70 replies to this topic

[ILoveAmyWinehouse]

The 27 Club might be meaningless and it's nothing new and I think it was just a facinating coincidence that Amy died at a young age (27) like the people before her that were just as talented and impactful in the music scene (Hendrix, Joplin, Cobain, etc...) as she was.

I read this article, take it with a grain of salt, but I thought it was a cool read: http://vigilantcitiz...se-and-27-club/

But all in all, if you start using drugs and alcohol at such a young age you'll more likely live fast and die young.

[Elsie]

I'd like to know the truth about the Kanye thing though, because there was a picture of Amy, Kanye and his fiancee in 2007 and they looked fine with each other so I'm not sure how 'long-standing' that feud was. I don't think it was that serious tbh and Amy said a lot of weird things during that performance but whatever. Remains a mystery for me.

[mrmagic]

It annoyed me because I spent £6.99 on a book that was downright awful. I appreciate your explanations however. But I found certain parts to not be factual or sensationalist. For instance speaking of Amy injecting, has this been proven? I'm sure that Blake himself said only he did and after their relationship ended. Also, saying Amy drank a bottle of vodka before her rehab stay prior to Belgrade- this was a miniature but this wasn't pointed out.

Also, you may want to tell your friend that the kindle version is littered with spelling mistakes.

You're completely entitled to your opinion, but every reason you've so far given for the book being awful is demonstrably factually incorrect.
There are no spelling mistakes in the book at all, with the exception of a handful of typos, and it's a little difficult to believe that a few words out of 140,000 of them is going to significantly impact on your reading experience. It really was just a few as it was sent through a spell check after the errors were noticed. Errors are pretty common in books these days, usually down to lazy subeditors who don't put the scripts through a spell-check. As an aside, the Daphne Barak book that you've suggested is superior has multiple grammatical errors in every single chapter. I personally was not a fan of Daphne because of how rude and disrespectful she was to Amy, telling her once that she was more famous in some countries than Amy was. She also pretended to be her friend to collect notes on her, even recording her without her consent or knowledge. She had no idea about the book until afterwards, so her information was collected immorally.
Anyway, that's an aside - back to the topic of the new book. Chloe has won awards for her writing, so I don't think you can rubbish the writing, and her research came from credible sources rather than relying purely on newspapers like other biographers do.
You also say it seems that she only interviewed one person (Ade) when in fact she has quoted from at least 25 people in the book that she interviewed in some detail, many of whom had never spoken to anyone publicly about Amy before. If you get a simple fact like this incorrect, how can we trust your criticism on any other area?
As for the questions you asked, Amy did inject and this has been corroborated. However it's also really obvious imo. That day when Amy and Blake were staying together at the Sanderson hotel, when they were photographed later, her ballet pumps were soaked through with blood. It's common for drug users to inject between their toes, especially when they run out of good veins somewhere else. (If the veins have been used a lot, they start to collapse). did you also see the pics of ther track marks on her arms? It's very sad but true.
As for the vodka, according to Ade it was not just a miniature (at least that's what I recall, I will have to check).
Personally I love all books about Amy. Have read a few myself and any literary work written out of love for Amy has gotta be worth reading.

---------- Post added at 11:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 PM ----------

I'm annoyed too. I wish I had thought to go around and interview Amy's friends.
What exactly is her "background in psychology"?... I can appreciate the perspective, and I wish Mitch had taken it upon himself to delve deeper, but I don't think this is the way to do it.

The '27 club' is meaningless, why do people keep bringing it up??

So you're annoyed because you wish you'd done it yourself? Well, that sounds like a good reason to hate on a book!
You asked about the background in psychology, she has a degree in psychology and a subsequent one in psychotherapy and is still training. Also the main therapist that was quoted from her interviews with him in the book had over 20 years experience in seeing clients with drug addiction/love addiction/attachment issues etc, so I think that's enough experience. All this combined with a passion for Amy and her music seems like a good reason to tell her story.
Also why should Mitch have delved deeper in his book? That wasn't the tone of his book - it was a loving memoir for the daughter he'd lost. It was prob too painful for him to go further into it because it was all so close to home. His and Chloe's book are totally different - buy them both! That's what i have done.

[LRock10288]

If you get a simple fact like this incorrect, how can we trust your criticism on any other area?

