My Own Devices by Dessa

This book was recommended to me and I must admit that I had never heard of Dessa, her music, or her writing; so, before starting, I listened to some of her music on Bandcamp. Dessa’s music is beautiful and haunting and sad, but not as ground-breaking as I thought it would be after reading some reviews. The same could be said about the book, I guess.

What did I expect from this book? A lot of talking about her music and writing, probably, but to my surprise and delight, I was wrong: the book is a collection of essays depicting Dessa’s childhood, family, relationships, and life while being an artist, but it rarely talks directly about music. It does, however, talk a lot about her obsessive love for her ex-boyfriend.

Some of the essays are better than others (which is to be expected): at worst they drift into a bit of pretentious rambling (only sometimes), at best they tell compelling stories about life as an artist and navigating through a strange world.