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hectaizani's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this memoir which related the author's experiences of growing up in a dysfunctional family. I think I like this type of book because my family was also broken and I can see the similarities.
katdemon's review
1.0
If you like stories about depression, drug use, and irresponsible behavior then this book is for you. I read this book because she claimed to have been raised in the same house as me. I wanted to get a glimpse of my city before I was born. I like hearing about the school that was across the street and it was interesting to find secrets about my home but I didn't like how her memoir felt negative and obscene. I'm also upset she described the house as having a puke green color.
yourfriendtorie's review
3.0
I have to say, I don't count myself among fans of Michelle Tea's writing in general. I think I have read all of her novels, and while I didn't dislike them, they didn't shake me the way I was somehow expecting. The Chelsea Whistle is also a memoir that reads like a fucked-up YA novel, but this one affected me a little more. Familial dysfunction and a working-class upbringing form the backdrop against which Tea's coming-of-age develops in sad, painful vignettes that seemed all too familiar to me, and perhaps many other angsty, self-aware, subculture-obsessed teen girls. Anyway, a harsh read, to be sure, but I read it avidly.
corncobwebs's review against another edition
5.0
Tea's writing style is like nothing else I have read before, and I love that. It took me a while to get into this book - I liked it more as the essays progressed. In the end I loved it, though - as different as her childhood was from my own, she definitely writes about some experiences/feelings/worldviews that ring true with me.
neurodivengeance's review against another edition
5.0
THIS WAS SO GOOD. It was also challenging and difficult at many points. As someone with a middle class background there's a fucktonne of what Michelle's spoken about that I can never understand but there were also bits that I related to a lot. That thing where she described the nighttime hallucinations she had as a child was fucking uncanny, I used to have them. There were some things about her domestic situation that resonated with me. I just. That was really good. Really really really good.
radlibrarianmama's review against another edition
3.0
The Chelsea Whistle by Michelle Tea is a “gritty, confessional” memoir. Michelle Tea has been an immensely influential writer within the queercore scene, an arts movement that includes music, art, poetry and spoken-word, and literature by newer generations of the GLBT community. This book chronicles her life growing up in the working-class slums of Chelsea, Massachusetts. Not afraid to make her readers uncomfortable, Tea writes of her experiences with drugs, sex, and rebellion unapologetically. If you're looking for a memoir that offers redemption at the end, Tea will betray your expectations. Her visceral and candid descriptions give the book a voyeuristic feel and like a train wreck, it's hard to pull yourself away from it. I found that this book drew me in from the very beginning.