To let my 16 year old read this book?

[rivver]

So my 16 year old dd is currently reading slash’s autobiography, I understand it includes everything he and Guns n’ Roses got up to, she keeps telling me all the in and outs of what she’s reading. She’s horrified as to what he got up to and how he is still alive today but finds the book so interesting, I don’t think it’s an inappropriate book to read, she’s nearly 17.

Yesterday my sister and mum came over for my youngest dd birthday, and my dd told her what book she’s reading. Today I received a text from my mum saying how her and my sister think it’s disgusting that I’m letting her read the book, I have no control, I’m allowing her to know about the ‘dark world’, and that I’m encouraging her to do drugs? I haven’t replied as I’m baffled as to why she’s reacted so badly. I know it’s a book that explicitly tells you what he did and that it isn’t exactly nice but she’s old enough to know that’s wrong, do I need to seriously stop her from reading it? Or is my mum overreacting?

God, it's all coming back to me now. My DParents used to turn my light out at whatever time when I was little, but would leave the landing light on. I used to sit on the landing reading (because it would have been Very Naughty to turn the light back on, so I wouldn't have done it). I would then scarper back to bed when I heard them heading bed-wards. I thought they couldn't hear me. Now I realise how deluded I was! I remember being glad when a tooth fell out when I was reading, as that was a legitimate excuse to be on the landing after hours .

Aw, remember how good it felt to lose yourself in a grown up book when you were a wide eyed teen?
Your DD will be fine. I read all sorts as a child and our DC are allowed to read anything they want to (screens subject to much harsher regulation).

I’m not going to recommend a Rock bio for your DD but, MrsFollowill:

No One Here Gets Out Alive Despite the avowed twattishness of JM, still good.

Just Kids Patti Smith, ostensibly about her and Robert Mapplethorpe but so much more.

My mother gave me her copy of Lace when I was 11 and bored in the long summer holiday between leaving primary and starting secondary and then I worked my way through her entire collection of Jeffery Archer books before getting bored (again - everything else was Mills & Boon - well, except for the Miss Read books, which I had read/loved when I was 10) and starting on one of my brothers' shelves. The only thing I was prevented from reading was Maus. The non fiction books about WWI, WWII and Vietnam, complete with photographs, were acceptable, though.

When we were all about 13, somebody brought in a Jackie Collins book. There was then a few months where we'd be in groups, reading the most ridiculous sex and rape scenes, then we got into horrors and we passed those round like an unofficial library (there were actually arguments about whose turn it was to read the next Rats book by James Herbert and how long somebody was taking to get through it - we were exerting peer pressure on people to read more).

The teachers knew what we were reading and had no problem with it - because we were 13 year olds reading in our free time.

Let's face it, the bonkbusters are largely written at the level of English appropriate for an 11 year old - why wouldn't 11-13 year olds read them? By 16, we had set texts such as Ulysses, The Color Purple, The Rainbow (God, I thought DH Lawrence was a fucking patronising twat then and still do now) and have any of these 'this is inappropriate' people ever actually read Chaucer, Shakespeare or Pepys?

thank fuck we didn't have to deal with such stuff as Sparkle Vampire Paedo Story and 50 shades of Shoite. Jilly Cooper is a veritable Dostoevsky by comparison

No idea who Slash is , ask your mother if she’s read it to give her such an opinionated view.

My 11 year old has just finished George Best's autobiography 😂

I picked up Dead Babies by Martin Amis about age 15; that features a lot of drugs & sex, but also involves murder (not, please note, of babies). Quite a lot just went over my head; when I re-read it I would understand a little more each time. Anyway it didn't change the person I was. I think books featuring vice are different in their influence, to visuals.

She's 16, it seems ridiculous to stop her reading anything really.

Tell your mum that as DD is getting married next week and joining the army the week after, her choice of reading matter is the least of your worries.
Then turn your phone off for a week.

I am with everyone else .She is old enough to read this.

I love that your daughter is reading a book like that and chatting to you about it. I hope my children do that when they are older

The books that went round my class were Lace (referenced a lot above), Jackie Collins, Jilly Cooper. Some Victorian thing called The Pearl.

As everyone on this thread knows - censorship doesn't work!

We all survived the filth.

BUT, I really want to read Slash's biog. I bloody love GnR!

Meh. My 11 year old reads all my Mojo's (music magazine), and is reading my Alice Cooper, Kurt Cobain and Eric Clapton autobiographies. He has asked about drugs refs and I have told him bluntly look how much drugs f**ked them up so don't ever do them!
My mum not that impressed either but I pointed out he can watch much worse stuff on youtube (even with the parental block).

Younger kids shoot people on the Xbox which is far more disturbing than reading an autobiography!

You can’t control what a 16, almost 17 year old reads nor should you. Very soon she could be off at university making her own decisions with much more significant consequences!

At 16 I'd let mine read pretty much what they want, my slightly younger teens can pretty much read what they want - I can't think of any book they have asked for that I've said no to. I'd draw the line at 50 shades of shite, they can use their own initiative to get that one instead of me wasting my money on it

Karin slaughter at that age.tell her to nip her nose in one of them!

in todays world of kids on devices.... the most important thing is..... she is reading!!! and as long as she is reading the content isnt really important

Love @Titchy's idea;

Text your mum 'compared with what I was reading at 16 it's very tame'

You should get your DD to escalate the types of book every time she visits. Next time Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, then The Marquis De Sade's 120 Days of Sodom, a history of torture, the beginner's guide to fisting and the piece de resistance Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (I found that to be the most offensively bad book I've ever read).

Due to the fact I had no supervision as a child due to alcoholic stepfather and mad mother I read anything I wanted to. I used to go to the library and sneak out books from the adult section in to the children’s section. To the poster who read James Herbert I remember reading my first when I was 10 years old. I remember reading books about torture in the Tower of London, a book about a legendary cannibal called Sawney Bean and Burke and Hare plus of course Jack the Ripper.

I appear to have neither murdered or eaten anyone to date. Your Mother is being ridiculous but I have met a few people in my life who are so scared or upset by bad things they close their minds to huge parts of literature, film, the news, documentaries.

well, when I read your title, my first thought was simply, she is 16, she is old enough to choose what she does and doesn't read.

If she does pick up something that is a bit OTT, then ask her what she thinks of it, make it a point if discussion, but 'letting' her read it? Not really, it's her choice

We were given a list of French films by his teacher to help DS French. They were PG and 12s - oo la la!

@tunnocks34 no it was once... thought it was a innocent novel about fairies

I have read all of James Herbert book though (still got them all).... some are just very surreal and other ones have given me Nightmares..such a shame he died.

Make sure she doesn't read Harry potter in case she gets any crazy ideas about becoming a witch and fighting the dark lord....

Oh and steer clear of twilight don't need her getting it into her head that she can become a vampire!

Dont reply. Dreadful entitled meddling from your mum and sister.

I am dying for you to ask her HOW she suggests you prevent teenage daughter from reading any particular text?

Burn all the books?

Blindfold her?

Put her eyes out with flaming hot pokers, that'll teach her...

Ask which option she'd prefer.. (I am in a right mood today!)

Er, she's sixteen. My mum didn't have control over my reading material after I was 12.