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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
reflective
medium-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
For the talent AMT clearly possesses as a writer, her editors were clearly more interested in cashing in to her post-divorce fame than making the author look at-all sympathetic. Is that their job? Not sure. But if it is, they didn't do a good job.
This book, while containing talented prose, lacks the introspection and nuance that memoirs need to remain not only interesting, but reliable. While I personally don't have a problem reading the experiences of folks more privileged in life than I, it didn't seem like AMT was conscious of the (at times) borderline obnoxious posturing she perpetuated throughout the book.
So many of us can relate to being cheated on, left for another person who encapsulates the things we're insecure about. What I can't relate to is the lack of acknowledgement that the author is where she is because of men. To me, this wasn't a feminist novel; this was a wannabe SCUM manifesto that showed not only that the author has some very skewed views on gender dynamics, but that the author lacks the authority to make the blanket statements she did.
Keep healing - I genuinely look forward to reading something by this author 20 years down the line.
This book, while containing talented prose, lacks the introspection and nuance that memoirs need to remain not only interesting, but reliable. While I personally don't have a problem reading the experiences of folks more privileged in life than I, it didn't seem like AMT was conscious of the (at times) borderline obnoxious posturing she perpetuated throughout the book.
So many of us can relate to being cheated on, left for another person who encapsulates the things we're insecure about. What I can't relate to is the lack of acknowledgement that the author is where she is because of men. To me, this wasn't a feminist novel; this was a wannabe SCUM manifesto that showed not only that the author has some very skewed views on gender dynamics, but that the author lacks the authority to make the blanket statements she did.
Keep healing - I genuinely look forward to reading something by this author 20 years down the line.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
dark
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders
I know this is her experience, but she’s published this book for everyone to read so I may pass judgement. I went into this book knowing this was written after her divorce however, John Mulaney isn’t mentioned! Maybe once, in a “my ex-husband” sentence once. But if you didn’t know she’s John’s ex wife and everything that happened you would be left with lots of questions. This book didn’t help me see her or understand her—in fact it’s made me not even feel bad for her. She seems to project her feelings on everyone around her, knows she’s doing it, and feel sorry for herself. If this had been more of a tell all, I think she would have come across better.
She is such an excellent writer!!! Very quick and enjoyable read
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
[review from 2024]
absolutely shattered. i finished this at 3am, because i couldn’t rest until i was finished. this book was so beautiful, so heartbreaking, so damning, and so devastatingly authentic, i simply could not put it down. anna is such a talented human and evidently an incredible writer. this is a piece of art through and through; a stunning self portrait and a deeply wounding reality all too familiar, all too real. i thought that this book would hurt me, and it did, though the empowerment and resilience i felt so deeply as the end grew near makes it worth reading again, once i recover. [reader’s note, it’s a year later and i am not recovered yet.] before knowing much about anna herself, i was excited to read this book simply because john mulaney is kind of a massive dick and i wanted to hear more about him/what he put her through from her point of view. but this was so, so much more than that, so much so that i feel embarrassed. he was not a part of the book, and that is as it should be. plenty of experiences with reprehensible men (and one nasty woman) fill these pages, but the focus is never, not once, on them alone.
the passages about the generational gap between mothers and daughters, and the role of women in society… the statistics. the jabs. the ways in which we make ourselves small, considering others at our own expense… this book hurt so bad! i loved it!
absolutely shattered. i finished this at 3am, because i couldn’t rest until i was finished. this book was so beautiful, so heartbreaking, so damning, and so devastatingly authentic, i simply could not put it down. anna is such a talented human and evidently an incredible writer. this is a piece of art through and through; a stunning self portrait and a deeply wounding reality all too familiar, all too real. i thought that this book would hurt me, and it did, though the empowerment and resilience i felt so deeply as the end grew near makes it worth reading again, once i recover. [reader’s note, it’s a year later and i am not recovered yet.] before knowing much about anna herself, i was excited to read this book simply because john mulaney is kind of a massive dick and i wanted to hear more about him/what he put her through from her point of view. but this was so, so much more than that, so much so that i feel embarrassed. he was not a part of the book, and that is as it should be. plenty of experiences with reprehensible men (and one nasty woman) fill these pages, but the focus is never, not once, on them alone.
the passages about the generational gap between mothers and daughters, and the role of women in society… the statistics. the jabs. the ways in which we make ourselves small, considering others at our own expense… this book hurt so bad! i loved it!
not a perfect book, but this is not a perfect life, and we are not perfect people. I am empathetic to Anna, and did tear up when she P in those final chapters. I think people are unnecessarily harsh to her when it is clear she is still unpacking and analyzing these events in her life. I found this book entertaining and fairly well written. Not going to lie - the last couple chapters did lose me but did not ultimately make me like her less. I will refrain from rating this book.