Neon Angel

Mar 17, 2010 Rachel Bussel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This wild ride of a memoir takes us from Currie's suburban upbringing as a young rebel, dyeing her hair red, white and blue and dressing up as her idol, David Bowie, to, in a turn that is dramatically sudden, being asked to audition for The Runaways by Kim Fowley and Joan Jett while at her local hangout. All of a sudden, she's thrust into the big-time world of rock music, and the pace is hectic, with fame, and drugs, chasing the band.

The heart of the story is Currie's quest to find a family who'...more This wild ride of a memoir takes us from Currie's suburban upbringing as a young rebel, dyeing her hair red, white and blue and dressing up as her idol, David Bowie, to, in a turn that is dramatically sudden, being asked to audition for The Runaways by Kim Fowley and Joan Jett while at her local hangout. All of a sudden, she's thrust into the big-time world of rock music, and the pace is hectic, with fame, and drugs, chasing the band.

The heart of the story is Currie's quest to find a family who'll appreciate her for herself; her dad does, and, to a large degree, her twin sister, Marie, and older sister, Sandie, but she contrasts them with the sisterhood, of sorts, she finds with her bandmates. The growing infighting amongst the band, in large part of what was perceived as Currie's starring role in the press, along with her own increasing reliance on drugs and exhaustion from touring, help drive them apart. Her life post-Runaways finds her acting (in the film Foxes, alongside Jodie Foster), recording solo albums and, mainly, figuring out who she is...all while still in her twenties. So much happens to Currie while still a teenager that it's sometimes hard to remember that she is so young.

This is often a dark story, including rape and attacks that read like something out of a true crime book. Her evocation of shows overseas, in Europe especially, are some of the most vivid, including garbage and knives being thrown onstage as punk hit; you can practically feel the anger hurtling toward the stage, and Currie documents these times as vividly as she does the wildness of setting out on the road for the first time.

Kim Fowley emerges as the villain who turned a group of young, talented teens into a world-famous band, and while his actions speak for themselves, Currie also details the mixed feelings she had about him, at once abhorring him and appreciating the opportunities he gave her. Sadly, her teen devolution into a range of drugs continued for a while as she tried to break free of their grip, even after watching her alcoholic father die. This Currie, the one struggling for her place and her pride, is as much a player here as the one brandishing glitter and attitude onstage.

She is circumspect about some moments, such as her relationship with Joan Jett, writing, "She was my anchor. How do I explain about a person that was my best friend, someone I would confide in like a sister, someone who to me became a strong, sexual attraction? Well, it's easy. Just like how easy it was to be that way with her. I can leave it by saying that I had moments with a friend that quake me to this day. And they were some of the most satisfying moments of my young life."

These tender moments are few and far between in Neon Angel; much more drawn out are some of the horror stories that illustrate the dark side of fame, or rather, fame under the iron fist of Fowley. Currie's transformation from Bowie-wannabe to Cherry Bomb through recovery to mom, actress and chain saw cutter is fascinating and riveting.(less)

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Jul 09, 2010 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As other reviewers have stated, this is a poorly written, poorly edited book. Still, as a Runaways fan, I found the subject matter fascinating. Obviously, we hear only Cherie's side of the story. Kim Fowley is presented as the creep that he undoubtedly is (every band member has spoken out about his abuse). Lita Ford is presented as a cold-hearted bitch, which I didn't really buy (check out the documentary "Edgeplay" to hear the other band members share their stories and opinions). Also, I was di...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Jeannie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jeannie by: Alex

Shelves: borrowed

I've always been a huge Joan Jett fan so this book was a magnet for me. Loved the whole book, her life and her story. Unlike many celebrity memoirs I have read, she is so likable you just can't help but feel all that she has survived. I love this girl and love this book!!

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Apr 05, 2010 nicole j. wroblewski rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, biography

Fame, manipulation, bad hair, and lots and lots (and lots) of quaaludes.

