--- product_id: 14256258 title: "Rat Girl: A Memoir" price: "£19.62" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 8 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/14256258-rat-girl-a-memoir store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # Rat Girl: A Memoir **Price:** £19.62 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Rat Girl: A Memoir - **How much does it cost?** £19.62 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/14256258-rat-girl-a-memoir) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Rat Girl: A Memoir [Hersh, Kristin] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Rat Girl: A Memoir Review: Funny, insightful, vivid, honest, frightening and full of surprises. - A great read from beginning to end. It's unlike any music memoir I've read, more like a modernist novel. As narrator, she creates a memorable character--one who sees the world "though a glass, darkly". What keeps it fascinating is trying to place what she is experiencing in context: dream, hallucination, memory or reality? Every time I thought I had it figured out, something would happened that puts it all in a new light. There are many layers---it's like peeling an onion. The format of the book is part of its charm: the narrative is interspersed with a few lines of lyrics (which comment on it, often obliquely), and flashbacks from her childhood. It works well, adding variety and giving the reader a break. Her total dedication to the music shines through. Her description of her phone calls with Ivo Watts-Russell (co-founder and head of 4AD Records and another eccentric totally dedicated to music) is priceless. It certainly gave me new insight into Throwing Muses and her solo work. But this book isn't just for fans or musicians, there are interesting vignettes of Rhode Island, Boston, Santa Cruz CA, and a backwards peek into the golden age of Hollywood. It's a rock memoir, but though the narrator's voice, it has undergone a "sea-change, into something rich and strange." Review: Powerful memoir from a memorable voice - This memoir is magnificent. Thank God. When an artist you like branches out into a field that's new--an actor rapping, say, or a musician writing books, you kind of follow along with a bit of trepidation. It seems polite to be part of the audience, but quite often these divergences are more embarrassing than anything else. I love memoirs, and I have long loved Kristin Hersh. I wasn't sure they would mix. They do. This memoir covers Kristin's late adolescence. Throwing Muses is already a band, not yet successful, struggling to define its place just as Kristin is struggling to define her own, coming to grips with the mood disorder that shook her life. She leaves out many details, but none of the ones that matter. This is a memoir, after all (literally, mémoire, memory), and not an autobiography. This is not about the hardcore facts, but about what she perceives, remembers, prioritizes in her past. It leaves us less informed than an autobiography, but more involved. We feel a part of her daily life. There's a fine sense of pacing here. Most of the memoir is lineal, but interspersed are small snippets of song lyrics and short passages from other times, distinguished by a different typeface. Together, they give a more complete picture of the author--the song lyrics offer another view of how she filters her experience into her art; the "flashbacks" a hint into the earlier passages of the person she is becoming. But she does not allow them to derail the primary thread of her story. I found that story utterly engrossing. Kristin neither romanticizes nor catastrophizes her life and the challenges she faces. She delicately skirts some of the darker issues, but remains true to the emotional core. Kristin's authorial voice is as distinctive as her singing voice; her gifts as a lyricist could not guarantee her ability to sustain this form, but she does it ably. This book should appeals to fans of either art form--memoirs, music. It doesn't matter, I don't think, whether you are already familiar with Kristin's work as a solo artist or as singer for Throwing Muses or 50 Foot Wave. It is a deeply satisfying, emotionally resonant book that should appeal whether you know her or not. I recommend. Tip of the hat to the cover illustration by Gilbert Hernandez ( Love & Rockets and others), who has previously done cover art for Throwing Muses. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #961,215 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1,741 in Rock Band Biographies #7,410 in Women's Biographies #21,143 in Memoirs (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 203 Reviews | ## Images ![Rat Girl: A Memoir - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71U5pD+gK8L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Funny, insightful, vivid, honest, frightening and full of surprises. *by M***N on September 23, 2025* A great read from beginning to end. It's unlike any music memoir I've read, more like a modernist novel. As narrator, she creates a memorable character--one who sees the world "though a glass, darkly". What keeps it fascinating is trying to place what she is experiencing in context: dream, hallucination, memory or reality? Every time I thought I had it figured out, something would happened that puts it all in a new light. There are many layers---it's like peeling an onion. The format of the book is part of its charm: the narrative is interspersed with a few lines of lyrics (which comment on it, often obliquely), and flashbacks from her childhood. It works well, adding variety and giving the reader a break. Her total dedication to the music shines through. Her description of her phone calls with Ivo Watts-Russell (co-founder and head of 4AD Records and another eccentric totally dedicated to music) is priceless. It certainly gave me new insight into Throwing Muses and her solo work. But this book isn't just for fans or musicians, there are interesting vignettes of Rhode Island, Boston, Santa Cruz CA, and a backwards peek into the golden age of Hollywood. It's a rock memoir, but though the narrator's voice, it has undergone a "sea-change, into something rich and strange." ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Powerful memoir from a memorable voice *by A***D on September 18, 2010* This memoir is magnificent. Thank God. When an artist you like branches out into a field that's new--an actor rapping, say, or a musician writing books, you kind of follow along with a bit of trepidation. It seems polite to be part of the audience, but quite often these divergences are more embarrassing than anything else. I love memoirs, and I have long loved Kristin Hersh. I wasn't sure they would mix. They do. This memoir covers Kristin's late adolescence. Throwing Muses is already a band, not yet successful, struggling to define its place just as Kristin is struggling to define her own, coming to grips with the mood disorder that shook her life. She leaves out many details, but none of the ones that matter. This is a memoir, after all (literally, mémoire, memory), and not an autobiography. This is not about the hardcore facts, but about what she perceives, remembers, prioritizes in her past. It leaves us less informed than an autobiography, but more involved. We feel a part of her daily life. There's a fine sense of pacing here. Most of the memoir is lineal, but interspersed are small snippets of song lyrics and short passages from other times, distinguished by a different typeface. Together, they give a more complete picture of the author--the song lyrics offer another view of how she filters her experience into her art; the "flashbacks" a hint into the earlier passages of the person she is becoming. But she does not allow them to derail the primary thread of her story. I found that story utterly engrossing. Kristin neither romanticizes nor catastrophizes her life and the challenges she faces. She delicately skirts some of the darker issues, but remains true to the emotional core. Kristin's authorial voice is as distinctive as her singing voice; her gifts as a lyricist could not guarantee her ability to sustain this form, but she does it ably. This book should appeals to fans of either art form--memoirs, music. It doesn't matter, I don't think, whether you are already familiar with Kristin's work as a solo artist or as singer for Throwing Muses or 50 Foot Wave. It is a deeply satisfying, emotionally resonant book that should appeal whether you know her or not. I recommend. Tip of the hat to the cover illustration by Gilbert Hernandez ( Love & Rockets and others), who has previously done cover art for Throwing Muses. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fun read *by S***R on November 5, 2010* At first I was skeptical at reading a book about a teenager, but this book is turning out to be a really fun book to read. I'm a Throwing Muses fan and find the history of their beginnings as a band really interesting to read about. And I also enjoy the way she has laid the book out which is really different and cool from a lot of books. I love how the chapters are separated by short stories and not numbers and titles. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/14256258-rat-girl-a-memoir](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/14256258-rat-girl-a-memoir) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-06-06*