A review by radlibrarianmama
The Chelsea Whistle by Michelle Tea

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.