What a train wreck. Both the text (did she have an editor?) and the story (though on the story side of things, that's what keeps you reading, of course). It's hard to look away but in this case, sometimes I really wanted to. I'm afraid I'm forever damaged by Cherie Currie's horrifying history of sexual abuse and stupidity. If you were repulsed by the film version of Kim Fowley, don't even pick this up. Dude is despicable. On...more

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Jul 01, 2010 Guitar Chick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a a huge Runaways fan, I loved this book instantly. There are better written books, but this had so much info on the Runaways, the icky Kim Fowley and Cherie's post Runaways life that I sucked it all in in a bout three hours. It's probably a good thirteen and up book if you skip the Kim Fowley's Naughty Things chapter. I did and I was just fine. Although some of the content is very intense, some of it is really very funny (i.e. Sandy West spraying Seltzer Water at a prostitute). A good read f...more

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Jun 17, 2013 Laurel Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

I think it goes without saying that the writing isn't inventive literary genius, or like, follows normal rules of tenses. But that's not why you read this book. you read it to see what life is like going from a 15 year old valley freak, to a 17 year old banshee in a globe trotting touring band, to a 21 year old coke burnout living in the Hollywood Hills with a fat dealer and passing out at the grocery store.

At first I was miffed that the beginning of the text opens with a "This book is based in...more

I think it goes without saying that the writing isn't inventive literary genius, or like, follows normal rules of tenses. But that's not why you read this book. you read it to see what life is like going from a 15 year old valley freak, to a 17 year old banshee in a globe trotting touring band, to a 21 year old coke burnout living in the Hollywood Hills with a fat dealer and passing out at the grocery store.

At first I was miffed that the beginning of the text opens with a "This book is based in part on..." referencing the '89 version published with a different co-author. I felt almost cheated - what was being scrubbed from the record? The afterword explains that Cherie wrote the original book as sort of a "young-adult" cautionary tale and that many of the stories she recounts were of a more teen-friendly nature, not a Hollywood Babylon style tell-all. So there's that. As a true completest I'd love to get my hands on the first edition, but it sells for $100+ everywhere. Perhaps it will be my greatest find someday at a junk shop. What's a good metaphor for the hunt for an elusive object?

The book itself is quite funny in parts, terrifying in others. Cherie makes Lita Ford out to be a real bitch, but maybe Lita was already wearing this thong unitard under all her clothes and it was too tight. Kim Fowley doesn't quite get the treatment I thought he would, seeing how he blatantly stole money from a bunch of naive teenage girls and continually verbally abused them, but there's a little Stockholm Syndrome in Cherie's descriptions of him, so perhaps that's how she got over. I don't think he's mentioned in the afterword, which is just a long scroll of what everyone in the book is up to now. I can tell you, though; Kim still lives the perv life. He has a radio show on the Underground Garage station on Sirius XM on Saturdays, during one of which he kept proposing to this twenty year old girl in studio. Also his website is amazing.

The afterword is also where I found out that Cherie's older sister Sondra played Zach Galifianakis' mom in The Hangover.

Anyway, read it if you can get your hands on it. I got it ILL cause it was checked out of the Henrico Library in March and has yet to be returned. If you get the original edition let me borrow it. And don't use your mind's eye to see Cherie as played by Dakota Fanning. It's just wrong.

First read: Read from May 16 to 22, 2012, ISBN 9780061961359(less)

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Dec 11, 2010 Tanya rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

3.5 stars - After seeing the movie The Runaways I felt led to pick up Cherie Currie's book at the library. Overall, Neon Angel was what I expected - a behind the scenes look at the drug-fueled downfall of a former teenaged rock musician/actress. Currie experienced more in her first 20 years or so than usually seen in several lifetimes. Unfortunately most of the negative experiences seem to be caused by her own (drug-addled) choices or naivete. Many times I was struck by how incredibly naive she...more

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Jun 23, 2012 SarahJayn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I first read this book, I was a little confused. I had to go back and read it again.
Basically, I was confused because I have no idea how a memoir this good - raw and honest and confused and funny and sad - could have been boiled down to the piece of garbage that was the movie, The Runaways. Seriously, how did that happen?
Currie is not the most fantastic writer that ever existed. Her voice is plain and had a little of I'm-trying-too-hard-to-sound-like-a-real-author syndrome going on at tim...more

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Jul 11, 2010 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library-book

From page 331:

"When I was fifteen years old, I imagined that I could just jump into being a rock star, and never have to struggle for it. It was like one of those rides at the carnival where the bottom drops away and you're stuck against the wall, spinning wildly, feeling sick and disoriented, unable to get off or even move until the ride stops."

Currie paints a very raw picture of her life as the lead singer of The Runaways. Her story is intriguing and it was a great read.

