187 books
—
44 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Hit So Hard: A Memoir” as Want to Read:
Hit So Hard: A Memoir
by
A stunningly candid and inspiring memoir of recovery from addiction and the '90s, by Hole drummer Patty Schemel
Patty Schemel was a drummer at the epicenter of the Seattle grunge scene in the early '90s, best known for her work with the alternative rock band Hole.
Hit So Hard begins with stories from a childhood informed by the AA meetings Schemel's parents hosted in the ...more
Patty Schemel was a drummer at the epicenter of the Seattle grunge scene in the early '90s, best known for her work with the alternative rock band Hole.
Hit So Hard begins with stories from a childhood informed by the AA meetings Schemel's parents hosted in the ...more
Hardcover, 272 pages
Published
October 31st 2017
by Da Capo Press
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Hit So Hard,
please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
Caroline
Peter Greene who played Zed.
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of Hit So Hard: A Memoir

Raw, real, and absolutely amazing! I don’t know why this book is not getting more attention! Patty’s story is pretty incredible. I had no idea the path her life took. The only thing I knew about her was that she had been in the band Hole and was a big part of the Seattle grunge scene.
She talks candidly about her time with many famous musicians, including Curt Cobain and of course Courtney Love.
She went from being on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine to living on the streets turning tricks fo ...more
She talks candidly about her time with many famous musicians, including Curt Cobain and of course Courtney Love.
She went from being on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine to living on the streets turning tricks fo ...more

David Johansen of the New York Dolls likened an addict’s existence to the film Groundhog Day. The incessant quest for drugs, to the exclusion of all else, makes every day exactly like the one(s) before it. He was referring specifically to his bandmate, Johnny Thunders, but he could just as easily have been describing the life of former Hole drummer, Patty Schemel.
I love a good rock memoir. I’ll take a pass on recent bestsellers by big stars, like Keith Richards, Dylan or Springsteen, instead opt ...more
I love a good rock memoir. I’ll take a pass on recent bestsellers by big stars, like Keith Richards, Dylan or Springsteen, instead opt ...more

A gripping look at addiction within the music industry. Even better is that Patty was the drummer for HOLE at the height of their popularity in the 90s, so she has incredible stories to tell even *without* the harrowing heroin addiction tales. She has great stories about Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain among other notable musicians, and the story takes place during Kurt's suicide, so there are insights about that as well. As a girl who loved both Nirvana and HOLE, this book was great. It was made
...more

Hit So Hard is the memoir of Patty Schemel, the drummer to the 90s grunge rock band Hole and largely details her battle with substance abuse and climb back to sobriety.
After watching the 2011 Hit So Hard documentary, while seeking an update on Schemel, I learned she had written a memoir of the same name released in 2017.
In both the documentary and memoir, Schemel is frank and appears quite honest in the detailing of her struggles of both substance abuse and her sexuality. She is also very graci ...more
After watching the 2011 Hit So Hard documentary, while seeking an update on Schemel, I learned she had written a memoir of the same name released in 2017.
In both the documentary and memoir, Schemel is frank and appears quite honest in the detailing of her struggles of both substance abuse and her sexuality. She is also very graci ...more

So real. So raw. So brutally honest. I related to her story in so many ways—being a drummer, heroin addict, kicked out of bands, homeless, and having a near death experience. The only reason I didn’t give a 5 was all because of Courtney Love and her insensitive comments. She’s so arrogant. Talentless. That wasn’t her band, it was Patty (the Author) who ran the show, the band. Go Patty!

'Hit So Hard' is certainly readable, but I'd hoped to hear a bit more about Schemel's experiences as a drummer - this is very much a memoir of heroin addiction from the get-go, not one to read if you are in a position of recent sobriety. Makes me want to seek out the 2012 documentary though for sure..
...more

