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Dec 22, 2007

Wednesday rated it:

This book is 333 out of 340 pages of self-loathing and misery with an sad attempt at a happy ending/after school special-style lesson found in the last 7 pages.

In between choking fits of laughter over the overly-dramatic stare coming from the author's picture on the back, I became annoyed---more than usual.

Were it not for the author's poetic descriptions, I never would have bothered to finish this pointless story.
It's a memoir from a white-bred adolescent female bi More...

0 comments like (15 people liked it)

Sep 02, 2008

Caitlin rated it:

I hate this girl. I think she was melodramatic and obnoxious and I don't know what her problem was. I found all of her "statistical" references to be preachy and I found a lot of inconsistencies that bothered me. Her college experience didn't seem all that different from a lot of people I know, so I don't know why she got to get a book deal out of it. I also don't know how she suddenly found so much clarity after quitting drinking for like a month. I think she is reaching big time More...

4 comments like (16 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2008

La Petite Américaine rated it:

I was bound and determined to rip this book apart -- literally, and figuratively in my review -- when I was half through it, but I slowly changed my mind towards the end.

Most of the book is about the author's experiences binge-drinking, being depressed, and drinking more to deal with her depression. Her experiences are valid, after all, this is her story. But her listing of statistics, the intellectualizing of her actions, the constant guilt about her past, and the blaming of everyt More...

6 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2007

Kristen rated it:

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood is a work of nonfiction by Koren Zailckas, chronicling her love affair with alcohol. The book’s organizational structure is telling itself, split into four sections: “Initiation,” “The Usual,” “Excess,” and “Abuse.” It begins with Koren’s first taste, swigging sips of Southern Comfort on the sly, peer-pressured into it by her friend Natalie at age 14. Koren then moves through high school and college and has what almost anyone would consider a normal relations More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2008

Liz rated it:

I found this book to be droll, trite, and anticlimactic; more akin to something for a church confessional and less to anything that should sprung on the general public.
Zailckas often brushes against compelling issues of this "drunken girldom": the odd and alienating social structure erected and maintained by many (possibly the majority) of females in the United States, if not extending beyond. The author does precious more than flatly recount the multitude of times she found her More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jaime rated it:

The entire time I was reading this, I questioned the reliability of the author, a severe alcohol abuser who began drinking at a young age. There were gaping holes in the narrative which she filled with a bunch of unnecessary rhetoric about alcoholism/binge drinking in general. Even worse was the ending during which Zailckas droned on and on about how the government, advertisers, and men in general piss her off. On a positive note, the book is well written, but then that just makes me wonder h More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2008

Anittah rated it:

(From my Amazon review, written 11/2006)

Smashed is a book that I hope Zailckas will consider with embarrassment as she grows up, assuming she ever does. Zailckas' writing takes herself far too seriously and attempts to inject poetic turns of phrase far too often. Bottling her parents' alcohol buzz like a firefly? Ugh. Trying to claim that all women remember their first drink? Gross.

Her "Woe is me, cautionary tale, this is all so serious, look at how I can weave artsy More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Msmeemee rated it:

when it comes to memoirs, i can't really critique the content only because it's about someone's real-life experiences. but i can critique the delivery. plain and simple, i love koren's writing style. it's easy to read yet vivid and insightful. i think so many girls and young women can relate to her experiences, it's a validation of being female in this society and the relationship females develop with alcohol as a way to cope with the pressure. plus, as someone in the psychology field, it's a go More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

kira rated it:

Ha! The writing is dreadful and juvenile; it's actually funny. It reads like the author just took her final paper for Psych 101 and beefed it up with some personal anecdotes. However -- it does make a few astute observations about college women and drinking. She tackles a provocative topic with candor and honesty, despite the cringe-inducing writing.

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Tara rated it:

Awful. Horrendous. Self-pitying and self-righteous and self-absorbed. Pointless. Poorly written. Pathetic. If I could give it less stars, I would.

In the end, it's everyone's fault the author had a drinking problem...everyone except the author herself.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Heather rated it:

I love nothing more than memoirs about miserable childhoods, but this girl is just a whiny, entitled, self-centered biyotch. Her problems and drama were of her own making. Avoid at all costs.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2007

Angela rated it:

I completely disagree with the author and the reviewers of this memoir. This book made me ANGRY.

To begin, she has SERIOUS issues that she avoids. I was left with far more questions by the end of the book than when I began. And--where the hell were her parents? They suck repeatedly throughout this memoir. Give me a break. Are they that clueless, or are we not getting the entire story? And speaking of not the whole story--how did she manage to graduate in four years and be able t More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2009

kathi added it

This is a horrible book full of wrong information about alcoholism...she justifies, rationalizes, makes excuses to make her drinking appear "normal"...she describes so many situations that "normal" drinkers do not do...she has blackouts, hangovers, sneaky behavior, tolerance, loss of control, denial...all symptoms used to diagnosis alcoholism...she denied having any symptoms at all and rationalized this by comparing herself to other "alcoholics" by saying she had ne More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 23, 2007

Kristen rated it:

God, this book was awful. I really don't care if she feels guilty about drunken partying that she did ten years ago. One of the few books I could not even finish.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2007

Holly rated it:

I didn't love this book. The author is self-centered and what happens to her is obvious and not interesting. That being said, it was a fast read.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2009