Don't just see the move...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Roberto rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This totally hooked me, in that car crashy way, all the sleaze and decadence and that scumbag Kim Fowley and the bitchiness in the group, and just that whole late 70s Los Angeles darkness. I found myself just having to know what terrible thing would happen next to Cherie, and some of it is just awful. Poor Cherie. Then there were times when i just wanted to shake her and tell her to lay off the cocaine of a morning, maybe go easy on the tuinols, and stop pissing off Angela Lansbury. Still, she i...more

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Oct 03, 2012 Kyli rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Neon Angel read like a diary - it was honest and raw and kept me turning the pages. Some people might say that Currie was self-centered and that she caused her own problems, but I actually admire her strength and her ability to change the course her life was taking. It's a story that most definitely could have ended differently and does for many people.

The writing wasn't entirely impressive, but there were some scenes that I felt were very well described and there was a lot of emotion weaved thr...more Neon Angel read like a diary - it was honest and raw and kept me turning the pages. Some people might say that Currie was self-centered and that she caused her own problems, but I actually admire her strength and her ability to change the course her life was taking. It's a story that most definitely could have ended differently and does for many people.

The writing wasn't entirely impressive, but there were some scenes that I felt were very well described and there was a lot of emotion weaved through every chapter.

It's so shocking that at such a young age, someone could experience so many extraordinary things, both good and tragically bad. I had to skip over most of the chapter that detailed Currie's abduction and rape. I'm not sure exactly what happened there, but I knew where it was going, and decided after reading that it gave other people nightmares not to expose myself to it! I don't often do that and I can usually read through scenes like that, so that's saying something about how awful I knew it was going to be without even reading it! I can't imagine the strength and perseverance it must have taken to overcome not just one rape, but two, along with an abortion, and a downpour of other bad experiences.

It's easy to forget that when she joined the Runaways, she was just a child; an essentially parentless child who was trying to fill that void with whatever she could find. Ultimately she found Kim Fowley who would make her dreams come true and tear her apart all at the same time.

I really enjoyed reading about the Runaways and their life on tour. It was fun learning about a lifestyle I could only wonder about. Despite how difficult it was to read about Currie's mistakes and all of the moments she naively put herself in danger, I found myself turning pages quickly, not because I wanted the book to end, but because I wanted to read about how she got her life back on track. It was really rewarding to find out that she did, indeed, do just that. For me, its the end result (her strength, determination, and resilience) that made this book a memorable and empowering read.

Also, just to add - I think the movie would have been much better if it stayed truer to the book.(less)

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May 31, 2012 Robin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-baaad-1970s, trauma-abuse-violence, biography-memoir

Everybody thinks they want the rock & roll lifestyle. Currie writes frankly about the fact that sometimes, it just smells like dog shit and is full of swears. I'm a third of the way through and it is harsh. Still, Currie's written voice has an undertone of 'hang in there -- this is where I started, but I'm coming to the happy part.' I hope it's true!

Reading this through my own personal filter: The 70s sucked. Sex and drugs were treated so cavalierly. Currie is just enough older than me, like...more

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May 11, 2011 Anna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, reviews

Several months ago I sat down to watch The Runaways (the movie) staring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. I ended up really enjoying it. Going in of course I knew about Joan Jett (I love her stuff) and I knew the song Cherry Bomb, but I didn't know much about the band itself or their history.

I was intrigued enough to picked up Cherie Currie's Neon Angel, the book the movie was based on. It's rare for me to read a memoir but I definitely wanted to learn more. I was absolutely enthralled with t...more

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Mar 19, 2012 *•.♥.•*Sabrina Rutter*•.♥.•* rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir-biography

Shortly after watching the movie The Runaways I came across this book during one of my online searches for interesting books. I was so excited to find this, and just knew I was going to love it! It did not disappoint!

