ETERNALLY ELECTRIC

A 1980s pop star takes a look at her electric youth and what came after.

For a few years in the late 1980s, Gibson was everywhere. The singer released her first two albums, Out of the Blue and Electric Youth, when she was a teenager; both were massive hits. But the music industry is cruel, and while she went on to put out more records and pursued an acting career, she never regained the fame that she had experienced before graduating from high school. Gibson’s memoir tells the story of growing up lower-middle class in Long Island, her single-minded pursuit of a career in the performing arts, and her early success, masterminded by her “ballbuster” mother-turned-manager. Her early fame came at a cost to her mental health, she writes, leading to a string of anxiety attacks: “If anyone out there has experienced them, you’ll know what it’s like: you literally think you are dying, unsure where your next breath is coming from.” Gibson writes candidly about her health struggles—she also has Lyme disease—as well as her fraught relationship with her mother, who once said (perhaps jokingly, but revealingly), “My worst nightmare has come true. She has become her own person.” Gibson’s later career saw her appearing on The Celebrity Apprenticeand in films such as Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus—perhaps not the life she had envisioned, but, as she writes, “I love that, though the world has kicked my arse a bit, I’m not bitter.” The writing here is bubbly if unexceptional, and structurally, it’s a by-the-numbers celebrity memoir, complete with motivational aphorisms and occasional non sequiturs (“I think Mozart would approve of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club”). This is strictly for Gibson’s fans, but they’ll find it a treat.

A love letter to a singer’s most dedicated fans.