This is such a devastating and earnest debut and I listened to it pretty much straight through. I HIGHLY encourage, no, INSIST, that you listen to this as an audiobook. It's a known fact, of course, that books are automatically way better when they're read by their author, and McCurdy's voice is so full of emotion that it adds so much weight to what she says.

I didn't watch McCurdy when she was on tv, and I am fortunate enough to not relate to her familial struggles, but my heart absolutely broke listening to her. Her writing about her mother invoked so much sadness and rage within me that I just wanted to give her a hug. I'm so impressed at how she inserts her dry and deadpan humor and some levity into such emotional chapters; her writing had real voice to it that I think would have come through even if I wasn't listening to the audiobook. I felt her rage and her cynicism and her tiredness. Please please read this book.