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A review by againanew
Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark
2.0
I'm giving this two stars rather than the one that I had planned due to the fact that the last chapter ("Stay out of the Forest") were fairly redemptive. Also, two stars means "it was okay" and that suits me fine for this book.
It started off well, the chapter in which Karen discusses her mothers illness really effected me. It was powerful for sure. As was Georgia's opening up about a sketchy run-in with a "photographer" in LA.
Then as I kept reading I realized that the title of this book, which states it is a "how-to" for not being murdered, is entirely misleading. Nearly every chance the authors had to impart some real wisdom, they missed entirely. Let's talk about the chapter "Get a Job"... financial independence is a great way to assure you have a fallback should your relationship become abusive. Why not discuss this? Instead it devolved into stories about how much working retail when you're young sucks (um... yeah, we've all done it) and oddly into something about getting a broken heart and buying a vespa to feel better. This is only one example of how they missed the mark - there were MANY.
I'm not done yet. Like I said, this started off strong, but on top of realizing many of the stories had no real point - I began to realize how very much these two COMPLAIN about their past "problems" and insert infuriatingly privileged comments. I'm so sorry Karen had a hard time in her private Catholic school, and Georgia had to go to rehab for a couple weeks in high school, and Georgia had to come to terms with how much therapy could help her, and yes divorce of parents can suck (again, nearly all of us have been there). I am sorry... but where I come from, rehab, long-term therapy and private schools were just not financially an option for ANY of us so let's not keep crying about how poor you were. Because they did. Often. The seemingly endless bullshit about how Georgia "just didn't fit in" in her affluent Orange County neighborhood bc she was sooo different and her family wasn't as rich as others really made me want to vomit. As did the complaining tone of Karen writing about how Dad had the audacity to ask her, finally, to get a real job and stop asking him for money to "chase her dreams". And over and over again the pounding into the reader that they (Georgia and Karen) had to take this giant financial leap of faith and quit their awful normal jobs to make this amazing podcast and how amazing it was... just stop.
I have to add this information - I did not know who these people were before reading this book. I was browsing my local library shelves and saw it and the title made me laugh. So I picked it up. Maybe if I knew of them or had listened to their podcast before reading I would have had some kind of connection to them that would have pulled the wool over my eyes as to how vapid (at worst) and clueless (at best) they can be. It's possible. But most likely I would just have stopped listening.
I kept reading this droll only in order to leave a review because I hate it when people review things they didn't finish.
It started off well, the chapter in which Karen discusses her mothers illness really effected me. It was powerful for sure. As was Georgia's opening up about a sketchy run-in with a "photographer" in LA.
Then as I kept reading I realized that the title of this book, which states it is a "how-to" for not being murdered, is entirely misleading. Nearly every chance the authors had to impart some real wisdom, they missed entirely. Let's talk about the chapter "Get a Job"... financial independence is a great way to assure you have a fallback should your relationship become abusive. Why not discuss this? Instead it devolved into stories about how much working retail when you're young sucks (um... yeah, we've all done it) and oddly into something about getting a broken heart and buying a vespa to feel better. This is only one example of how they missed the mark - there were MANY.
I'm not done yet. Like I said, this started off strong, but on top of realizing many of the stories had no real point - I began to realize how very much these two COMPLAIN about their past "problems" and insert infuriatingly privileged comments. I'm so sorry Karen had a hard time in her private Catholic school, and Georgia had to go to rehab for a couple weeks in high school, and Georgia had to come to terms with how much therapy could help her, and yes divorce of parents can suck (again, nearly all of us have been there). I am sorry... but where I come from, rehab, long-term therapy and private schools were just not financially an option for ANY of us so let's not keep crying about how poor you were. Because they did. Often. The seemingly endless bullshit about how Georgia "just didn't fit in" in her affluent Orange County neighborhood bc she was sooo different and her family wasn't as rich as others really made me want to vomit. As did the complaining tone of Karen writing about how Dad had the audacity to ask her, finally, to get a real job and stop asking him for money to "chase her dreams". And over and over again the pounding into the reader that they (Georgia and Karen) had to take this giant financial leap of faith and quit their awful normal jobs to make this amazing podcast and how amazing it was... just stop.
I have to add this information - I did not know who these people were before reading this book. I was browsing my local library shelves and saw it and the title made me laugh. So I picked it up. Maybe if I knew of them or had listened to their podcast before reading I would have had some kind of connection to them that would have pulled the wool over my eyes as to how vapid (at worst) and clueless (at best) they can be. It's possible. But most likely I would just have stopped listening.
I kept reading this droll only in order to leave a review because I hate it when people review things they didn't finish.