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megatsunami's review against another edition
3.0
This book is well written but I think it would have been stronger if the author had chosen certain episodes to focus on about her struggles with addiction and PTSD, rather than recounting so many details of events. There was a lot of narrative like "Then I went to a party where I saw Joe, a guy I had dated before Mark, and asked him if I could get some heroin. He said yes, and he introduced me to his friend Louis. As soon as I met Louis, I was attracted to him and we went off to shoot up together." As a reader, there are too many people and relationships for me to follow, and a lot of time is given over to a surface recounting of her actions.
As an addiction memoir, this book left me with a lot of questions about how she actually recovered and what were the things that helped. It's okay not to know - there's a lot that's hard to quantify about addiction recovery and healing - but I didn't feel like I took away a lot of insight. The last chapters about pregnancy, giving birth, and finding recovery and healing as a parent were the most interesting to me.
As an addiction memoir, this book left me with a lot of questions about how she actually recovered and what were the things that helped. It's okay not to know - there's a lot that's hard to quantify about addiction recovery and healing - but I didn't feel like I took away a lot of insight. The last chapters about pregnancy, giving birth, and finding recovery and healing as a parent were the most interesting to me.
meldav4's review against another edition
4.0
Strung Out is a raw, honest, and gripping memoir about the struggles a young woman faced throughout her life of addiction and recovery. Though I cannot personally myself relate to what she has gone through, I am connected to others who have faced addiction, so I can relate to many parts of her story from the outside looking in. I strongly feel this is a memorable story that begs to be voiced and shared to many, for I feel we all are connected to someone who has faced some type of addiction in some capacity, or may one day be.
I am so incredibly proud of Erin for sharing her life story with the world, and exposing her faults and mistakes for everyone to see. Most importantly is the true life lesson that though one might once be at rock bottom and contemplating suicide, life is not completely lost and over if you have some support, some love, some help, from someone, somewhere.
Reading her story had me feeling a myriad of emotions, which is a kudos to the writing, as I felt so connected to her and what was happening. I was intrigued and felt compelled to read on and find out what was going to happen to her next. The reading itself was easy and flowed smoothly, unlike many memoirs I have read in the past. The style was written in such a way that it did not read like a typical memoir or diary, but felt like a novel of fiction. Not only was her life one to be admired and commended because of how far she went, but she was able to tell and share her story in a way that exposed her talent of writing!
I am so incredibly proud of Erin for sharing her life story with the world, and exposing her faults and mistakes for everyone to see. Most importantly is the true life lesson that though one might once be at rock bottom and contemplating suicide, life is not completely lost and over if you have some support, some love, some help, from someone, somewhere.
Reading her story had me feeling a myriad of emotions, which is a kudos to the writing, as I felt so connected to her and what was happening. I was intrigued and felt compelled to read on and find out what was going to happen to her next. The reading itself was easy and flowed smoothly, unlike many memoirs I have read in the past. The style was written in such a way that it did not read like a typical memoir or diary, but felt like a novel of fiction. Not only was her life one to be admired and commended because of how far she went, but she was able to tell and share her story in a way that exposed her talent of writing!
jadechurch1983's review against another edition
3.0
There are important messages here in this book. As someone who has had drugs in his past, I can identify with a lot of the aspects of Khar's story. She has a poetic way with words and describes things in a visceral way. The story is important and raw but it tends to get dragged down a bit much in the seemingly endless romantic aspects of her life. I realize that those things probably had a lot to do with her drug problems, but in terms of adding intrigue to the story, I started to get numb to the seemingly endless number of guys that were in and out of her life. I enjoyed this book overall, but Khar's story doesn't particularly stand out or have some uniquely compelling aspect to it, and that's why I'm giving it a 3... I could maybe give it a 3.5.
theshaggyshepherd's review against another edition
Strung Out // by Erin Khar
I am having some trouble getting my thoughts organized for this book. I am a big fan of memoirs, especially the ones that are so painstakingly honest about their pasts. This is my third or fourth addiction-related memoir and they have really changed the way I think about addicts and alcoholics. I have to admit that I used to be somewhat judgmental about these things, as people often are in their ignorance, but these books have really opened my eyes to their struggles. They have turned into real people rather than statistics. As someone dealing with mental health issues and past trauma myself, it is now much easier for me to understand why someone would feel the need to turn to drugs as a way out.
Khar is definitely honest about her story and does not seem to hold back when speaking about the many negative decisions she has made in her life. The prologue starts out shockingly with her 12 year old son asking if she has every done drugs before. This is quite understandably a difficult question for her to answer. Should she be honest and possibly cause him to lose respect for his mother, or should she protect her son for a little bit longer?
I liked how at the beginning of the book she included facts about drug use in the US and how the political climate, expectations of parents on their children, the lack of comprehensive mental healthcare, and other factors can influence a person’s decision to turn to drugs at some point in their life. This made me think (and hope) that more of these statistics and theories would be included in the rest of the book.