3.5 Stars-I was a huge fan of Hole as a teenager. I saw Hole (with Patty Schemel drumming) in Minneapolis/St.Paul a few times: opening for Nine Inch Nails (Courtney threw baby barettes at us!), headlining at First Avenue (Courtney told Kurt & Babes in Toyland stories!), and at Lollapalooza 1995 (Courtney was an angry mess!). Needless to say, I was stoked to read Patty's memoir. Patty Schemel grew up in a Washington home with AA parents; AA meetings were held in her parents' living room. She star
...more

the road to redemption is a long and twisted one. Patty had it all - talent, funny, was a trailblazer in her field, and addiction.
if you had seen the documentary Hits So Hard you only know part of Pat's journey. The video diaries, photos, initmate.moments with rock God's and goddesses. The book goes deeper, inward. You follow her down the rabbit hole of success, addiction, and bad choices. You see how she had it and yet was losing it all.
this book isnt just for any Hole fan, but for music fans ...more
if you had seen the documentary Hits So Hard you only know part of Pat's journey. The video diaries, photos, initmate.moments with rock God's and goddesses. The book goes deeper, inward. You follow her down the rabbit hole of success, addiction, and bad choices. You see how she had it and yet was losing it all.
this book isnt just for any Hole fan, but for music fans ...more

Dec 14, 2017
Tobi
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
pop-culture,
audio-book,
memoir,
rock-n-roll,
local-history,
punk,
staff-picks,
lgbtq,
punk-writers,
2017
I read this in 2017 but chose it as a staff pick for 2018. Here's the review I wrote for work:
Before Patty Schemel played drums in Hole, she was a vital part of underground music here in the Pacific Northwest. Hit So Hard tells the story of those pre-grunge days well, chronicling Schemel's time in early bands such as The Primitives, Doll Squad, and Sybil, when she was one of only a few young women playing drums in a male dominated punk scene, heroically inspiring other teenage girls to follow he ...more
Before Patty Schemel played drums in Hole, she was a vital part of underground music here in the Pacific Northwest. Hit So Hard tells the story of those pre-grunge days well, chronicling Schemel's time in early bands such as The Primitives, Doll Squad, and Sybil, when she was one of only a few young women playing drums in a male dominated punk scene, heroically inspiring other teenage girls to follow he ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

hole is one of my favorite bands of all time, and (as patty wearily points out in one of the last chapters of her book) i am one of those tiresome fans whose life was forever changed when she very casually came out as gay in the pages of "rolling stone," in 1995--an era where that usually wasn't done without a high professional and personal cost. i saw "hit so hard" the documentary, OF COURSE, and it was pretty good, so i was excited for this book. and...it was disappointing, to say the least.
th ...more
th ...more

When starting, I found it almost impossible to put down; by the end I couldn’t wait to.
Some of the totally self-absorbed, self-entitled behaviour and opinions of people mentioned thoroughly pissed me off.
In fact, after about the first 20% pretty much everything pissed me off.
Bleak, bland, repetitive, boring, grey and depressing.
Precisely how addiction is.
So, a work of utter genius that really brings the crass tedium home?
Maybe.
Let’s address the elephant in the book.
In the first few pages ...more
Some of the totally self-absorbed, self-entitled behaviour and opinions of people mentioned thoroughly pissed me off.
In fact, after about the first 20% pretty much everything pissed me off.
Bleak, bland, repetitive, boring, grey and depressing.
Precisely how addiction is.
So, a work of utter genius that really brings the crass tedium home?
Maybe.
Let’s address the elephant in the book.
In the first few pages ...more

One of the best rock memoirs I've ever read.
Fascinating and insightful!!! ...more
Fascinating and insightful!!! ...more

Heartbreaking-ly hopeful emo: "I knew that somehow music would take me somewhere better and it did."
...more

Felt like it could be a companion piece to Scar Tissue in a way. She even mentions RHCP a few times throughout. I do wish there was more! It would get to something good, I’d flip the page and it’d be a new chapter, different subject. I felt like everything happened so fast that I was missing something. I suppose it could be that’s just how it went. Well written and exciting the entire time.

Brutal, well written and thoroughly exhausting tale of addiction framed in the context of the exploding Seattle music scene in the early 90’s. The facts of being a queer female drummer who succeeds in a world where that was still relatively rare are eclipsed by the overwhelming reality of just needing to get high over and over and over again, forever. I couldn’t breathe until I finished reading it.

