Book Review: From Where to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough

“Grief settles. It’s not something you overcome. It’s something that you live with. You adapt to it. Nothing about you is who you were. Nothing about how or what I used to think is important. The truth is that I don’t remember who I was.”

Lisa Marie Presley, From Here to the Great Unknown

Review:

Elvis Presley has been a staple in my household and extended family for my entire life, but I’d never known much about his family outside of a couple of trips to Graceland. My most recent trip was in October of 2023. Even though it was several months after Lisa Marie Presley’s death, it was a sobering time to be there. This book brought so much to light that I think I would have been in tears the entire time had I known the depth of her story then as I do now. 

Though Lisa Marie passed away before much of this book was written, her life story was recorded on tapes and later compiled by her daughter, Riley Keough. The book is split into Lisa Marie’s words as well as Riley’s as she reflects on her mother’s life. 

Honestly, I’ve struggled coming up with the right words for a review. I have so much I want to say but at the same time, it’s too much. The book hit close to home in various ways, but predominantly, it was reading about someone else’s experience of losing a parent at a young age that struck a chord. Seldom a day has gone by since reading that I’ve not thought back on this book and I’ve desperately been wanting to go back to Graceland. I’ll leave it at that. 

As a whole, I feel like I’m not the person to be telling people whether or not this is worth the read. I am biased on more than one level. I would, however, recommend that people looking to read this consider the audiobook as it was fantastic. I essentially read this book twice in a row. I listened to the audio, then went through it again tabbing my physical copy. I will absolutely be reading it again. 

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• In the audiobook version, we get to hear bits of the tape that Lisa Marie recorded.
• The mother/daughter element, though circumstantial, was a great touch.

What I didn’t like:

• The print on the page was massive and it was very apparent that this was to raise the page count.

Afterthoughts:

When I last visited the memorial garden, I had a short time at the gravesites virtually on my own. That time meant a lot to me then, but I’m even more grateful for it now.

Where to buy the book: