In Gavin’s over 500-page tome, George Michael's dazzling artistry and rebel heart is ultimately overshadowed by a tabloid-like chronicle of addiction and excess. This is unfortunate because Michael was an artist of rare complexity – both tortured and anchored by a poetic genius that laid bare his soul and garnered him legions of fans.

Michael’s shyness and insecurity are contextualized against the savagery of the music industry in the first part of the book. For this examination, Gavin deserves credit. Michael’s years as front man in Wham! serve as backdrop to the evolution of his creativity and the stubborn perfectionist he would become. But what we miss in this telling, is an evaluation of the musical bible Michael was creating – something he would refer to in his final interview as the “Red Line.” It was a transcendent artistic reckoning borne of deep pathos he would mine again and again and it would define his unique catalog of work from one metamorphosis to the next.

Michael’s ability to synthesize pop, rock, and soul, then merge them with his own lyrics created a unique sound unlike any of his contemporaries. Plus, his beautiful, soulful voice could deliver the rockabilly funk of “I Want Your Sex” then transform into a poignant spiritual on “One More Try.” Few had the song-writing skill, nor chops, to turn out music of such contrasting dimension.

A huge part of that dimensionality owes its vigor to the fact Michael was a gay man who had spent years in the closet. He’d meticulously created an alter ego of a “straight” man who could appeal to the masses – and it worked. But, coddled by a vicious industry whose very existence depends on absurd levels of scrutiny, Michael had pinioned himself into an untenable position. The era of AIDS unleashed a homophobia that was normalized through a lens of oppression and fear. Michael was in the bullseye of this maelstrom and without doubt it had to both exhaust and terrify him.
But despite the constant scrutiny, the steadfast derision of the press, and associates and lovers who abused his generosity and vulnerability, Michael never stopped evolving and refused to be categorized. Gavin unpacks some of the exhaustion, depression, and loneliness Michael suffered, but omits an intrinsic part of Michael’s legacy – his ability to reinvent himself and channel inspiration and grief into brilliant hooks and unforgettable choruses. Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1, derided by critics when it first appeared, is now considered a classic tour de force – but Gavin barely mentions this. Creatively, Michael never stood still and pushed those around him to keep up – at times provoking associates to anger and exasperation. Hey, he was the boss after all... Just days before the end of his life, he was in the studio, working.

The author abandons a more measured approach in the first part of the book to rehash a tabloid Hell in the second half. Gavin rhapsodizes on escorts, gold-diggers, peevish lovers, and drug-fueled parties. It’s what sells, apparently, and no doubt it will catapult the book to substantial sales. Private email exchanges from drug dealers, deleted Twitter posts from vulgar gigolos, sensationalized tabloid articles, dubious forum gossip, and copious quotes from an ex-confident who sold private information about Michael to the tabloids because he “needed money,” plus numerous other annotations from acquaintances and session musicians, are presented verbatim – most in service to the fact Michael was desperately struggling with addiction.

The very thing Michael despised in life, the incessant scrutiny of the press and their relentless judgement of him, ends up superseding all else in Gavin’s biography. Of course, addiction was a part of Michael’s life and it’s a tragedy that bears recounting, but not at the expense of the very thing that endeared him to millions – his transcendent talent and his refusal to compromise his artistic vision.

As I wrote this, “Praying for Time” came on my play list and I marveled at the beauty of his voice, his ability to effortlessly interpret a lyric and deliver a tsunami of emotion on one delicate, gossamer note. It is heartbreaking to think he was so unhappy despite being able to provide joy to so many. And though Gavin charts the heartbreak and sadness, what is most sorely missing from this book is heart and soul.

For a legendary artist that journeyed through delirious highs and ruinous lows, whose vulnerability and pathos cast him as savior or Satan – depending on who was looking – and as someone who desperately strived for grace and beauty even in calamity, there is a perfunctory coldness to the narrative. Yes, thorough research was conducted, but we never feel the author is trying to do much more with it than convey his sources’ insider perspective – and it sometimes reads as bitchy gossip.

