Raver Girl: Coming of Age in the 90s

(Paperback)

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APopSugarBest New Books of 2021 Selection

Weed inspires her. Acid shows her another dimension. Ecstasy releases her. Nitrous fills her with bliss. Cocaine makes her fabulous. Mushrooms make everything magical. Special K numbs her. Crystal meth makes her mean. Sixteen-year-old Samantha, raver extraordinaire, puts the high in high school.

A 90s time capsule buried inside a coming-of-age memoir set against the neon backdrop of the San Francisco Bay Area's rave scene, Raver Girl chronicles Samanthas double life as she teeters between hedonism and sobriety, chaos and calm, all while sneaking under the radar of her entrepreneur fathera man who happened to drop acid with LSD impresario Owsley Stanley in the 60s.

Samantha keeps a list of every rave she goes toa total of 104 over four years. During that time, what started as trippy fun morphs into a self-destructive roller coaster ride. Samantha opens the doors of her mind, but she's left with traumas her acid-fried brain won't let her escape; and when meth becomes her drug of choice, things get progressively darker. Through euphoric highs and dangerous lows, Samantha discovers shes someone who lives life to the fullest and learns best through alternative experience rather than mainstream ideals. Shes a creative whose mind is limitless, whose quirks are charms, whose passion is inspirational. Shes an independent woman whose inner strength is rooted in unwavering family ties. And if she can survive high school, she just might be okay.

Reviews

Samantha Durbin is an exciting new voice. She shares an engaging, rave-fueled tribute to growing up in the 90s, and the teenage angst which accompanies it.
Kat Odell, author of Unicorn Food and Day Drinking

Can you get high from reading a book You'll swear Raver Girl is laced with something author Samantha Durbin snorted or swallowed as a teen in the 90s rave scene when you dive into this mind-altering memoir where the details and dialogue feel vivid and authentic.
PopSugar

Finally, a story from a young womans point of view on the ins and outs of drug, rave, and psychedelic culturewithout falling into the traps of stigma or stereotypes. Heres the often untold story of teenage experimentation, learning how and how not to use drugs for fun, connection, and self-exploration.
Michelle Janikian, author of Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion

Raver Girl takes you on a hedonistic roller coaster ride of teen angst and discovery whilst navigating you through the bastion of the last major international youth culture explosion: rave. If you were there, its a memory-inducing maelstrom; if you werent, youre going to wish you were . . .
Chelsea-Louise Berlin, OG raver, artist, and author of Rave Art

High-energy prose shines bright in this stylish memoir. Raver Girl beacons you to the dance floor of infamous warehouse parties in the 90s. I loved this confessionalDurbin doesnt hold back in a world of music that you must listen to and must read.
Michelle Zaffino, author of Librarian Detective

Dust off your JNCOs and glowsticks! If you werent a Bay Area raver during the 90s, reading this book is the closest you'll get. And if you were at these parties, you probably forgot all the incredible details that Durbin packed into this thrilling book. Crank up the bass and get ready to relive some magic.
Liam O'Donoghue, host/producer of the podcast East Bay Yesterday

Psychedelic, twisting, and never less than real, Raver Girlis a remarkable work of auto-documentary in which Durbin fearlessly reconstructs the highs and lows of her singular adolescence at the epicenter of 90s Bay Area rave culture. I read this book in one ravenous sitting, wholly under the influence of its addictive voice. Just when I thought I couldn't be more engrossed, shocked, or transported, I turned the page and found myself in yet another new world. With vulnerability, compassion, and a wicked sense of possibility, Durbin has crafted a true-life bildungsroman that is a trip like none other.
Lisa Locascio, author of Open Me

Durbin balances her portrait of the gritty scene of teen sex, drugs, and house musicbefore helicopter parents, iPhones, and YouTube cordoned following generations into danger-free zoneswith the sweetness of a traditional coming-of-age story. A wild ride.
Barbara Herman, author Scent and Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume

A raucous memoir of teen life in the Bay Area during the 1990s, when rave partiesand the various drugs that went with themwere all the rage. In one flashback, the narrators father is mentioned as having taken LSD with Grateful Dead soundman Owsley Stanley, who was busted by federal authorities at his house in Orinda in 1967.
Diablo Magazine

Author Bio

Samantha Durbinis a multifaceted writer from Oakland. Herwriting has appeared inPOPSUGAR,PureWow,Zagat, andThe San Francisco Chronicle,among others. She lives in the Bay Area with her family and her Adidas collection.