Jesus CHRIST, Patty! Firstly, congratulations on staying sober for so long, and continuing to work on it. You’re bad ass. (I’m just gonna pretend you might read this.)
This totally explains why we never knew much about you. When you didn’t do the Celebrity Skin tour, I just assumed that you could only hang with Courtney’s shit for so long.
I’d say this is a must read for Hole fans, but maybe over a certain age? I was a teenager in the 90s and I knew that there were rock stars who did heroin, and ...more
This totally explains why we never knew much about you. When you didn’t do the Celebrity Skin tour, I just assumed that you could only hang with Courtney’s shit for so long.
I’d say this is a must read for Hole fans, but maybe over a certain age? I was a teenager in the 90s and I knew that there were rock stars who did heroin, and ...more

I knew the story going in. I wasn’t expecting any major surprises and the only surprises I got were from her incredible determination to be an addict. She actually used Layne Staley as a reference point. Seriously? If you aspire to reach Layne levels of drug use, maybe the problem isn’t the drugs.
Before anyone jumps on me for that, I’m saying right now, I had a drug problem myself, so I’m not speaking from innocence.
She comes off as the least likable member of Hole, that’s an incredible feat. ...more
Before anyone jumps on me for that, I’m saying right now, I had a drug problem myself, so I’m not speaking from innocence.
She comes off as the least likable member of Hole, that’s an incredible feat. ...more

patty schemel was the drummer of hole, and hole is one of my favorite bands - top three - so I am surprised this wasn't on my radar - it came out in 2017 and I just saw it the other day. I was excited to read it.
I am currently deciding if I am going to keep my copy or pass it on. I have lol tolhurst's memoir cured, he was the drummer/keyboardist in another of my top three bands, the cure, and similarly it is a tale of addiction and dysfunction and recovery. I will say, although schemel is an al ...more
I am currently deciding if I am going to keep my copy or pass it on. I have lol tolhurst's memoir cured, he was the drummer/keyboardist in another of my top three bands, the cure, and similarly it is a tale of addiction and dysfunction and recovery. I will say, although schemel is an al ...more

Honest, candid and frank, HIT SO HARD is former Hole drummer Patty Schemel's written account following from the excellent documentary of the same name.
Watching said documentary, I sometimes felt she held back being quite so open as she is in this book and it shows in it's reading. Which is refreshing, but it's so much easier in this medium to talk about embarrassing and shameful situations you unfortunately found yourself in, when at the mercy of the level of substance abuse Patty went through ...more
Watching said documentary, I sometimes felt she held back being quite so open as she is in this book and it shows in it's reading. Which is refreshing, but it's so much easier in this medium to talk about embarrassing and shameful situations you unfortunately found yourself in, when at the mercy of the level of substance abuse Patty went through ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

I originally read this book because I love Hole, the band that writer Patty Schemel played in during the 90s, and am always trying to read more about the band and anything involving Courtney Love. As an avid fan, I eagerly seek out anything I can get my hands on involving the 90s grunge scene. I initially started this book excited to read about Hole, but I quickly realized that the memoir is mostly about Patty Schemel's drug addiction. It was a wonderful read.
Schemel discusses her childhood bri ...more
Schemel discusses her childhood bri ...more

Harrowing but hope-themed story from Patty Schemel, drummer for Hole. Patty sheds a lot of light, information, and bittersweet anecdotes about the Seattle scene in the 90s, a revolutionary time in music and rock that was unfortunately waylaid (and eventually destroyed) by the heroin epidemic and never fully reached the potential or creative realization it deserved. Patty's story is not unique, but it's incredible in its scope, to realize she survived and lived to tell the tale when so many of he
...more

This is an incredibly candid account of being an addict (aspects of it made *me* feel grimey) and it's a really engaging quick read. To have come out the other end of such a huge addiction problem is incredible.
I would however loved to have read more about Patty as a drummer and more about her relationship with members of Hole as they are now. It felt like the book just wrapped up very quickly.
It's definitely worth reading and dropping into that world , especially if you were/are a fan of the n ...more
I would however loved to have read more about Patty as a drummer and more about her relationship with members of Hole as they are now. It felt like the book just wrapped up very quickly.
It's definitely worth reading and dropping into that world , especially if you were/are a fan of the n ...more

Hole is probably my all-time favorite band, which is why I jumped on this audiobook (as read by Patty herself). Courtney Love's gigantic personality has always taken center stage in stories about the band, so anything that focuses on the lives and stories of the other band members is all the more interesting just for its rarity!
Hit So Hard is a memoir, and more so than a ton of band intrigue, it's really a condensed version of Patty's life story, centering around her struggles with addiction. O ...more
Hit So Hard is a memoir, and more so than a ton of band intrigue, it's really a condensed version of Patty's life story, centering around her struggles with addiction. O ...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
News & Interviews
Some interesting news for book nerds: According to recent industry research, book sales spiked dramatically in 2020–otherwise a rather...
21 likes · 7 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »