High School - Book Review

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Reading Tegan and Sara's memoir High School is a reminder of how you can be going along with your life, doing your homework, having dinner with your parents, hanging out with your friends and obsessing over the Backstreet Boys, and your peers, the people who go to your school and sit next to you in class and who you generally think are just like you, are leading a totally different life.

Just me? No?

In this memoir, the twins recount their experiences in high school, discovering music and who they really are. Each chapter alternates between each twin's perspective, so you might hear Tegan write about one thing and then you might read Sara tell it a different way. It's interesting to do it this way because even though the twins lived their high school years together, they still very much had their own individual experiences.

And some of those experiences involved drugs. We don't get to know really how the girls got hooked on acid and other substances. It's just sort of a "we tried it one summer" and then it became a regular part of their lives. As someone who has never taken drugs, the twins' experiences baffled me. I didn't know anybody who did drugs when I was in high school (though people were doing them, I'd later find out), nobody ever offered me drugs, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have taken them in the first place if someone had. Was acid a regular thing for teens in Canada? Was this something to do with the town or neighborhood where Tegan and Sara grew up? I'm probably overthinking things, but that's my example of how you can go to school with someone and not realize that they are living a totally different life from yours.

The book was interesting and takes you up until the twins win a music contest and sign a record label, all before they turn 18. Because their career really takes off after they graduate, we don't get to learn about how they really struck it big and what becoming a famous band is like. Maybe that will be in a second memoir.

If you're a fan of Tegan and Sara and want to know more about how the twins became the women they are today, then you'll enjoy reading this memoir. It's especially interesting for anyone who has ever struggled with their identity and found creative release through music.

High School is published by ? and is on bookstore shelves now.