Dark. Determined. Delightful.

The concept of “goth” overflows with cliches, some more accurate than others. It’s a genre of music, an artistic discipline, a literary perspective, a social aesthetic, and more. People have employed the term as a pejorative and badge of honor, sometimes to describe the exact same situation or group of people. And like many cross-cultural terms, it somehow defies definition while also being a clear signifier of purpose for the in AND the out group.

Few people in popular culture embody this nebulous situation like Lol Tolhurst, the author of Goth: A History. Why? Because he was a co-founder of The Cure, one of the most legendary bands to ever receive the moniker of “goth.” Throughout the book, he explores what the word has meant, does mean, and could mean throughout the last several centuries of the arts. But instead of crafting a dry and overly academic textbook filled with too many scholarly resources, he opts for a personal recollection of how he explored and came to understand goth for himself.

This means Tolhurst digs into the research behind the authors, artists, architects, and more who had the biggest impacts on goth as we know it. But he also spends plenty of time talking about the groups he toured with in The Cure and those he came to love after he left his own band. What emerges is an accessible book that does provide sources for deeper study but also stands on its own as a thoughtful and personal reflection on how goth shaped his life. And it definitely helps that he actively tries to dispel many of the more egregious stereotypes.