Though in the epilogue Gavin concedes, Michael “Left his mark” on the cultural cataclysms of over three decades and provided gay artists with a conduit to pursue their endeavors openly, he also observes Michael suffered greatly for all his success. Sadly, this is true. Michael was vulnerable, guarded, frail, full of bravado, angel – and sometimes, demon. He was messy, and in that caldron of tumult he unearthed a searing creativity that only now – after his passing – do we realize the beauty of. George Michael’s legacy is his music – not his addictions. This biography does little to advocate for that bounty.


Many kind thanks to Abrams and Net Galley for the opportunity to read the ARC.

To learn even more about one of my idols was heart wrenching, eye opening, and wonderful. George Michael remains a loved person. Pop culture and music itself are richer for him. Details, storytelling, all bring him to life on these pages.

George Michael — or more precisely, Wham! — was my first concert as a kid. I had harbored a long-standing and passionate sixth-grade crush on George (whose full Greek name I also knew), and I was certain he would somehow see me in my lawn seat beside my father and our fates would intertwine. (My father, who had mysteriously “volunteered” to take me to every George Michael concert of my childhood, had a lot more in common with George than I did, but I would not find that out for twenty more years.)

If my introduction seems personal, it is — and this book is too. James Gavin does justice to the gifted, tortured, closeted, and magnetic life led by George Michael, with a very specific focus on what Michael’s life — and death — meant to the gay community. At times heartbreaking to read, the through line of the book is both George’s immense talent and his darker side — George’s discomfort in his own beautiful skin, his self-destructive tendencies, his internalized homophobia, and his creative struggles. The book also sensitively explores his latter day reckless behavior, his drug use, and the illnesses that finally claimed his life.

I never really understood how George Michael died. I remember my devastation and the series of weird tweets that preceded the event — both the tweets by George before his death and the ones that followed his death that were made and deleted by his boyfriend at the time. This book takes a hard look at George’s final days and while an answer is never conclusively given, you get a good sense of the total picture.

I recommend this book to anyone who has ever loved George Michael. But more than that, I recommend it to gay men, and to anyone who has ever loved a gay man. I think it will be particularly moving and enlightening for anyone who has ever been closeted or loved a closeted person. It definitely was for me.

A tough and heartbreaking read that does true justice to its incredible subject and also to the larger problem of homophobia in America, then and now — this is a beautiful and heartfelt work by James Gavin.

Many thanks to Abrams Press and NetGalley for this five-star read.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

What can I say. I was a huge George Michael fan. I loved this book. Read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book

Like most kids that grew up in the late 80s/90s, George Michael is a familiar figure to me. . Songs like Freedom 90, Father Figure, and Faith were part of the culture I grew up in. His death in 2016 was yet another piece of my younger years chipping away. Yet as well as I know the songs of George Michael, the man himself remained very much a mystery. This book was an antidote for that.

Though this is a long book, and somewhat of a slow read, it is fascinating. Sometimes biographies can come across as boring or even judgemental, but this one is neither. Clearly, George Michael didn't lead a happy life, and this book showed the good, bad, and even ugly parts of his upbringing, rise to fame, and last years. It did so with a nonbiased or judgemental fashion that let the reader get all the information while humanizing a figure that had seen so much controversy in life.

This was an excellent book about an entertainer who was taken from us entirely too early. Michael never did get the credit he deserved, but this book pays some of that tribute back.

I really enjoy this book it actually took me back to my childhood I honestly I found George Michael to be absolutely hot gorgeous a stud amazingly talented so thank you for letting me see you read this.

I was so excited to be approved to read this e-galley of GEORGE MICHAEL by James Gavin. The length of the book was somewhat daunting, but I've read long biographies like Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn by William J. Mann, which is nearly 700 pages. James Gavin's biography of George Michael is very exhaustive and reading about the singer's early years was very interesting; it's such a great example of what often stays with us through childhood regardless of how life changes for us as adults. It was also very eye-opening to realize how young George was when he met Andrew Ridgeley and to read about how Andrew befriended George.

However, where this book fell short was that it felt lifeless. George Michael had so many struggles, which were reiterated far too many times without anything new revealed, so it felt like the reading equivalent of riding a stationary bicycle. For a life that was so tense, especially living under the fear of being outed as gay, there was a lack of tension in the writing. In contrast, Mann's book about Katherine Hepburn (who was also closeted) was a page-turner and very emotional.

