Anonymous

Horrible Clicking

Reviewed: 06-03-23

I might’ve been able to get through this book even though I wasn’t particularly charmed by her story. But the AWFUL CLICKING NOISE of her loose dentures? Dry Mouth? Think Saliva? was just too awful. I tried many times to give it another listen but all I could hear was the awful, annoying clicking sound. I don’t know how any listener got past it enough to hear anything else. Wish I had listened early enough after purchasing it to get a refund. Lesson learned

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Me, me, me, me ,me

Reviewed: 05-11-23

I get that it’s a memoir but this diatribe of whiny complaints was self absorbed, narcissistic and screaming of BPD. Even her performance was like like listening to a person with BPD in a never ending therapy session…without the therapist. It got old, fast.
I do admire that she chose to make the awful challenge of MS as her guide to finally find some gratitude. Big Kudos on that point.
Her life didn’t have to be so hard and drama filled but her nonstop poor choices and refusal to learn from them year after year after year left me struggling to find any sympathy. After all, she had a damned charmed go of it compared to 99.8% of the population.
Was there not at least one brave soul out of the plethora of friends she has such “tight bonds” with that could muster the courage to tell her that she was a pain in the derrière who needed to change? Or would that have put them in the category of “not seeing her”?
Her “friends” could’ve saved her a lot of pain but if she’s as stubborn and as oppositional as she claims to be, then maybe not.

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Brave Story But

Reviewed: 04-30-23

A courageous and redemptive story but slow and labored because of too much correspondence between too many people to keep straight. I know these people were often lifelong friends who provided indisputable support for Delia but I simply cringed when she began, reciting, yet again, word for word, email after email, text after text. This exercise was so important to her to jog her memory or even inform her memory when she lost time during treatment for leukemia. Unfortunately, they did nothing for for me as a reader. Too much, too many, too often Ruined what otherwise was a beautiful story about love, loss, hope and renewal.
Her whiney voice is annoying as hell too.

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Helpful

Reviewed: 03-05-23

I enjoyed Bryony’s story very much, most particularly because of her radical honesty.
However, I can’t help but wonder if she is bipolar which caused her alcoholism and cocaine use to become so extreme.
Does she suffer from a mental health disorder besides OCD?

Her journey follows so many similar stories of addiction and recovery although I still wrestle with certain demands of traditional 12 Step programs. For example, many people who consume nonalcoholic beer, wine and champagne (and more recently mock craft cocktails) become alcohol free for a lifetime.
Choosing to change any harmful behavior requires an intense desire to do so. It is also deeply personal and does not look the same or follow the same rules and guidelines for every person.
Understanding what’s happening in our brains with dopamine and dynorphin is a great place to start if you want motivation to change.

I have observed that there is a large spectrum of alcohol use disorder from mild to severe so the road to ditching it can also be mildly difficult to severely challenging.

Bryony’s voice becoming nearly hysterical throughout the narration was a bit much, not because it was gratuitous but simply because her high pitched, highly dramatic delivery was unpleasant to my ears.

Overall, still very good and worth the listen.

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Honesty

Reviewed: 02-16-23

Pure courage
Great writing
Inspiring Story
And sometimes funny too
Sarah’s story of alcohol use disorder reminds us how easy and scary it is to develop an addiction and what it takes to finally find the grit and vulnerability it takes to kick it.

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Excellent

Reviewed: 01-16-23

Mary Carr’s style of writing and storytelling grabs the readers instantly, taking us from tears to laughter to introspection, all in one short paragraph. Pure joy to have her narrate.

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Powerful but lacking

Reviewed: 12-05-22

Love this book. It has undoubtedly helped many people, especially women, confront or repair their relationship with alcohol.
However, it is outdated in some respects because there are new, successful paradigms to help people overcome alcohol use disorder besides AA.

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may appeal to angry teen girls

Reviewed: 09-26-21

This was a vapid story about a girl who was abandoned by both parents at different stages of her young life. The story and the characters are unrealistic to the point of frustration. Every character seems incapable of making anything but but bad, emotionally charged choices, hence the potential appeal to young teenagers. The main character, who has deceived everyone she has met, ultimately ends up delivering a baby boy at nineteen with no father or financial means for caring for her son. The reality of raising a child is the hardest endeavor any of us will ever attempt, even under “ideal” circumstances but we readers are supposed to celebrate the conclusion? Idiotic waste of time.

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6 people found this helpful

Unbelievable

Reviewed: 05-01-20

Other than Lucy Price-Lewis's narration which is always superior, don't waste your time. When did mysteries become so illogical and predictable?

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1 person found this helpful

Over performed, Predictable, Boring

Reviewed: 05-01-20

The performance was way over the top due to Froggatt's lack of vocal creativity. The main female character was either crying, panting with indignant rage, screaming shrilly or speaking in a lifeless monotone used to indicate her exhaustion. Her character was exhausted and "ill" quite often, in fact the entire book. To represent male characters, she spoke in the same monotone with a slightly deepened resonance to convey the idea that they were conducting "serious" business which was, invariably, to talk some sense into her character. The story was absurd from beginning to end. Nearly every person in the main character's sphere lived with her in a small, quaint, friendly village yet they somehow turned out to be homicidal maniacs, pathologically dangerous or as pathetically capable of being duped as she was. It climaxed with the main character's beyond belief acrobatics to escape harm when she was ACTUALLY in labor. I have zero reasons to explain why I didn't chuck this one early on.

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