The actual writing is quite obnoxious. Phrases such as "his beautiful platinum hair" are repeated ad nauseam. The prose is flowery and wordy. Shepherd states at the beginning that she refrains from being too detailed about the more sordid events in Jones's life out of respect for his children. Unfortunately, that leaves many passages feeling as though they were written by a child too shy to use proper terminology. Shepherd claims that Jones suffered from ADD and bipolar disorder, even though she admits these disorders had not even been diagnosable before Jones's death. And her description of manic-depressive episodes clearly doesn't depict true mania.
I must admit: I simply could not finish this book. I got about 100 pages in before I decided enough was enough. In some of my very minimal research on Jones, nowhere did I find any references to abuse or mental illness. Not one account spoke of Jones prostituting himself. One article even suggested that stories of his experiences during his months traveling through Europe were highly exaggerated, depending on which of his friends you spoke to. I realized that this book was a waste of time. Even as fiction, it is poor. I would not recommend it even to the most die-hard Brian Jones fan; in fact, any true fan would likely be insulted by the book. I'm not a huge fan, and even I was insulted. You can get better information on Brian Jones from his Wikipedia page.
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