I was also surprised at how dismissive James Gavin was of Andrew Ridgeley. Maybe Ridgeley's lack of participation in Wham! was true, but where did this information come from? It didn't seem like Gavin interviewed Ridgeley. This question came so early in the book that it made me wonder about other situations in the book.

This was a bit of a miss for me, but I applaud James Gavin for digging in so deep and sharing George Michael's story.

Having been a fan of George Michael and Wham for many years, I was excited to read this book. It was interesting hearing the history of the band and all about George Michael's solo career. But I got much more than I expected. To me, this book was a cautionary tale about how you can be insanely successful but still perpetually sad and unfulfilled. It was a great reminder to be grateful for your wins and successes in life. Most of us will never accomplish or earn as much as George Michael. But many of us are as hard on ourselves as he is. Maybe this book will help readers be less hard on themselves.

James Gavin has written an exhaustive and yet astonishingly Illuminating biography of one of the great artist of the last 40 years, George Michael. This wonderful book contains the depth and compassion for its subject that George Michael so richly deserves. Michael’s recorded work has and will continue to stand the test of time. His concerts and live performances will never be forgotten by his fans. But the real legacy of George Michael may well be how unflaggingly charitable he was. His compassion for others lives on in the charities he founded and the charities his estate continues to fund. I worked for one of those charities, Project Angel Food in Los Angeles. I know first hand how George Michael’s generosity has saved lives and made the world a better place. God bless this artist. God bless this amazing book. Bravo a million times.

As a fan of Wham and George Michael I enjoyed reading about his story. The author did a nice job of telling about his background and telling stories the public really didn't know about. If your a fan of the group or George Michael himself I recommend reading this biography you will not be disappointed.

If you are gen X like myself I think you will enjoy hearing the back story of George Michael and his life. If you are younger, I still say read the book because a lot of what George suffered still applies today. George was not a saint by any means and sometimes was a real pain in the neck and this book does not sugar coat his faults. I definitely recommend the book for an un-white washed look at the star. This is coming from an unabashed fan of Wham! from the beginning-I loved the songs, "Bad Boys" and "Young Guns" and have all the Wham! and old George Michael cassettes. It is a sad story which began with huge promise. The biographer did a lot of research and is a very good writer in my opinion.. I would read more James Gavin in the future.. In any event, this is a kind of Greek tragedy ..ironic that George had roots in Cyprus. RIP Yorg.

Thank you to the publisher and Net galley for the chance to read and review.

George Michael came on the scene during the time I was coming out in college and I had a huge crush on him. I followed his career during the earlier years and was perplexed when there were long lapses between his musical output in later years. This comprehensive and well-researched book is illuminating and provides many answers about his life.

Beginning with his early childhood, his friendship with Andrew Ridgeley and the development of their group Wham!, the first surprise for me was the fact that he was immensely talented at singing and songwriting but his major goal was to simply become famous. He achieved that goal quickly and ventured on to become a huge solo success. However, Michael was never happy with his life and was so obsessed with controlling every detail of every project, he was never truly satisfied. Part of his withdrawal dealt with the fact that he lived in the closet and could not envision a life of success by openly acknowledging his sexuality.

His desire for popularity faded over the years and further heartbreak came when his first love died of AIDS. Shortly after that, his beloved mother died of cancer. The turning point in his career came with a devastating lawsuit against Sony Music. Michael lost the case and the remainder of his work during his lifetime was sporadic (chiefly due to Michael's bullheadedness and not Sony). The culmination of all these events came with his arrest in a Los Angeles public restroom which effectively outed him.

Michael's later years were clouded by drugs (he was an excessive pot smoker) and promiscuity. There were multiple incidences of traffic violations, public intoxication and sexual indiscretions.

