High School

By: Tegan Quin, Sara Quin

Narrated by: Tegan Quin, Sara Quin

Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

"Tegan and Sara Quin’s joint memoir is perfect in audiobook form.... Knowing and loving Tegan and Sara the musicians will obviously make this listen extra special, but it’s by no means a prerequisite to entry. High School, very literally, is for everyone." (Paste, best audiobooks of 2019)

This program is read by the authors and features bonus interviews and rough recordings of Tegan and Sara's first songs, recorded on cassette tapes in the late '90s, and rediscovered 20 years later while writing High School.

From the iconic musicians Tegan and Sara comes a memoir about high school, detailing their first loves and first songs in a compelling look back at their humble beginnings.

High School is the revelatory and unique coming-of-age story of Sara and Tegan Quin, identical twins from Calgary, Alberta, who grew up at the height of grunge and rave culture in the '90s, well before they became the celebrated musicians and global LGBTQ icons we know today. While grappling with their identity and sexuality, often alone, they also faced academic meltdown, their parents’ divorce, and the looming pressure of what might come after high school. Written in alternating chapters from both Tegan's and Sara’s points of view, the book is a raw account of the drugs, alcohol, love, music, and friendship they explored in their formative years.

A transcendent story of first loves and first songs, High School captures the tangle of discordant and parallel memories of two sisters who grew up in distinct ways even as they lived just down the hall from each another. This is the origin story of Tegan and Sara.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Tegan Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Tegan and Sara Quin’s joint memoir is perfect in audiobook form. Structured like a dynamic Young Adult novel, this high school-focused memoir is peppered with original recordings from the twins’ early days making music as queer teens in 1990s Calgary. In this way, High School is a wonderfully disorienting 4-D listening experience - the fourth dimension being time, as the listener is repeatedly shot back decades while the sisters’ memories dip in and out of their shared past. Knowing and loving Tegan and Sara the musicians will obviously make this listen extra special, but it’s by no means a prerequisite to entry. High School, very literally, is for everyone." (Paste)

“Complexly intimate, smartly crafted, and packing a subtle emotional wallop.... A quietly heroic origin story.” (Rolling Stone)

“Tegan and Sara are massively gifted songwriters, so this genius memoir shouldn’t have shocked me like it did. There’s simply nothing like it; it’s completely original, utterly gripping, and gorgeously written. High School is a fresh, beautiful, and fearlessly powerful coming-of-age memoir.” (Augusten Burroughs, New York Times best-selling author of Running with Scissors and Toil & Trouble)

Raw and Tender

When asked if I'd be interested in listening to this audio book, my response was "No thanks. I'm not very good at listening to things. I'll just read." Boy am I glad I took the time to listen. I'm no longer an audio book virgin!

I must say hearing the authors share aloud their experiences/perspectives enhanced the stories for me. There were moments where I deeply felt their experiences since their retelling was raw yet tender. My heart still aches about the realization and admission about identity, but I am thankful for the sharing since these topics aren't usually discussed in this manner and I appreciate the care, sensitivity and handling the authors demonstrated. Also, the bonus of listening to the audio book is getting to hear the demos of their early work. It was evident that they had talent early on and to see/hear the new album that's based on material then further proves just how much they are a force to be reckoned with. They are so multi-dimensional that it's cerebral and enjoyable to witness/experience!

I know I am biased since I was already a fan of their work, but this memoir has made me become an even bigger fan. I know songs are generally inspired by life events, directly or not, so now with this glimpse/insight into their lives, I find myself revisiting their extensive catalog to see if I recognize traces of things.

Long story short, I highly recommend for all walks of life, but especially for the LGBTQ+ community and allies, because I'm sure everyone can relate to one way or another.

Thank you, authors Sara Quin and Tegan Quin, for telling your stories!

The memoir we didn't know we needed.

The perfect blend of nostalgia, inspiration, angst, and humor. Well written and well performed.

wow!

an amazing coming of age story tegan and sara narrate their own stories of discovering themselves, love and loss, and putting in place the very first building blocks of their career. I was genuinely sad to finish this audio book but I'm so grateful to them for sharing their story. I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book. the addition of demo tracks to set the scene were an AMAZING touch and really added to the story as well!

Amazing

What a GIFT. As a twin, I identified with so many of their stories. As a fan, this was an amazing gift.

AMAZING

I loved every moment of this audiobook. Absolutely no one else could have read it better and the book itself elicited more laughs and tears than a book has in a very long time. 100% recommended and will read/listen again.

great read

i am a huge Tegan & Sara fan so being able to not only hear them retell their start, but to hear thrir earliest recordings is absoutly amazing! it also shows how hard it can be to come to terms with your sexuality in high school.

Twin Tale and Demo too

I’m already a Tegan and Sara fan so this was reader typecasting. Listen to podcast interviews and such, however hearing their separate points of view of their teenage years was so interesting and well constructed. It made for easy listening and was easy to follow as a result. Love the cuts of demos laced through out the book and the interview at the end was great too. Great work Quins!

Amazing addition to the story

This audiobook is the purest form of this book. Hearing the early recordings of young Tegan and Sara playing their songs interspersed within the chapters takes the story to a whole new level.

Melancholic, euphoric, and full of gay yearning- my favorite

I thoroughly enjoyed Tegan and Sara's portrayal of their queer adolescence only complicated by their twin sibling relationship. Their articulation of their platonic (yet still queer) friendships with such love and admiration was familiar and hit home to my own experiences. I love their music and now I only love it more! I listened to this via audiobook and appreciated how they incorporated their teen selves singing their OLD original demos between chapters. This book is melancholic, euphoric, and full of gay yearning- my favorite.
10/10 would read again, and I'm about to re-listen to it with my partner.
And the TV show is also FANTASTIC! Hoping for season 2!!!

A universal deep dive into high school nostalgia

The only thing better than getting a honest, sincere and vivid ride through someone's high school experience is getting two. Most music memoirs are deliriously boring in their efforts to push the narrative of who they are now and ignore the history of what got them to where they are, thankfully, Tegan and Sara do the exact opposite. Tegan and Sara will rip your heart open with the ever-healing, universal wounds of high school. Their storytelling, which if you have ever seen them live you know that the banter is almost as good as the music, is so brutally honest that you can't help but hang onto every word. The audible version of the book is so incredibly good, not just because of the Canadian emphasis, but the demo recordings bring so much life to the story that you feel as if you are in the Plunk/Sara & Tegan group of friends, cheering the duo on as they discover their absolute talent. I loved this book, I would recommend it to anyone, especially those who have loved at an age where their emotions were big enough to swallow them whole. I can't wait to listen to this again (and again).