TheSaint rated it:

Alcohol abuse as a feminist issue? Author Koren Zailckas begins her harrowing memoir of nine years of binge drinking with a dedication to her mother, for first making her "mindful of women's issues." Truly, Zailckas makes a good case that binge drinking (and its consequences whether drunk or sober) is societally more objectionable for women. Indeed, the reader will walk away from Smashed thinking all eighth-grade, white, suburban females are destined to a desperate life of blackouts an More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2008

Frank rated it:

Is it wrong that I found this hilarious instead of eye-opening? TO SHOTS!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 05, 2008

Leslie rated it:

Having been a college student at a work-hard, party hard university around the same time as the author, I was highly impressed by how well she understands and writes about drinking culture on campuses (particularly the female experience). I think she nails it. I appreciate her debunking many myths about alcohol use among adolescent girls and women. Parents can do everything right (not that there is one right way to address alcohol with your kids, but that's an aside), the girl or woman can have More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 06, 2007

Grace rated it:

his is another one I didn't read, but listened to. And there was a big gap in my listening, as I didn't make it to the gym for the whole month of December, for various and sundry reasons.

During the time when I wasn't listening to it, though, I was still thinking about it. And when I put my iPod headphones back on during my flight to Oregon for Christmas, it took only a minute for me to be right back in Zailckas' story.

Whether you agree with Zailckas' conclusions or not (I More...

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Aug 04, 2007

Celeste rated it:

I began this book really wanting to like it. I assumed that it was a cautionary tale against underage drinking, and that appealed to me. Being the child of an alcoholic, I've seen a lot and feel pretty strongly about alcoholism and alcohol abuse. I figured I'd like it as a given.

But I didn't. Her images are strong and powerful. There were passages that I could smell the stale cigarettes and feel the burn of hard liquor in my throat, but during the college period of her life it g More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 22, 2008

Melissa rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2009

Danielle rated it:

Not very well written. Gets very boring about half way through, which maybe is the point of it. I will never know because I am not going to finish it. The author is not very likable or doesn't present her story in any way that makes you feel anything for her. She makes a lot of excuses for the way she acted during High School and college that I can't buy into. This from someone who has been known to enjoy a few drinks every now and then.

The bottom line - the quality of the writing i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Korinna rated it:

During my time reading this book, my opinions would often change. This is a story about a girl, middle class, white, from a "normal", decent upbringing who starts to drink heavily at 15 and continues for about ten years. Sometimes while reading this, I found myself thinking "why am i reading this? it isn't that interesting. I mean, this is no different from the experiences of many young girls in mainstream culture, and in many ways similar to those of my own." but that is exa More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2009

Sarah rated it:

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Dec 24, 2008

Rachel rated it:

What an interesting book. I'm not sure I buy it but it definitely made me think. This is a memoir of Zailckas' journey through alcohol abuse in her teens and early twenties. Her main argument is that society is telling young girls that excessive drinking is a normal life stage and a right of passage and she feels this is both untrue and damaging. She then details her very excessive drinking beginning in her teenage years (she had her stomach pumped at 16), through her college years in the Gr More...

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Jan 21, 2011

Kate rated it:

This book, while clearly the author's first, and not the most well written memoir I've ever read, was trying to make a really interesting point. The book is actually kind of boring sometimes, reading stories about someone's drunken exploits and mistakes gets redundant after awhile. She gets drunk and throws up, or has a fight with someone, or blacks out, or does something embarrassing, or ends up in a bed she doesn't want to be in, or some combination of those things; it's not exactly a unique s More...

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Oct 28, 2010

Terry rated it:

Yet another book that I'm just too old to really appreciate. I did like this, I think, better than Walker's book which I read within a few days of this one. I was unfortunately put off by Zailckas emphatic insistence that she's NOT AN ALCOHOLIC, AND NEVER WAS, OKAY in the very beginning of the book which then proceeds to document pretty addictive behavior, or at least a dedication to consuming an intoxicant to the level it impairs her daily life, which I think is supposed to BE the definition of More...

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Sep 16, 2010

Katherine rated it:

"What I want is someone who will affirm what I've always suspected, and alway allowed friends and adults to nullify: this drinking is wrecking me. (problematic drinker) Fifth Ave. sleepover: her bottom /wake-up call.

"I do want a good life. I want their sound friendships, their romances, and their swollen self-confidence, and yet I don't know how to achieve these things without alcohol. These are the wants I always drink to fulfill. "

"Rather than turn o More...

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Aug 31, 2010

Tiffany rated it:

This book was rather depressing. It also wasn't the tale against underaged drinking that I thought it'd be. Yes, Koren is honest about the various consequences of her behavior, and mixes her honesty with true facts about underaged and college drinking that she researched, but that's where it ends. You get a girl with low self-esteem telling you the story of how she got into using alcohol, and used it as a crutch for several years, relying on it to enable her to have the social and professional l More...

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Apr 17, 2010

JennJ added it

Remember the kids in high school who always seemed so edgy because they would show up to dances totally wasted, or host parties where everyone got drunk? Remember in university, when it was amazing how some kids could get tanked three nights every week, earning elusive popularity as partygirls while still managing to come back year after year? This book is the author's memoirs of being that girl, obsessed with alcohol as a social lubricant from which she couldn't separate her identity. She first More...

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