Chance Edwards

This book was a surprise in several ways. Unlike many who tackle the subject Edwards addresses the paucity of evidence that there is an actual curse. He then goes on to write short but accurate and thorough descriptions of the lives and accomplishments of 27 individuals. Yes, he includes the 'evergreen' examples of Jones, Joplin, Hendrix and Morrison but then he goes on to include individuals who were not musicians and more impressively, not Europeans or North Americans. I finished the book show more feeling that I wanted to investigate the cultures and milieus of many of the individuals whose lives he sketches.

Well written, well researched and informative. The is little more one could have asked for the author. show less

An interesting anthology of the worst days in pop culture history. Some of the names you know and some you don’t. I found the non American ones to be interesting, as a early 90s American child. The research put into the book was well crafted, and it was a quick read.

This was an Early Reviewer selection. A short introduction to the actual cases behind a classic urban legend (certainly for us rock n roll fans) regarding the famous people who died at age 27. What i had believed was a "curse" for classic rock musicians (think Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison), the author expands into additional musicians such as Robert Johnson and Cobain and Winehouse as well as other "notables" in music, art, and other areas. It is a series of profiles providing very limited, show more top-level info - mini-biographies - for the individuals. Nothing new for those cases i was already familiar with, but a great introduction to other members of the "27 Club". Now, i have some additional biographies to look into! show less

“The 27 Club” catalogues some 20 people who died at the age of 27 in the past 150 or so years. Starting with Joseph Merrick (“the Elephant Man”), who died in 1890, and ending with Kim Jong-hyun, K-pop star who committed suicide in 2017, we also get brief biographies of many of the usual suspects (Robert Johnson, Brian Jones, Jimi, Janis and Jim, Basquiat, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Anton Yelchin) and a few from non-English-speaking origins like Alexandre Levy and Amar Singh show more Chamkila. There’s a couple of chapters at the end of the book ruminating on causes, conclusions, final thoughts and honorable mentions, but considering that the causes of death range from drug/alcohol overdose to car accidents to murder, there’s not really much to link any of these people except their age at death. There is also a bibliography, consisting mostly of articles found online (and a bunch from Wikipedia), which doesn’t impress me much, and the fact that there are obvious missed words in sentences, misspellings and the like (“Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hide,” anyone?) suggests that another proofreading pass would not have been amiss. Still, if you’re curious about this particular urban legend and have an hour or two to kill, there are worse ways of spending your time. show less