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biblouchorr's review against another edition
3.0
I rate this book a 3 not because it wasn’t a great book, but because it was a hard one for me to read. As a child of an addict, who hated my father for so long, and only recently forgave him for all the things he caused to happen in my life, empathized with so many things from this book. The author put into words things that I hadn’t yet allowed myself to think. It is a book that dredged up hurtful memories and feelings, but also gave a catharsis of feelings I didn’t think I was allowed to have. Must read for any child or family member of an addict.
ryanpando2's review against another edition
5.0
A true feat of vulnerability, honesty and raw human emotion
pumpkinsoup1162's review against another edition
2.0
While I don’t like everything all wrapped up in a pretty bow, this book felt too disjointed. Danler’s childhood certainly was tragic. Major abandonment that was painful to read. But the episodes later in life would jump to around that left me trying to figure out what was going on. Oh, she’s somehow famous and I didn’t know it? How can she afford this house? Oh she wrote another book! I felt like I needed prior knowledge to put together this memoir.
taelerk's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely loved Stephanie Danler's second book. It has all of the elements that a good memoir should. In true Stephanie Danler fashion, the prose is as elegant and poetic as Sweetbitter despite the context. Her story exhibits the parts of herself that are vulgar and self-destructive. Stray is a display of honesty in its most uncomfortable form. The story moves from place to place and is broken up into three sections. I think Danler weaves her story together nicely and organizes it in easy-to-digest chapters.
ewelia's review against another edition
5.0
striking, honest, relatable. or maybe that’s just because I saw myself in every ferocious word Stephanie wrote? one of my favorite authors and now one of my favorite people. if you are in the thick of familial trauma, lost and unsure, and want permission to be lost and unsure, this one is for you.
groovywitch's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
leighlucas's review against another edition
5.0
“We don’t receive the things we want because we deserve them. Most of the time we get them because we are blind and lucky. It’s in the act of having, the daily tending, that we have an opportunity to become deserving. It’s not a place to be reached. It is a constant betwixt and between. It’s in that hollow, liminal space that I think—hope?—humility can be achieved.”