ashleyholstrom's Reviews (1.38k)

Nina Renata Aron was in a relationship with an addict, on and off, for years. She considers their relationship to be one of codependence, where she enabled him to use but also was certain she was the person who could get him sober. Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls isn’t just a gut-wrenching memoir, though; it also gets into the science and psychology behind addiction and codependency.

✨ From Get Inside the Mind of an Addict with These Memoirs at Crooked Reads.

Melissa Bond just wanted some relief from her post-pregnancy insomnia. Her doctor casually prescribed her a high dose of sleeping pills, which worked great for a few weeks. When she stopped sleeping again, they upped her dose, again and again, until her body became so addicted that quitting cold-turkey would kill her. She spent months tapering off the pills, visiting all kinds of doctors, and watching her marriage dissolve.

Blood Orange Night is an absolutely stunning memoir about motherhood, insomnia, and addiction to benzodiazepines, told in fiery prose.

✨ From Get Inside the Mind of an Addict with These Memoirs at Crooked Reads.

Rereading the books that were meaningful to you as a teen is maybe not the best idea.

This is trash.

But as I read, I felt transported to my 15-year-old body, lying tummy-down on my bed and gulping down this book until my eyes burned. The fear of boys, the loneliness of school, the excitement of drugs: It’s all still there.

Breaking news: This book is exactly as good as everyone says it is.

I can’t remember the last time I was so hooked on a story that I devoured it in three days, thought about it while not reading, and even had dreams about it.

Sara Faith Alterman grew up with parents who were prim and proper. They never discussed sex or said bad words. So when a teenaged Sara discovered a slew of raunchy books crammed in the back of a bookshelf, she was scandalized. Games to Play With Your Pussy was written by her father, Ira. This, too, was never discussed, until decades later when her dad began acting strange. He lost his job and was working on reviving his writing career with a new line of sex books, and he needed his daughter’s help editing.

As her father sinks into the tidal waves of Alzheimer’s, Alterman navigates the devastating changes in her father’s life along with her own. She’s married, makes countless trips across the country, and has a baby in the time it takes for his body to deteriorate. Let’s Never Talk About This Again is a funny and weird and tender and oh so very sad memoir about a dad with Alzheimer’s.

From the Best Books We Read October–December 2020 at Book Riot.

This is, hands down, Debbie Tung’s best book yet. She puts the experience of depression and anxiety into perfect words and pictures; I’m in awe of how she’s captured exactly what “having a monster inside my head” feels like.

✨ From Cozy Comics for Your Summertime Sadness at Crooked Reads.

Catana Chetwynd has the most adorable comics about modern relationships, from the goofy to the sincere. This is the third of the series, which I read back-to-back on the couch while my husband played Elden Ring, and it’s perfect. If you’re in a relationship, you’ll find yourself in so many of these comics.

✨ From Cozy Comics for Your Summertime Sadness at Crooked Reads.

I’ve only really heard about Jennette McCurdy in the last few years—I wasn’t into the Nickelodeon teen shows as a teen—and I’m in utter awe of her strength. Her story of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her own mother is infuriating. Add in the gross Hollywood grooming and anorexia, bulimia, anxiety, OCD, and it’s a miracle she’s come out of the other side of teen stardom in tact.

I’m Glad My Mom Died is a sad and funny memoir about being manipulated into following someone else’s dreams and enduring the mental and emotional consequences alone.