The book is an absorbing read and offers juicy details on Michael as well as some of the people he worked with (Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Elton John, etc.). The author's details of how he worked and came up with his most popular songs is also quite fascinating. Although the attempt as justifying George Michael as a gay icon is not convincing (to me, his long-time silence put a damper on that and even after he was outed, he continued to embody heterosexual characteristics in his videos and his personal life wasn't exactly admirable), the book does an excellent job at capturing his life and his demons. This one should go down as a definitive biography.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Abrams for the chance to read the ARC of this. ok in exchange for a fair and honest review. I really enjoyed this book . it is a thorough, comprehensive study of a complex man.It was obviously well researched and it is well written.I was a casual fan of Wham , and was a little more appreciative of George Michael, the solo artist. This book gave me a broader and deeper interest in him and his music.I learned a lot about his early days, his friends and his musical beginnings. His descent into drugs and alcohol is heartbreaking to read .this is a no holds barred, warts and all biography and I highly recommend it.8:

As a fan of Georgia Michael, I thought the author did a great job keeping me captivated whole also sharing information I don't know. Great writing and great topic. I highly recommend.

Let me start off by saying as someone who was born in 1984 it appalled me that I had no clue until this book that George Michael was one half of WHAM! Especially since I knew almost all of their songs. My most clear knowledge of him as a singer was his early 90's stuff including Freedom 90'. I have had that song stuck in my head along with a string of other 80's and 90's hits for the last month and a half that I read this book. Lol, be prepared. It was a blast reading chapters and searching the internet for video's and photos that correlated with what I had just read. By the time I got to the later chapters I felt like I was reading about a friend. I was sad when his life started to spiral and his music wasn't getting the love he thought it deserved. I was scared for him as he made reckless choices and i anticipated how it was going to end. The author was incredibly detail oriented in all of this book and I couldn't even find anything to make notes on except for literally one sentence towards the beginning of the book where he wrote someones ethnicity along with their name which i thought was unnecessary. Literally, that was it.

James Gavin delivers a well detailed and intimate portrait on the life of George Michael.
Much has been written about George Michael over the years. His younger years were challenged by his difficult relationship with his father and the shunning of homosexuality. Music became his center and he developed his talent with a driving force. His friendship with Andrew Ridgeley led to the formation of Wham! In 1981 and the fans and chart topping hits followed. His good looks, soulful voice and songwriting skills were award winning, received much praise but never eased his personal pain. He struggled with substance abuse, legal issues, depression from the death of his lover and later his mother.
Although the darkest of times were well publicized and became tabloid fodder over the years, Mr. Gavin delivers the most difficult aspects of George Michaels life tastefully, without being vulgar or gossipy. He never loses his level of respect for George Michael the man and the artist.
George Michael was a creative force, a charity fundraiser and an activist. His untimely death at the age of fifty three on Christmas Day 2016 was shocking but the message and beauty of his words will not be forgotten.
Highly Recommended.
My thanks to NetGalley, James Gavin and Abrams Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

I have been a fan of George Michael and his music for many years. I was really excited to get a copy of this book and start reading it.

This book was definitely well researched. It was a little slow at times, but over all was a very good account of George Michaels life. I definitely would recommend this book to anyone who is a George Michael fan, or anyone that would want to learn more about his life.

James Gavin gives us a very personal and extremely detailed account of the life of George Michael. Michael's rise to fame came during the years of extreme homophobia (especially among his Greek community), AIDS, recreational drugs and the emergence of extreme paparazzi. The complicated admiration, jealously and friendship he had with Elton John gives insight into many of the now famous performance the two gave to the world. I was lucky enough to be at Live Aid in Wembley Stadium to witness one such performance first hand. The stories in the book are as captivating as the sexy video and music that provided the backdrop to the formative years of many a youth. HIs trust in others led him into some situations that were not truly in his best interests, but he sometimes followed with the same blind faith he demanded from others.
Scars were left by the loss of his one true love, his inability to live his life in light and truth without judgement and the business betrayals by those that he trusted.
The only improvement would be to have shortened the length of the book a bit. Every studio session and performance is detailed. Gavin could have left off a few of these stops. A brilliant book revealing the heartbreak, insecurities and ambitions of one of the best artist of our time. Fans of Wham , George Michael. and the music of the '80's and 90's will relish the behind the scenes stories.

While there are plenty of facts, and the book is well-researched and thorough, there's no feeling in this book. It's like reading a well-written Wikipedia page about George Michael instead of a thoughtful account of his life. This is probably because the author doesn't have any real connection with the subject. Overall, the book is interesting but dry.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC.