“Singer-songwriter Malin debuts with a gritty chronicle of his artistic coming-of-age . . . The narrative is framed by Malin’s survival of a rare spinal stroke in 2023 that sent him to Buenos Aires for stem-cell therapy and arduous rehab—an ordeal that captures the resilience he displays several times throughout the memoir. Malin’s prose style is raw, and he loves a name-drop, but his affectionate portrait of a vanished New York and the community that sustained him will resonate with artistically minded readers. It’s a tuneful self-portrait.”
—Publishers Weekly

“[M]uch of [his memoir] is devoted to growing up in New York and New Jersey and the many people, ‘the beautiful characters,’ he has met and lost along the way . . . Almost Grown is full of anecdotes of life lived on the edge and opening for or touring with the likes of Green Day and the Ramones.”
—Booklist

“April may be the cruellest month—but it could turn out to be the coolest one for new music books, if next week’s lineup is anything to go by. From Jesse Malin’s memoir and bios of Pet Shop Boys, Rolling Stones, Doug & the Slugs (finally) and more, to not one but two musical true-crime tomes—and even a new collection of Rik Emmett’s poetry—there’s a little something for everyone out there.”
—Tinnitist

“Queens native and street-level rock troubadour Jesse Malin has a story that demands to be told in full . . . Almost Grown . . . traces Malin’s life from a scrappy kid in a broken home to CBGB at thirteen, Madison Square Garden in his twenties, and collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, Billie Joe Armstrong, and Lucinda Williams. It reads less like a rock memoir and more like The Basketball Diaries with a guitar slung over its shoulder.”
—That Eric Alper

“Almost Grown is many things. At first blush, it’s Jesse Malin’s life story . . . The book is also a love letter to the desperate New York City of the 70s and 80s, a paved maze of rats, manhole steam, danger, graffiti, and boiling tensions, lit by neon hope and flickering streetlit squalor. The book almost reads like the notes to a lost Scorsese film . . . It’s a history, filled with cool info nuggets and anecdotes . . . Most of all: Almost Grown is important. Every music school should assign this to their teenage students. Jesse tells an essential story of the fragility and randomness of life, of the benefits of sidestepping the norms and the rules, of the glamour that can be found in the dingiest ruts. Of the need for persistence, passion, and stubbornness. Of knowing when to rebel and when to roll with it.”
—Support Life and Music

“Jesse Malin’s story about a dreamer who never gives up on his dreams is riveting, hilarious, and deeply touching. He writes straight from the shoulder, pulls no punches, and always tells the truth. It’s one helluva ride.”
—Jon Landau, author of The Bigger Picture

“Jesse Malin’s new memoir is raw and sweet and gritty—and surprisingly gripping. I’ve long been a fan of Jesse’s music, but I knew next to nothing about the man behind the songs until I read the dramatic and poignant NYC tale of his rise.”
—Harlan Coben, author of I Will Find You

“Almost Grown stands toe to toe with The Basketball Diaries as a story about growing up in New York.”
—Lucinda Williams

“[M]uch of [his memoir] is devoted to growing up in New York and New Jersey and the many people, ‘the beautiful characters,’ he has met and lost along the way . . . Almost Grown is full of anecdotes of life lived on the edge and opening for or touring with the likes of Green Day and the Ramones.”
—Booklist

“Only a brave artist can rise above the burden of being born one to become a truly great one. And no amount of method acting will ever replace a life of true grit spent with outlaws, poets, drunks, clowns, swindlers, and wild dreamers. If an army is only as strong as its soldiers, then New York City music will always be a genuine threat with Jesse Malin and his endless positive mental attitude on the front line. PMA, rastas!”
—Jakob Dylan

“New York City is the center of the universe, and there is no New York City without Jesse Malin.”
—Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day