Review: Without You by Anthony Rapp

About a year ago, I watched the musical RENT. I'd heard good things about it, and it seemed intriguing from the pictures and gifs I'd seen on Tumblr. I instantly fell in love with it and the message that it shared, and, as I usually do when I find a new obsession, I spent many nights reading up on the Broadway musical and the cast members. 

RENT is an amazing musical about living life to the fullest and without regret. Unfortunately, the musical's writer, Jonathan Larson, unexpectedly died the night before the show premiered off-Broadway.

Without You is the memoir of one of the show's original members, Anthony Rapp. In this book, he tells about his childhood, how he landed his role in RENT, the death of his mother and Jonathan Larson, and more. His writing is fantastic, and you can really tell he put his heart and soul into writing this memoir.

This book taught me a lot about life. It also has some really great and memorable lessons and quotes. One of my favorite quotes from this book, one that definitely stuck with me after I finished reading, is "the only way out is through." The leader of a support group, Friends In Deed, says this to Anthony one day when he is upset about his mother's impending death. For some reason, this quote kept running through my head as I read the rest of the book.

All in all, I loved this book for a lot of reasons. However, if you haven't seen RENT, you should probably do that first before reading this - it's an amazing movie/play, and I promise you will not regret it.