BOOK REVIEW for How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell

 

TITLE:              How to Murder Your Life

AUTHOR:         Cat Marnell

GENRE:            Memoir

RATING:           4 stars

I really, really wanted to hate this book because I supremely disliked the author.

I ended up loving it while STILL supremely disliking the author.

Addiction memoirs are hard to write and I give Marnell a lot of credit for having the courage to be so honest.

The writing is engrossing. Just the perfect tone for a memoir on addiction and fashion.

Thankfully, not too much time was spent on the "baby Cat years". Rather, Marnell gives us the information we need to know, to better understand her future choices.

I always wonder about the parents of children who write memoirs and talk about the effect these same parents had on their lives as adults, especially if the kid's life was a train wreck.

Pretty much every person in this book is kind of a douche, except for some of her work colleagues, as well as her sister. I don't even do drugs and I can plainly see when someone is high, so the question needs to be asked .....how could Marnell go to work, all these years, without being called on her crap? Was she that "adorable" that everyone in her universe was blinded?

Speaking of adorable OR NOT, I don't get what everyone saw in her. Obviously, I have never met her in person, but she seemed to have the ability to fall into situations that benefitted her all the time. To me, her story should have followed the same trajectory as Marco's story, but instead Marnell found dream job after dream job and apartment after apartment, without even blinking.

I hope she gets on her knees every morning to thank whatever higher power, looked after her and made sure she never got STDs, DUIs, permanent poor health or any kind of payback (death), from the hundreds of poor choices she made. We won't even go into the fact that she was being subsidized by her parents well into her twenties.

Marnell talks about narcissism in her book and I kind of think she is describing herself. Ironic since she only seems to see it in other people

Finally, the author never has any regrets. She lives an unapologetic life...good or bad? Not sure.

I still think this book was great. Hopefully Marnell will be around to write another one.