This is not what I'd call a happy read, but there are clever and sometimes even ridiculous things that happen within these stories of stagnation and despondency. And the writing is lyrical and visual but never distracting. Moore has a very adept hand and a very cutting and insightful view of the human condition.

I'm not surprised over the amount of negativity present in these reviews. It wasn't a groundbreaking book, but I feel like the connectedness of the essays to periods of her life that ultimately left her needing to overcome a chronic need to prove herself or "be enough" was a satisfying throughline. The writing was adequate and overall it was "enough".

I think she's self-aggrandizing at times, suffers from some privileged nonsense and generally seems to lack an ability to take accountability for her choices. It doesn't ruin the essays, but it does seem to come up a lot. I think if I was more familiar with her outside of just this book, I might feel more similarly to the lower scores.

Good (but surface level) information bookends a pseudo-science center. Nothing here that can't be found in any 100-level psych study, though that won't come with the oily crawling sensation of snake oil.