I switched to the audiobook version of this about a third of the way through and I'm so glad I did. Memoirs and a lot of non-fiction come across SO much better when they're being narrated by the people who have poured so much of themselves into the book.

This book is gritty and raw, and because of that sometimes difficult to read. It took me ages because, like Lauren mentions at many stages, it's important to do things at your own pace. Whether you have struggled with addiction or not, I think there's something in here for everyone, and I would gently nudge this in the direction of anyone who feels a bit lost and broken.

I was sure at first that I wouldn't be able to relate but wanted to read it anyway, and then realised that actually, I probably do have areas I could spend some time healing. Writing about everything around sobriety that may hinder the process, I left the book with motivation and a sense that what feels like the end isn't always the end. There's always time to grow and heal.


Thank you to NetGalley and 4th Estate for the ARC.

When Bill W. and his mates set up the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book and its tenets, they didn’t have some of the issues our lovely young - and even middle-aged - people face today. Yes, they had their own hardships to deal with including war, but if you want to get sober these days, you have to get sober in a world that is partly on fire. Housing is expensive and precarious. Dreams, including the author’s, have been put on hold during the pandemic and in some cases not resumed. How, in all the chaos, do recovering ❤️‍🩹 addicts or sober-curious people differentiate between the things they can and can’t control? This book has some of the answers, and deserves to be up there with books by Cat Marnell and Caroline Knapp, who also get namechecked.