In the same vein, if the author does not endorse the comments made by Alex Foden, then why put them in print? If she herself has not enough faith in the interview to stand behind what was said, comments she was willing to put her name next to, why should any fan or reader have faith in what was printed in this book?


And not to nitpick simple facts, but since it was brought up, isn't it stated in the book that DMX is a rap group? A simple inaccuracy that can be researched and corrected using nothing more than a Google search...yet, there it is, in print. Unless Earl Simmons has some kind of undiagnosed multiple personality disorder, I'm sure he'd be surprised to hear that he is a rap group. So, per your own line of questioning, how can we trust this book?

[Uno]

[MENTION=7676]mrmagic[/MENTION]

"She also wanted to distance herself from the sensationalist spin given to the book by the tabloids. They're all about attention-grabbing headlines because that's what sells newspapers but it gave a misleading impression of what the book was really about, quoting selectively and out of context to make it seem sleazy and gossipy."

After reading the above quote from your first post, it made me realize that the tabloids actually did the exact same thing to Amy, over and over again. With that in mind and also because I started this thread, I felt that I at least owed the book the 'benefit of the doubt' and went to Amazon to read the sample pages and possibly buy the book to add to my collection.

Like Gracex mentioned above, I also ran into a few problems with what I was reading ...


Preface page 2 ...



"Whether it was needle track marks on her arms"

Please note, this is NOT A PHOTO OF AMY'S ARM, it is a random Google image of 'track marks' on a strangers arm.


Track marks are named so because they are a series of injection marks, forming a track, that runs along ones vein. And to answer your question of "did you also see the pics of ther track marks on her arms?" My answer is no, I have seen many pictures of Amy with nicks, bruises, scratches and cuts on her, but have never seen a photo with 'track marks' running up either of her arms, or either of her legs, or anywhere else for that matter. Could you please post a link to the photo of Amy with the 'track marks' that you are referring to?

It has been documented that Amy smoked heroin, but it has never been documented that Amy injected heroin. Even if she did, and she injected heroin enough times in the same places to have collapsed veins, she most likely also would have had noticeable scar tissue in those areas. Amy was not one for keeping her body covered, there are literally hundreds of photographs of her without clothing covering almost any part of her body. In not one photo are there noticeable sunken areas from collapsed veins or a build up of scare tissue from chronic drug injection.

As for her ballerina slippers, simple common sense tells me that those are obviously drips of blood that have landed on top of her shoes. Simple common sense also tells me that tiny trickles of blood from injections in such small veins located between her toes most likely would not have flowed uphill and soaked the top of her shoes.



By looking at that photo, do you also think we should be led to believe that she 'shot up' at the tip of her big toe on her right foot? Because there are a few blood stains in that area too.

"It's very sad but true"
Yes, it is true and also very sad that Amy used drugs to the extent that she did, but it is also very sad that one would base their writing upon assumptions without real proof or facts to justify publishing those assumptions, just as the media did back in August of 2007 when they first wrote the article about the bloody ballet slippers without any proof or facts to verify their story.



Preface page 3 ...



"awards ... often ended up languishing in the toilet cubicles of seedy bars"

It's a well known fact that Mark Ronson collected Amy's Q award in October of 2007 and accidentally left it in the loo, could you please let myself and the future readers know if the book will 'clarify' the facts about all of the other awards, where she won them and which 'seedy' bars bathrooms they all 'often ended up' being left in?



Preface page 4 ...



"a hopelessly addicted Amy had been seen buying - and downing - an entire bottle of vodka on her way to the clinic"

"As for the vodka, according to Ade it was not just a miniature"

According to the video and news articles found when doing a very 'simple' Google search of "Winehouse clinic bottle", it was a mini bottle Smirnoff vodka, sometimes called a 'Nip', which contains a little over one full shot of alcohol. Your 'friend' the author makes it sound like she was guzzling - and downing - the entire barrel.





Three pages in a row of just the Preface and I'm sorry to say that's where I had to draw the line and quit reading.


I surely don't believe that anything written about Amy should be 'candy coated', but please tell me why the use of tabloid/paparazzi style exaggeration and sensationalism?

Honestly, being the fan that you or your 'friend' the author say you are, don't you think that Amy already got hit with enough of that 'CRAP' when she was here with us?

