"[2] CNN said in their mixed review that "Nugent sometimes gets a little too insider-y—too many details about too many '90s indie bands—and his insistences on Smith's sense of humor, though no doubt true, ring hollow.

"[3] Many of the book's detractors complained about the absence of original testimony from Smith's family and close friends such as Joanna Bolme, Neil Gust, Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss.

He graded Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing as "shallow", "sloppy", "a quickie", reliant on "second-degree friends and third-party accounts" and includes "fact checking that doesn't extend far beyond Google."

He cited one particular passage wherein he argued Nugent incorrectly wrote that Smith spent an evening partying in New York City with hip hop mogul and Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons, when he was actually hanging out with the drummer from the indie rock band The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Russell Simins.

Bemis goes on to say that Nugent "failed to realize the Blues Explosion's drummer happens to be named Russell Simins, a profoundly inconvenient homonym for a writer hurriedly transcribing interviews and rushing a book into print.