “Skisser Sisters” be played on our Alexa/Echo. Nonstop….lol.
There are serious moments in the book. It wasn’t all humor. One of the sadder scenes was Jake coming out to his parents. I wanted to reach through the book and hug him. I am roughly the same age as Jake and sadly the attitude that his parents were the norm. I had a friend who crossdressed. He didn’t fully start doing it until I was a senior in high school, so 94-95. The day he wore a skirt to school, he was sent home. He showed up the next day in a dress and got beat up after school. He was supposed to go with us in our limo for prom as my friend’s “date“. I was pulled aside by the captain of the football team the day before and was threatened. “So and so better not show up. You, him and your friends will regret it“. I did stand up for him and told the captain to take his ego and shove it up his butt, but still. My friend didn’t go to the prom. He didn’t want anything to happen to us. I never saw him after high school and I often wonder what has happened to him :(.
I have read earlier reviews that have complained about the name dropping in the book. Honestly, it didn’t bother me. He was an up and coming musician that happened to befriend some famous people. Didn’t affect my view of the book or the content that was written. Those people happened into his life and he chose to write about them. Hell, if I was friends with Elton John, I would be name dropping too…lol.
The end of the book was a bit melancholy. I can’t describe why but I did get a little sad reading it.
I am giving Boys Keep Swinging an Adult rating. I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 21. There is sex (lots and lots of sex), language, some mild violence, and drug use. The drug use might trigger some people. Saying that I would recommend this book to family and friends but with a warning. I would read this again.
I would like to thank Atria Books for allowing me to read and review Boys Keep Swinging.
All opinions stated in this review of Boys Keep Swinging are mine.
**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**
Boys Keep Swinging is about Jake Shears. From his childhood on an island to finding fame with The Scissor Sisters, you can’t help but be drawn into the book. I was captivated from the first chapter and couldn’t put the book down. There were parts where I was giggling and other parts had me in tears.
Jake’s sense of humor came through strongly in this book. The humor in this book is a dry sort of humor, which I like. The snark is strong with this book and I loved it!!
I am going to admit, I have never heard of The Scissor Sisters before this book. But, they have made a new convert. Researching videos for this blog post, I came across the above YouTube video. Loved it. My 4-year-old daughter also loved it. She danced her little butt off for the entire hour and 8 minutes that the video played. She also has demanded that the “Skisser Sisters” be played on our Alexa/Echo. Nonstop….lol.
There are serious moments in the book. It wasn’t all humor. One of the sadder scenes was Jake coming out to his parents. I wanted to reach through the book and hug him. I am roughly the same age as Jake and sadly the attitude that his parents were the norm. I had a friend who crossdressed. He didn’t fully start doing it until I was a senior in high school, so 94-95. The day he wore a skirt to school, he was sent home. He showed up the next day in a dress and got beat up after school. He was supposed to go with us in our limo for prom as my friend’s “date“. I was pulled aside by the captain of the football team the day before and was threatened. “So and so better not show up. You, him and your friends will regret it“. I did stand up for him and told the captain to take his ego and shove it up his butt, but still. My friend didn’t go to the prom. He didn’t want anything to happen to us. I never saw him after high school and I often wonder what has happened to him :(.
I have read earlier reviews that have complained about the name dropping in the book. Honestly, it didn’t bother me. He was an up and coming musician that happened to befriend some famous people
The end of the book was a bit melancholy. I can’t describe why but I did get a little sad reading it.
I am giving Boys Keep Swinging an Adult rating. I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 21. There is sex (lots and lots of sex), language, some mild violence, and drug use. The drug use might trigger some people. Saying that I would recommend this book to family and friends but with a warning. I would read this again.
I would like to thank Atria Books for allowing me to read and review Boys Keep Swinging.
All opinions stated in this review of Boys Keep Swinging are mine.
**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**