But it soon turned into a mostly chronological telling of all the major decisions she has made in the 14 years of her drug use without much further deep discussions on those topics. That is, of course, fine. A memoir is what the author decides it is. It was just something I was excited about and then ended up not receiving.
But despite the many bad decisions she made, there hardly ever seemed to be any accountability and consequences to her actions. Not once did she have a run-in with the police. Her housing situation was always taken care of. There was never a lack of people handing her money, free drugs, rides, beds, couches, love, or anything else it seemed. She had healthcare and rehab when she wanted it and always a home to come back to. She even had access to schooling and a new, exciting job whenever she was ready for it. I am not saying that this isn’t great for her. I am so glad she had that support system and found her way through her struggles. But it is in stark contrast to the stories of so many other people in this country, especially people of color. And while she addresses this herself by talking about her awareness of racism and how people of color have completely different stories without the privileges that she has, it always seemed rather shallow. It felt more like an obligatory mention than anything she thought about more deeply.
I don’t want to end my review here and make it seem like I hated this book because that really is not the case. I deeply appreciate her taking the time to write this memoir because it gave me an insight into a life that I am not familiar with myself. This was a very humbling read. I very much identified with the young girl trying her hardest to get good grades and hanging out with the horses every day. While my trauma did not happen until my late teens, I still understand the urge of wanting to get out of your skin and out of your head so desperately. It also lead me to recognize the privilege I possessed (and still do) that helped me avoid that outcome myself. I am truly happy for her to have found her peace and that she was able to form the life she now has and enjoys. I also really appreciated her honesty with her son in the end. It was a hope I had from the start and I was glad to see it happen.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
I am having some trouble getting my thoughts organized for this book. I am a big fan of memoirs, especially the ones that are so painstakingly honest about their pasts. This is my third or fourth addiction-related memoir and they have really changed the way I think about addicts and alcoholics. I have to admit that I used to be somewhat judgmental about these things, as people often are in their ignorance, but these books have really opened my eyes to their struggles. They have turned into real people rather than statistics. As someone dealing with mental health issues and past trauma myself, it is now much easier for me to understand why someone would feel the need to turn to drugs as a way out.
Khar is definitely honest about her story and does not seem to hold back when speaking about the many negative decisions she has made in her life. The prologue starts out shockingly with her 12 year old son asking if she has every done drugs before. This is quite understandably a difficult question for her to answer. Should she be honest and possibly cause him to lose respect for his mother, or should she protect her son for a little bit longer?
I liked how at the beginning of the book she included facts about drug use in the US and how the political climate, expectations of parents on their children, the lack of comprehensive mental healthcare, and other factors can influence a person’s decision to turn to drugs at some point in their life. This made me think (and hope) that more of these statistics and theories would be included in the rest of the book.
But it soon turned into a mostly chronological telling of all the major decisions she has made in the 14 years of her drug use without much further deep discussions on those topics. That is, of course, fine. A memoir is what the author decides it is. It was just something I was excited about and then ended up not receiving.
But despite the many bad decisions she made, there hardly ever seemed to be any accountability and consequences to her actions. Not once did she have a run-in with the police. Her housing situation was always taken care of. There was never a lack of people handing her money, free drugs, rides, beds, couches, love, or anything else it seemed. She had healthcare and rehab when she wanted it and always a home to come back to. She even had access to schooling and a new, exciting job whenever she was ready for it. I am not saying that this isn’t great for her. I am so glad she had that support system and found her way through her struggles. But it is in stark contrast to the stories of so many other people in this country, especially people of color. And while she addresses this herself by talking about her awareness of racism and how people of color have completely different stories without the privileges that she has, it always seemed rather shallow. It felt more like an obligatory mention than anything she thought about more deeply.
I don’t want to end my review here and make it seem like I hated this book because that really is not the case. I deeply appreciate her taking the time to write this memoir because it gave me an insight into a life that I am not familiar with myself. This was a very humbling read. I very much identified with the young girl trying her hardest to get good grades and hanging out with the horses every day. While my trauma did not happen until my late teens, I still understand the urge of wanting to get out of your skin and out of your head so desperately. It also lead me to recognize the privilege I possessed (and still do) that helped me avoid that outcome myself. I am truly happy for her to have found her peace and that she was able to form the life she now has and enjoys. I also really appreciated her honesty with her son in the end. It was a hope I had from the start and I was glad to see it happen.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
elizabethtye's review against another edition
3.0
2.5/5 stars rounded up. eBook. Not much to say about this one. Run-of-the-mill drug addicted Erin who is saved by the birth of her son. Not a new story, but the writing was solid.
rasprec's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Self harm
jbrown_leo's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. The author is extremely authentic and raw. She talks about everything she did, even the cringe worthy parts, she doesn’t hold back at all. Addiction is insanity and the definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over again expecting a different outcome. The author proves that it doesn’t matter where you come from, how rich or poor you are, disease of addiction can affect anyone. This was a wonderful insight into the mind of an addict.
laura_hoff's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
corinacoppersmith's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0