Earth to Moon by Moon Unit Zappa

Moon Unit Zappa, daughter of the iconic musician Frank Zappa and his formidable "manager" Gail, offers a bracingly honest and darkly humorous memoir in Earth to Moon. Dismissing the adage that "God only gives you what you can handle," Moon Unit reflects on a childhood so uniquely shaped by fame, creative chaos, and unconventional family dynamics that it often felt, at times, eviscerating. It is her sharp wit and unwavering humility, however, that ground both her and this compelling account.

Catapulted into reluctant celebrity at the tender age of 14 with her accidental international hit single "Valley Girl" (recorded alongside her father), Moon Unit's life has been extraordinary from her very birth in 1967, into a family already established as music royalty thanks to Frank Zappa's acknowledged genius. But Earth to Moon unflinchingly explores the consequences of growing up in a household where naked arguments about sexual and extra-marital relationships were commonplace, and white magic was practised amidst a free-for-all of nonconformist, virtuoso abandon. Her description of her atheist, Wiccan, fame-laden, oversexed, teetotalling, drug-free, cloistered, chaotic, non-communicative, workaholic, and "feral-feeling" home life paints a vivid, and often unsettling, picture.

Earth to Moon is a raw and unflinching reckoning with self-esteem, the lingering ghosts of the past, and the complex legacy of a mother and father who, in the process of leaving their indelible mark upon the world, inadvertently scarred their eldest daughter on the home front. Brutally self-deprecating and consistently funny as hell, Moon Unit Zappa's memoir offers a decidedly un-rose-tinted perspective on the 1970s and 80s West Coast American scene, delivering an insider's view from within the very belly of the rock and roll beast. This is a courageous and compelling read, offering a unique and often hilarious insight into the extraordinary life of a daughter navigating the turbulent orbit of a truly unconventional family.