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The Long Hard Road Out of Hell  By  cover art

The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

By: Marilyn Manson, Neil Strauss
Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
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Publisher's summary

When this best-selling autobiography was originally released, everyone was shocked: The Long Hard Road Out of Hell was the darkest, funniest, most controversial and best-selling rock book of its time - and it became the template, both visually and narratively, for almost every rock book since. Marilyn Manson is not just a music icon, it turned out, but one of the best storytellers of his generation. Written with best-selling author Neil Strauss and modeled on Dante's Inferno, this edition of The Long Hard Road out of Hell features a bonus chapter not in the original book. In the shocking and candid memoir, Manson takes listeners from backstage to emergency rooms to jail cells, from the pit of despair to the top of the charts, and recounts his metamorphosis from a frightened Christian schoolboy into the most feared and revered music superstar in the country. Along the way you'll hear what happens to fans - and celebrities - who dare to venture backstage with the one of the world's most dangerous rock stars. In the words of Elle magazine, the book "makes Madonna's infamous Sex seem downright wholesome in comparison".

©1998 Marilyn Manson and Neil Strauss (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Interesting read (at times) but not well written

I should start off by saying that I have always been a strong Marilyn Manson fan. Definitely not someone you would see at his concert, but someone who appreciated his music, uniqueness and artistic style. In interviews he always struck me as intelligent and eloquent. Regrettably, I was very disappointed in this book. Besides the occasional gratuitous and salacious storytelling (which I’ll admit was entertaining, although severely limited!) I found it both pretentious and self indulgent.

Sometimes people moan on and on about how different they are from the norm. Which I can respect to a degree. But towards the end, his point was lost because he dug himself Into a hypocritical hole where he (at least in my opinion) transformed into a narcissistic bully, desperately trying to showcase the superiority in his beliefs and lifestyle not because his way of living brought him any sense of fulfillment. But for the juvenile reasoning that he seems to passionately hate normalcy in any sense of the word.

I don’t have to agree with what someone preaches, but at least make a decent case for yourself. Or at the VERY least, write it well.

Left this book less of a fan than i was coming into it, unfortunately.

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32 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

would have been 10xs better if Manson had narrated

not the hugest fan of his music but when i read this book i loved it. wanted to re read it without reading it again so I picked up the audio book. i wish manson had narrated. this guy did fine but i kept wanting to hear manson tell the tale

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28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

not it chief

the tale of a megalomaniacal douche fresh out of a creative writing class trying to convince the world that he is as deep as he thinks he is

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Terrible, pretentious writing but interesting life

He had a privileged childhood but still stressed how difficult his childhood was. If you think about it, being sick of school and having a few painful breakups is pretty much a standard part of growing up. He'd have you believe he barely made it out alive though. Pretty silly.

I want to stress how pretentious and over written this is. You sort of tune it out after awhile but it's bad. He's a failed writer and it's clear why. He's not a good writer. He's a terrible writer.

He had an interesting life, though. I think I'm so addicted to autobiographies that I've found myself listening to an autobiography of a musician I'm not even a fan of. Interesting listen, though.

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12 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

long Hard Read

disappointing... how can this be a best seller? Was hoping for more insight on how MM was signed....with self proclaimed minimal musical talent I would have preferred to learn more about Brian (Mailyn Manson). certainly some of the stories and escapades were entertaining but they seem a bit far fetched and perhaps the strategy of the book for the shock rocker to try to shock the reader.. and for all the bragging of drugs, ducking, girls, guys, satan, murder (yeah right) I would have been more shocked with hearing how he outworked every other band or perhaps his work ethic. lots of details step by step- of his hallucination actions and bad trips -too much detail - not in content but you find your self saying 'C'mon Man'...your tripping your ass off on Acid yet you want us to believe you remember the shirt you were wearing and this detail and that detail....a bit of a reach in my opinion. overall, read a bit like fiction and therefore I was disappointed.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

You can skip this one.

This is my 4th or 5th rock related memoir and this one just was in a different class. It seemed to drag and I struggled to get through it. it seemed like everytime I turned around the book was listing or counting some assumed fact pattern or a set of rules that said you were gay, straight, or something else. these lists were monotonous, numerous, and were always followed by the author stating "i broke..." and then listing the rules he broke but we can't remember the numbers associatwd with each rule because there were 20+ rules. it was really quite bad. if I didn't have a new years resolution to. read more books I probably would have never finished this one. peobably best to not start reading it and save your credit for something else.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

I am a huge MM fan, but....

This was freaking terrible. It's hard to believe this was written by such a creative and vivid person. I struggled to finish it, but forced myself. It failed to keep my attention, and it had so many desperate grotesque descriptions in place of actual content. There wasn't much content there at all, I don't even know what I just listened to. The narrator also lacked...something. He sounded like a cliché imitation of MM. If I had the chance, I would not have bought this book. Very disappointing.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Vile and disgusting.

The first few chapters about his up bring and childhood were interesting. However this book being written by Manson I shouldn't be surprised how NASTY it got the further in to his career. WARNING This is a dark book.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Written by the worst person.

This book is a bunch of lies to glorify a serial abuser. He sucks.

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4 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

An annoying and sad read

Don't let the beginning fool you. This book starts with substantial content about a traumatic childhood and the impacts on Manson's upbringing, but quickly degrades into what feels like a teenage smartas* bragging for hours about the things teenage boys would brag about. What I took from the novel is that Manson claimed to have achieved an elevated sense of purpose in modern day society, achieving an objective view of the faults of "flock mentality." Which it sounds like he did. What did he do with his enlightenment? Not a lot, it seems. He shock valued his way to gaining attention, and I don't know if he did anything worthwhile on his journey. Or if he did, it was wildly outweighed by damaging experiences for all those that surrounded him. If you're looking for something completely lacking any substance, and instead wish to listen to someone talk about cocaine and urine for hours, this is the read for you. Condescending for no reason, yet having nothing admirable to prop himself up on (even through his own lens), Manson thrives on being an as*hole so he can push everyone away before they truly see what he is - a broken, insecure person. Based on what he chose to include in this novel (literally only macho puff-up anecdotes), Manson strikes me as someone who never actually figured himself out, and created an alter-ego because he didn't know what else to do with himself. Some nuggets of wisdom and interest, mostly just bs.

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3 people found this helpful