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All Grown Up - Book Review

The 13th book I read in my 24 books in 2017 is All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg.


All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg
Hardcover: 208 pages  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (March 7, 2017)

Andria Bern is a young woman who seems to not want to grow up while all of her friends and family is. Her best friend got married and had a baby. Her brother and his girlfriend got married and had a baby who had a heart condition and wouldn't grow to be older than 5. Andrea on the other hand, is working in a job she doesn't care for but could do with her eyes closed and her hands tied behind her back. She drinks a lot, does occasional drugs, and has sex with random men. She distances herself from the people who really care for her while she self destructs. She's lonely and knows that she has a problem or several but is not capable or willing to fix them.

Each chapter is from a different part of her life that show how she got to where she is and every couple chapters is a chapter or two from present time. In the end, everything she used to believe about life and relationships, are shattered and she seems to really want to change and grow.

I have to admit, this book was really hard to get going. This girl was a hot mess that I felt I couldn't relate to. Also, I was confused with the jumping around of the story, in the beginning. The writing style was really hard to follow at first as many conversations would all happen in one paragraph. After a while, I got used to the writing style and understood why the chapters were the way they were. I actually grew attached to Andrea, and cried hard when the book was done. I wasn't able to really start another book for a few days, because I felt so touched and affected by this book.

I realize that Andrea could become any of us women, if we'd reacted a little differently to the things that happen to us in our lives. I would recommend this book to any woman and encourage you to stick with it through the strange writing style. This book went from a book I hated to one of my favorites in a span of about two chapters and I can't even name a specific incident in the book that caused this change in view.

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