[Gracex]

Thanks Uno, glad you picked up on those things also:)

[MENTION=7676]mrmagic[/MENTION] - At the end of the day your friend has received her £6.99 so it should be all good for her. As someone who has read the book and obviously purchased it, I am entitled to my opinion. I was measuring Daphne's book against Mitch's in terms of if readers wanted a different opinion or slant (you took this from my Amazon review- good job!) Though I don't agree with the manner in which her book was written or how she went about it, I found it interesting in terms of trying to undestand dynamics and relationships within the family and I did not pick up on any major spelling mistakes or grammatical errors as I constantly did with your friends book. Maybe they werent as noticeable however but I was saying that only so you could inform your friend to release a revised version without mistakes.

You seem very defensive, the reviews will ultimately speak for themselves.

[Cecilia]

Is there a connection between this book and the Channel 5 documentary of the same name which aired shortly after Amy's death?

@Gracex - thanks for giving us your review so soon! Anyone else (who isn't affiliated with the author) read the whole thing yet?

@Uno - I made the same observations after reading the preview on amazon. It does make me wonder about the accuracy of the rest of the book.

@mrmagic - are you in fact the author herself or her agent or partner? Either way, thank you for coming on the forum to put her side forward, please don't be offended by our criticisms, we're only critical because we care. I have only read the Amazon preview so far, and picked up on the same things that Uno has. Stylistically, I think the jump from describing Amy's life to the psychological "analysis" reads rather unnaturally because of the clash in writing styles. It feels a bit awkward, like it tries to shift between novel and (pop) textbook. I also find the number of spelling and grammatical mistakes in these kind of books disappointing, especially as you use their frequency in other books as an excuse. But you are probably right, it can't be worse than Daphne Barak's Saving Amy in that aspect.

Edited by Cecilia, 16 May 2013 - 12:14 PM.

[Johanna]

@Johanna http://www.amazon.co...story chloe amy

Thanks Allisost . I ordered the book in my bookstore , it's on his way to me now .

[Eva]

fuck psychology and the book tbh

[amylove]

fuck psychology and the book tbh

you had to be honest, huh? :dispirited:

[Winehouse8327]

Thank you [MENTION=2280]Uno[/MENTION].
[MENTION=7676]mrmagic[/MENTION]: I know you want to protect your friend and her reputation as a writer but I think that Uno proved more than once, that it was completely wrong not to say, full of lies.
Interviewing friends of Amy isn't enough to make a book, much less if your friend wanted to make a psychological novel. I myself have so many theories on many topics. (Problems of Amy when she was young, her death at age 27, heroin abuse) However, I don't made myself an author over these assumptions. I express my opinion on the forum and that's all.
I think this book is fake. Sorry about your friend, but it clearly lacks credibility. I wouldn't spend my money on it. It's like buying magazines, all together in one book.

[Eva]

you had to be honest, huh? :dispirited:

no girl, I apologize, I should paraphrase, I hate when ppl extort psychology, this is a prime example.. I personally dont really have a good experience with it myself, but to learn the branches of the mind is fascinating, n I applaud anyone who does that in a positive way....this book to me does everything but support psychology at its finest, no wonder people hate shrinks and the idea of them

Edited by Eva, 16 May 2013 - 07:09 PM.

[amylove]

thank you for clarifying & I agree with you

[Eva]

xx

[melnyk]

fuck psychology and the book tbh

You've catched it really capacious, @badfish. =)

This topic is getting hotter, people.
I have to admit that's okay, because when somebody says something about Amy, we're paying an attention.
And when somebody, writes a book - we're paying A LOT of attention, because everyone feels that they knows about Amy.
And somebody would think we're just imaging Amy as she ostensibly was... was? Amy not was, we all know that!
And, you know, the more people I'm meeting, the more confident I'm getting: we all know Amy almost equally.
We all know almost the same about Amy, because Amy is the same for us.
She doesn't seem, as he is too real, too genuine to seem.
She's never pretending, she is who she is. Straight and sharp.
Don't you mentioned that?

And as she's affecting this world very much, so there will be a lot of books about Amy.
They will be different, very different as it always occurs with legends.
Some will be like gospels, but a lot of "fiction" will be written just for money.
There always was a lot of buzz around her name.
She definitely does know how to ignore the buzz, do you remember?

Edited by v_melnik, 16 May 2013 - 07:25 PM.