Fans of Faithfull will find so much to love in this book, and it will surely convince those who don't know anything about her beyond the label of 'Jagger's pathetic, junkie ex-girlfriend' that Faithfull's enormous body of work is worth a proper listen. But the true joy of Why Marianne Faithfull Matters has relatively little to do with its specific subject and everything to do with the voice of its author. Pearson deserves the widest possible audience and her mission to make rock music more inclusive deserves expansive, expensive support. She is analytically lean and self-aware where most rock critics are bloated and self-indulgent. She is organically super funny where most rock critics are cocky showboats. (PopMatters) A passionate and timely tome. (Please Kill Me) Like Faithfull, Pearson is a musician. She's also experienced addiction, and continually pushes back against the trope that substance abuse is a yes/no, before/after proposition...In Pearson's account, Faithfull matters for her flaws as much as her triumphs; the book doesn't lionize Faithfull or inflate the influence of her catalog, but rather makes the case for Faithfull as an artist perpetually in the process of becoming. (The Current) Pearson writes the book she should have been able to read about musician, actor, and rock icon Marianne Faithfull...Why Marianne Faithfull Matters is an accessible and thoughtful approach to music scholarship that gives Pearson creative license to argue for Faithfull’s significance. But, at its core, the text is about women’s perpetual search for models and the singular relationships between women musicians and their female fans...It’s an essential Marianne Faithfull text, a vital addition to rock scholarship, and most of all, a pleasure to read. (Journal of Popular Music Studies)