Well-written and appears to be very thoroughly researched with insight gleaned from all the people you'd expect to have known Kurt Cobain best - family, friends, acquaintances and band-mates. This is more about Cobain's life as a person and doesn't really delve into the genesis of his music so much. The book has many rich and detailed passages on his life from infancy to his death and after finishing it I felt I had a strong sense of the kind of person he was and the events that had shaped him.

The only issue I have is that there are a few passages where it feels like the author's desire to write compelling prose gets the better of the documentary integrity. This happens in a couple of places but most obviously when it comes to describing Cobain's final moments.

Clearly, beyond his note it's impossible for anyone to know his precise actions and motivations just before committing suicide but the book deigns to describe them in detail... Such detail that I was fairly confused as to where this knowledge could have come from - the author's imagination and educated guesswork I suppose. I think it's a bit dishonest and manipulative to present guesswork as fact particularly when it comes to something so tragic and if that's what it is then it ought to be made explicit.

The book loses a star for those liberties but these are exceptions to what is otherwise a really interesting and satisfying biography.