Cherie Currie is lucky to be alive today for so many different reasons! I was shocked, and horrified at some of the things she went through. Oh, and let me not forget pissed off! If you think you're going to be reading some run of the mill celebrity memoir when you open this book yo...more

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May 10, 2010 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography

The writing was clichéd at times, and needed more editing...but damn, I couldn't put it down! I stayed up until almost 5 am reading this book! Even more fascinating than The Runaways film, Cherie Currie chronicles her whirlwind experience as the lead singer of the groundbreaking teenage girl rock band, her battles with drugs, booze, and celebrity, and her rocky relationships with her family. Painful, incredible, disturbing, joyful-I was totally absorbed in her story. I didn't read the book for s...more

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Aug 01, 2010 Tracy Fleming-Swehla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, autobiography-biography

I couldn't put this down and stayed up all night to finish it. I was a Joan Jett fan, Lita Ford fan, and saw Cherie Currie in the movie, Foxes and was completely sucked into Cherie Currie's autobiographical account of those crazy crazy years in the Runaways. This edition includes a very nice intro from Joan Jett. The story also goes beyond the years of the Runaways to chronicle Cherie's personal journey through drugs, alcohol and the Hollywood scene. Great story. Good for her for making it throu...more

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Jun 03, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

We've been on a bit of a Runaways kick here, with the movie, this book, another bio about Joan Jett, and a couple of other movies (Edgeplay, by the Runaways' bassist Vickie Blue--it's the band members telling the story of the Runaways, save for Joan Jett who did not participate, and Mayor of the Sunset Strip, about Rodney Bingenheimer, who opened a club, Rodney's English Disco, which was instrumental in bringing young people together around the music coming out of England).
Cherie's description o...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Nestor Rychtyckyj rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can hardly be objective about one of my favorite bands and one of my favorite singers. I loved the Runaways and was disappointed that they never got the recognition that they deserved; the movie brought attention back to the band and Cherie's book was the basis for the movie. I'm glad that there are so many reviews and will just a few things. Cherie does not pull any punches or hide anything in the book; this is her story and all the well-docuumented drug/sexual abuse episodes are presented. C...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Saale rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Since I am a big fan of The Runaways, I thought I should read this.

Basically, it depicts what Cherie Currie - the teenage lead singer of The Runaways(American all-girl rock band in the 70s) - had to go through while being a member of the band.

The story is definitely intriguing and - at some points - even shocking. Usually I am a slow reader, but this book - I just couldn't put it down. Cherie's life involved everything you would expect it to: sex, drugs & rock'n'roll. But to go through eve...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Rachel Lindan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very decent music autobiography, capably written (save for a few clangs of phrase and repetition) and extremely readable, despite the truly distressing nature of some of Cherie's story. I've seen people comment that it can be difficult to feel sorry for Cherie because she comes across as stupid, selfish and naïve, but I feel this can only be said if you lose sight of how incredibly, painfully young she was when most of the content of the book was happening to and around her. Cherie was only 15...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Niche rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I understand that Cherie Currie is not a writer and she does has a pretty amazing story to tell but... it's obvious that she has a hard time relating to other people. All the other people mentioned in the book, Joan Jett included, do not feel like real people. They're more like cardboard cutouts. She does not try to explain, or justify, or relate to, other people-they just seem like a mystery to her. No one apparently told Cherie Currie that old saying, "Show don't tell."

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Jan 20, 2012 Lani rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, chicklit, kindle, non-fiction, music

Any time you read one band members account of the band's history you know that you're missing all kinds of perspective. I'm sure that's even worse when the band member is a 16 year old girl.

But Cherie Currie's life is a wild enough ride that it's enjoyable anyway. You can see her grow and I appreciate (at least in this new edit) some of her older and more mature perspective on her life. She's honest about her petty fights with her family, band, and friends. But she's also understanding of when...more

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Dec 25, 2011 Christopher rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

She had me with the first chapter, where she first describes her Bowie fixation. Despite the fact that I've always had a soft spot for The Runaways, I knew I'd have an easy time reading the memoir of a fellow Bowiephile - but man, I had no idea what I was getting myself into with reading the stories of Cherie Currie's life. Even after seeing the Runaways movie (which was based largely on this book), I only knew the tip of the iceberg. Currie shares tales from her life that made my blood run cold...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Sian Lile-Pastore rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, music-art-culture

at the beginning of this book i felt slightly disappointed in myself that I didn't join a band when i was 15 and go on tour and get a bit crazy while wearing a corset and suspenders(i was busy getting videos out of pier video in aberystwyth and reading books about aleister crowley), but by the end of reading this i realised that i had made the right choice. (and ye-es, there wasn't really a choice - no one came and asked me to join a band while i was hanging out in the sugar shack).

