Scan barcode
xmem's review
The essays are interesting, but for the same amount of time I could explore other authors who touch on the same topics with much more introspection, better analysis, and better writing. I know that relatability is an unfair criteria to measure these deeply personal topics by, but I also think there's a point to be made about how human experience may differ in the details but the underlying themes of our struggles and desires do share similarities. I look at this book and the first comment that comes to mind is 'ok that's interesting, but I don't get it', because these essays reach just deeply enough to sink below the veneer of the author's life and raise some interesting questions/topics but not quite so deeply as to touch that underlying layer that speaks to everyone regardless of how similar their lived experiences are to the author's own.
rensparks's review
3.0
some of the essays were weird and funny and absurd. and then some were just weird and absurd. let’s just say, i’m glad the author is in therapy <3
zgg22's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
The parts I could relate to felt like a personal therapy session. The parts I couldn't relate to made me intrigued to read about the weirdness of someone out there in the world. Delicious. Will definitely buy a physical copy for my collection after I sort through the rest of my tbr (I listened to the audio version).
killyourdarlings105's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
1.75
trin's review against another edition
5.0
Wrenchingly honest in a way I only wish I could be. I found this collection extremely relatable (her anorexia was exactly like my anorexia! we feel guilt and shame about so many of the same things!) and that's always an incredibly comforting thing to discover: you are not alone.
hollidayreadswithme's review
4.0
This collection of essays is quite possibly the most honest and non-aggrandizing depiction of sex, drug, alcohol, and love addiction I have ever read. In this book, Melissa Broder bares it all. There is a raw nerve that is hit with every statement she tries to use to explain her insides that seem all torn up.
Dislikes:
~The order of the essays was linear until the end until she went back and forth through her adolescence. Through her bat mitzvah, and back again to present time.
~the first essay had me putting the audiobook down for a week and picking it back up. the main issue I had with it was that she traced her pattern of behavior to her birth, which she could not have possibly remembered and took me out of the story.
Likes:
~Basically everything else.
~It feels like she did a fourth step inventory for her rehab and published it, which takes a lot of guts. It also seems like she wanted to make the book funny and it wasn't, which was actually quite redeeming because it fits into the misnomer that everything in life is hunky-dory. Not quite sure if that's what she wanted, but that's what came up for me.
~Talking about her husband with a chronic illness was really jarring but in a good way. it wasn't a plot point, it was real and brought up the questions that a lot of people who choose to spend their life with a chronic illness sufferer have. The resentment, the fear, the feeling that maybe they weren't good enough because "that" was all they could get.
Overall/ Final Thoughts:
Some of the things she said will be a little jarring but I think that's the point. This book took me out of my comfort zone and asked me to look inside myself. And for that I am thankful.
2019 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading challenge : 2018 : a book about mental illness
2019 ATY Challenge - A book with a (mostly) black cover
Dislikes:
~The order of the essays was linear until the end until she went back and forth through her adolescence. Through her bat mitzvah, and back again to present time.
~the first essay had me putting the audiobook down for a week and picking it back up. the main issue I had with it was that she traced her pattern of behavior to her birth, which she could not have possibly remembered and took me out of the story.
Likes:
~Basically everything else.
~It feels like she did a fourth step inventory for her rehab and published it, which takes a lot of guts. It also seems like she wanted to make the book funny and it wasn't, which was actually quite redeeming because it fits into the misnomer that everything in life is hunky-dory. Not quite sure if that's what she wanted, but that's what came up for me.
~Talking about her husband with a chronic illness was really jarring but in a good way. it wasn't a plot point, it was real and brought up the questions that a lot of people who choose to spend their life with a chronic illness sufferer have. The resentment, the fear, the feeling that maybe they weren't good enough because "that" was all they could get.
Overall/ Final Thoughts:
Some of the things she said will be a little jarring but I think that's the point. This book took me out of my comfort zone and asked me to look inside myself. And for that I am thankful.
2019 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading challenge : 2018 : a book about mental illness
2019 ATY Challenge - A book with a (mostly) black cover