for the addiction & drug use tags: she & especially robert use drugs casually, mostly hallucinogens and later weed, and if i remember correctly they befriend some alcoholics but nothing particularly distressing or graphic is described, it’s just frequently mentioned. they have some bad trips but mostly lots of fun and creativity. for the pregnancy tag:

patti is briefly pregnant at 19 towards the beginning of the book and describes being treated badly during labor and the bittersweet sadness of giving up a child. she is also pregnant again as a married adult during the last chapter.

nothing is graphic at all. for the grief and death tags: robert’s death

from aids, as well as the death of his partner sam wagstaff,

is the primary focus of the last two chapters. you know from the prologue that he will die. these chapters are quite short and i personally didn’t find them overwhelming, but they are sad and the hopefulness at the beginning of this ordeal is very sad to the reader, who knows what will inevitably happen. it’s also quite easy to predict what will occur given the events of the book and any knowledge of the era, even with no knowledge of patti smith’s life. it is still extremely upsetting.