so, there are...more

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Mar 07, 2013 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not particularly well-written, but nonetheless a supremely engaging read, NEON ANGEL tells the story of Cherie Currie, a girl who, within the space of several months, went from being a high school outcast to one of the hottest names in the rock 'n' roll music industry. As lead singer of the Runaways, Cherie Currie launched her career playing alongside the likes of Joan Jett and Lita Ford. Like all good rock 'n' roll stories, though, the dream quickly deteriorated into a nightmare of various addi...more Not particularly well-written, but nonetheless a supremely engaging read, NEON ANGEL tells the story of Cherie Currie, a girl who, within the space of several months, went from being a high school outcast to one of the hottest names in the rock 'n' roll music industry. As lead singer of the Runaways, Cherie Currie launched her career playing alongside the likes of Joan Jett and Lita Ford. Like all good rock 'n' roll stories, though, the dream quickly deteriorated into a nightmare of various addictions and abuses. In this case, the abuses were mostly suffered at the hands of the band's manager, a piece of human scum whose concept for the band's image could be summed up in the words "jailbait sex." And, even though he rode roughshod over their lives, called them horrible names, refused to pay them, threatened them with lawsuits, and even pimped Cherie out on one occasion, the girls still continued on in their ironic belief that they were living the lives of wild, carefree spirits who wouldn't take any crap from anyone.
I mostly became interested in the Runaways after first seeing the movie trailer for the 2010 film of the same name starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. I thought it looked like a cross between Mark Wahlburg's ROCK STAR and Oliver Stone's THE DOORS, but the end result was ultimately disappointing. NEON ANGEL, however, tells the story in a way that puts the movie version to shame (though, to be fair, the movie would've had to have been NC-17 to do the book justice--and this was a Dakota Fanning movie, after all.)
NEON ANGEL also elaborates on Currie's post-Runaways life, starting with how she immediately pissed away a promising solo career (not necessarily her fault). Then we learn how she pissed away a promising acting career (totally her fault). There's also a really harrowing chapter about the time she was kidnapped and brutalized at the hands of a lunatic, as well as enough depictions of cocaine abuse to make even Hunter S. Thompson wince.
And, like all good rock 'n' roll stories, Currie manages to redeem herself at the end. The scene where Rosanna Arquette finds her folding linen for $2.50 an hour at a women's department store is especially memorable. As with most memoirs, however, NEON ANGEL suffers somewhat from subjective bias. I imagine that people like Lita Ford weren't QUITE as horrible to her as she portrays them. I'm also not at all convinced that Currie was quite the caliber of artist that she thinks she was. But, heck, this is a rock 'n' roll memoir, so where would we be without a little excess ego? And, as far as rock memoirs go, they don't come much better than NEON ANGEL. (less)

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Apr 21, 2010 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book tremendously - especially how compassionate her voice became as the story went on and she became more self-aware - but as an abuse survivor myself, it's hard to shake the fact that there's almost nonstop darkness during her time as a performer and touring musician, especially when she later talks about all of the good times in a rather vague manner. A dark time is rarely all dark 24/7, and I think a couple of amusing and happier anecdotes (of which she assure the reader there a...more

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Nov 06, 2010 Josh Bayer added it · review of another edition

powerful, quotable and hard to put down. As someone whom lived in LA for 11 years, i appreciated that her cycle began and ended in LA, and her observations about "Ventura Blvd having different landmarks for everyone" resonated with me. When i read the chapter Terrible Green Limousine, I was baffled as to why her story of her rape and kidnapping is not more commonly known. This sequence describes and is written with a pain that has clearly never left her. In the aftermath of it she lost a lot but...more

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Feb 14, 2011 Alexandra Simpson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Phenomenal. I love Cherie Currie so much, she is definitely, my idol, after reading this book and seeing the movie. To hearing the music. The book was the cherry on top. She is a wonderful human being, who has grown so much. I loved it.

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Sep 22, 2012 Kirsten rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

As a music memoir fan, and a fan of women in rock, this was a must-read for me. The Runaways are a historic band that paved the way for women in rock. Unfortunately, the truth as presented by Cherie Currie of this iconic band is pretty damn depressing. I kept hoping that Cherie would have more agency over her career and decisions. Instead, it is a damn sad story about how a young girl was very injured by her experiences and taken advantage of by a psychopathic Svengali, Kim Fowley. The movie tha...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Craig rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Good book about the beginning of the Runaways and the trials Cherie Curry went through. It seems to be pretty honest about her problems and a good look at rock'n'roll history.

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