D Boat

A completely haunting and surreal read.

Even though this book is composed of several short stories, the titular story “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” is a fucking trip.

First read this when I was pretty young after first being exposed to this work from an old video game.

I don’t typically care for sci-fi anything really but this story blew me away. It’s sick and disturbing but in such a provocative way.

I have to reread soon.

5 STARS

This is legitimately my favorite book I have ever read.

If you are into the Seattle music scene from the 90s or you like to read addiction memoirs, or like me, are a fan of both, this book is perfect for you.

Lanegan’s life is full of ups and downs and wild stories that some are hard to believe. Because of the scene he was involved in we get so many amazing cameos in this book from Seattle Legends like Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Layne Staley, Courtney Love, Jerry Cantrell and even the Gallagher brothers of Oasis.

The stories that Lanegan has to share about these characters are nothing short of amazing and might have been completely lost to time had he not noted them down in this memoir.

But this book is about Lanegan’s life and not these others. This book is dirty, disturbing and honestly just heinous and heartbreaking at some points. And thats what makes it so compelling to read. For all of Lanegan and the Screaming Tree’s triumphs there hundreds of failures and low points preceding them.

Lanegan really shines as an author here though, he cuts no corners and tells his story just as it was sugarcoating absolutely nothing. That may be what I admire most about this book. Mark doesn’t try to be some self righteous egoist, rather he personally tells you how big of a scumbag and how fucked up he really was.

I have read this book quite a few times and I also highly recommend the audiobook on audible as you can hear Mark himself tell his story.

A truly amazing read that I would recommend to anyone. Just be warned it is not for the faint of heart and it does not have a happy ending.

5 STARS

As a huge fan of the 90’s Alternative music scene this one was a must read for me. I am also very into memoirs so I couldn’t pass this one up from the legendary frontman of STP, Mr. Scott Weiland.

Unfortunately I read this right after I had read Mark Lanegan’s memoir Sing Backwards and Weep, and this memoir just really didn’t even hold a candle to that one.

Although it was interesting to read about STP and Scott’s early beginnings as a musician, as well as his start and subsequent battle with addiction he doesn’t really get too into detail with much about anything. This memoir mostly seems like an after thought and something his manager or publicist was really vouching for him to do. But that is only an assumption.

The most tragic part of this whole book is how its all about his triumph over addiction and his hope for his future and future work as a musician. Scott OD’d and passed in 2015. He was struggling a lot harder than he ever admitted in this book.

Although yes he may have been clean at the time of writing this, there are some odd contradictions in this book. For one he basically talks about his kids quite a bit and how his ex wife was such a drug addicted mess and this and that. Which is strange because his ex wife has publicly stated that he was a mess this whole time and barely had any involvement in his children’s lives because of all his issues.

His ex wife actually did release a memoir (Fall to Pieces by Mary Weiland) of her own, telling her side of this story. I do plan on reading it at some point.

No matter the case a seriously sad situation to all those involved.

Rest In Peace Scott, thank you for the beautiful art you gave this world.

3.5 STARS

I loved this book.

If you’re like me and you grew up with Jackass and Viva La Bam, idolizing skateboarding and Tony Hawk video games, then you know who Brandon Novak is.

Of all the guys associated with that group Novak was always the sick puppy of the group. It’s actually such a gripping story about addiction, failure and the road to recovery through rehab. I also had no idea Novak wrote this while on Viva La Bam because Bam was forcing him to keep a journal. What amazing foresight by Bam.

The other thing that is crazy about this book is he wrote this as a book to inspire others to get clean, after this book came out he fell headfirst completely back into his addiction. If you read the afterword it’s insane just how bad his addiction got again afterwards.

Luckily as of today 2025, Novak has been clean for more than 5 years now I believe which is so wonderful. He does a lot of work with addicts and has personally worked with a rehabilitated addict who is a close friend of mine, I have heard great things about Novak and I’m so happy he got his life together.

As of today 2/11/25, I am currently working on his 2nd memoir, The Streets of Baltimore.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading addiction memoirs or anyone who was a big fan of Jackass or Viva La Bam or CKY or even Bam’s Unholy Union.

4.5 STARS