Get a Grip, Woman!

What disappointed you about How to Murder Your Life?

It's hard to relate or have sympathy for a woman who has lived a comfortable life of enormous privilege yet can't stop messing up her life so shamelessly. I felt like shaking her and telling her to get a grip. I wasn't invested. Almost at the end and I can tell she's not going to be clean, and no redemption at the end. There's no motivation or reason, somebody will always be there to wipe her backside and insulate her from life's realities. I'm sure she's a nice person but it doesn't emerge in this story. if she really has talent, get back and rise to the top drug-free. then I'll read your follow-up and be really glad for you.

Would you ever listen to anything by Cat Marnell again?

no, unless she becomes more humble

How could the performance have been better?

it was read with feeling, like somebody who enjoyed acting out her life.

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22 people found this helpful

Terrible audio narration

The story is actually ok but the author spoils it by narrating it herself. She already has a very high voice pitch and and half of the time she just shouts. It is difficult to endure. Additionally, I found the ending quite pathetic. 'Im still on drugs but Im so much healthier and happier now' - sounds silly and insulting to anybody who knows just a little bit about addiction. It feels like her piblisher forced her to finish on an optimistic note.

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17 people found this helpful

Mildly entertaining, delusional, annoying

If you are looking for an inspirational story about a woman on drugs coming through the dark times and finding herself, do not come here.
Self obsessed and delusional.
Mildly entertaining.
Please stop screaming your narration.
On a positive note, well done for writing the book.

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15 people found this helpful

Mixed

Parts are really absorbing and the honesty is refreshing. But long lists of designer names and cosmetics are tedious. Ms Marnell may have included them as an ironic contrast to the grim consequences of drug taking but they are still tedious. Also, there's no analysis of why the writer behaves as she does. Deep reflection may not have been the object of this book but it left me unsatisfied.

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8 people found this helpful

A long way to go

Great performance. Addiction isnt about the chemical hook of drugs, its about soul holes and gaps in our social network. Cat clearly has so much potential, I hope she fills her world with good people who are true friends, that's how we recover.

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6 people found this helpful

Trivialises addiction, rather cringeworthy

It has been said that people who begin abusing drugs and alcohol at an early age, tend to stay stuck in that mindset - so it's hardly surprising that the shallow Cat Marnell writes like a teenager.

Marnell describes one ridiculous drug-fuelled event after another, and even talks about the $28,000 rehab facility her father pays for. She adds how she squandered one opportunity after another due to being completely unable to stay clean. And while you should feel sympathy for her, it's quite hard to do so.

So I can say without a doubt that I found this book rather irritating and narcisstic. After all, if Marnell wasn't a privileged white woman, she would have been in prison about 15 years ago. Her trivializing of her own addiction and frankly, bragging about her encounters, just represents how little understanding she has for the majority of other users. And though she does mention her privilege at times, it's almost an afterthought. The fact that the media have glorified her behaviour is equally despicable.

As someone who is aware of addiction, and knows those on the streets - about 90% of this book is cringeworthy. The last part is on her self realisation and it's the only honest part of the book and should have been placed as the prologue.

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2 people found this helpful

addictive listening

I had never heard of Cat Marnell before this book. As the story began I wondered whether I would find much to like about this, in her own words, extremely privileged girl's life. A life so rarified it was a million miles from.my own. And yet... there was so much I identified with. Her story is dark, light, funny and devastating. I also loved the narration, by the time the book had finished I was frantically you tubing videos of Cat because I'd fallen in love with her flippant delivery and cheery Clueless style speech. These are the kind of memoirs I want, honest, raw and with a resolution that echoes the author's own truth rather than some pat little conclusion we would wish for her.

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2 people found this helpful

She should move to Thailand and write some more :)

It's obviously not as sad as it would be minus the large house, wealthy parents, expensive boarding school and exciting beauty industry jobs. I don't love her life and by the end of the book I sighed audibly when she said she had reconnected with her family, that they were all alive, that she kind of ate and slept 8 hours every day. She seems like a sweet, smart girl and that is probably the reason why you end up wishing her the best. There's also a part of me, as a former biologist, that is amazed at the resilience of the human body :)

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2 people found this helpful

Love it 💋

Won't be for everyone, but for a female millennial, it was incredibly relatable. Not because I can relate to her drug addiction, this book is about so much more than that- it's feminist, its achingly confessional and it's cool af.

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1 person found this helpful

How to murder your life

Cat's honesty is always refreshing and her delivery was fantastic (apart from the screams. AHHHHHHHH!)

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1 person found this helpful