Tegan, Sara memoir raw, powerful

Tegan and Sara’s pop hit “Closer” concludes with a question. “All I want to know is: Can you come a little closer?”

That query has been answered — at least for readers of the twins’ new memoir, “High School.”

The Quin sisters’ look-back at their teenage years in 1990s Calgary, Alberta, is raw and powerful. Relying on journals, notes, photographs and, of course, their own memories and those of other principals, the authors’ richly detailed remembrances make you feel as though you’re a fellow student at Crescent Heights High. Readers will experience Tegan and Sara’s anguish as they grapple with their sexuality and their wonder as they discover the joy of making music together.

We now know them as award-winning singer-songwriters and LGBTQ activists, but back then, they, like so many of us, were just looking to survive their adolescence.

The Quins alternate authorship of the book’s 46 chapters, allowing readers to better understand each sister’s point of view as they navigate a winding road filled with drug consumption and mercurial relationships. We’re there when they combat homophobia in school and at home; flee from pipe-wielding men; and begin a life-long love affair with music.