Reviews

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailckas

jenpaddack's review

4.0

Brutally honest but well written memoir of the author's long history of alcohol abuse starting at the young age of 14. Hard at times to read what I found most suprising was how many experiences in her past resonate with ones from my own. A great cautionary tale, one I'm keeping for my own teen daughter to read.

readwinesleeprepeat's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

swansreads100's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

heymelwest's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

I love the honesty with which Koren tells the story of her girlhood into adulthood and her relationship with alcohol throughout. I think there are many relatable feelings that Koren explores in the book and the ending brings hope for a different way of living besides the one society seems to be pushing.

bonnieg's review

31 pages. No more please. Gah, this is terrible.

zooniareader's review

2.0

I had to read this book for a brownbag discussion at work, and had a really hard time on several different levels. It became really monotonous, especially during the college years, and I was just disgusted at the excess. She writes well (poetic and insightful), but could have been a lot more effective with her commentary/story in a shorter format. Also had a hard time believing some of the insight she supposedly had during some of the incidents and the detailed memories of drinking episodes. It's an interesting perspective on female underage drinking, but I think she leans too much toward blaming media, peers, parents, campus administrators, etc., and too little toward the roles that critical thinking and personal responsibility play in people's behavior.

epadams's review

4.0

I'm reading this for research. Very interesting.

aw_katie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

crazygemini12's review

1.0

This book is one long white whine. It's written by a privileged girl growing up in privileged circumstances with Laissez-fare parents. The whole "wealthy whites have problems, too!" tone of the book was nauseating, as this girl has no idea what constitutes a real problem. My other issue: she seems to think this is 'normal' adolescent behavior. While it may have been normal for her social circle, it's wrong to make the claim for others, as I didn't know a single person going through college that treated drinking like an NCAA sport.

The only positives the book has are the terrifying tales of things she did (and often doesn't remember doing) while she was hammered. Those stories are better than any anti-substance PSA. Otherwise, it's poorly written and she's really grating.

libraryladykati's review

2.0

I would have liked this more if the whole thing wasn't punctuated with drinking statistics and facts. The memoir lost its appeal and felt weaker with all of that in it.