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Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood

Koren Zailckas (Goodreads Author)

3.51 · Rating details · 22,903 ratings · 1,233 reviews

Garnering a vast amount of attention from young people and parents, and from book buyers across the country, Smashed became a media sensation and a New York Times bestseller. Eye-opening and utterly gripping, Koren Zailckas’s story is that of thousands of girls like her who are not alcoholics yet but who routinely use booze as a shortcut to courage and a stand-in for good ...more

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Paperback, 342 pages

Published January 31st 2006 by Penguin Group (first published February 3rd 2005)

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Sep 02, 2008 Caitlin rated it did not like 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 in a lot of he ...more

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Jul 26, 2007 Msmeemee rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: anyone who's spoken the word "alcohol"

Shelves: psychology, biographies

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 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 good resource for clinicians who work with individuals that abuse alcohol or for clinicians who aren't familiar with these issues and need a first-hand account of what alcohol abuse is like. five stars.

EDIT: after reading some of the other readers' comments, i have a couple things i'd like to address. a lot of people say that the storyline isn't interesting. i guess with a memoir, it's more about the author's willingness to make herself vulnerable to a wider audience than it is about an interesting story. even though her experiences with alcohol are common, her motivations for drinking are of key importance because they are actually symptoms of a society that places men and women in very rigid boxes. if you're looking for pure entertainment, look elsewhere.

other readers thought she was a whiny, spoiled brat from a good background. this doesn't make someone exempt from having their own internalized demons. other readers commented on her immaturity as a writer and as someone recovering from alcohol abuse. there was no resolution and some were not satisfied with her level of insight about her own abuse. did anyone stop to think that perhaps writing this memoir is part of her recovery process? and as far a resolution, there is no concrete, static resolution to substance abuse. recovery is an ongoing process. and some people don't ever recover fully. if your relationship to a substance is that binding, it can be difficult to completely let go of the abuser mindset.

i think we as an audience can learn a lot about alcohol abuse by our very reactions. a lot of people had no sympathy for the author. in my eyes, i think this exhibits society's relative indifference and lack of compassion for those who are struggling with personal issues and how alcohol and other substances can be a life jacket if only in the short-run. there was one comment about how the author's abuse was everyone's fault but her own. personally, i did not get that, but if that was the general feeling about her, it's an honest portrayal of people who abuse substances. i was especially appalled by one reader's comment about date rape and how the author should've known she would be raped if she hung out in frat houses all the time. in a way, this comment is enraging yet enlightening at the same time. and i think this is where the book is brilliant; it draws out all the biases, all the stereotypes, the myths, the victim-blaming attitudes, and our overall lack of understanding regarding substance abuse that still pervade our society. and i think it's fantastic that the author wrote the book shortly after trying to abstain; her feelings and insecurities are still fresh and we can experience that right along with her. it gives us a perspective of someone who is struggling to find herself without her alcoholic crutch. ...more

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Dec 22, 2007 Wednesday rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: no one without a strong prescription to anti-depressants

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 binge drinking through highschoo ...more

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Dec 30, 2017 Suzanne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: america, memoir, non-fiction, alcohol, library-at-the-hub

This was outstanding. As an addict, Koren was completely unafraid to be honest with the mess that had become her life. As a College student in the United States, this story has shown me the darker side to a drinking culture out of control. I’m not naïve, I know Australia’s same culture is probably just as unruly.

This was crazy stuff! I read a lot of biography and fiction on this topic, and I am absolutely impressed with the honest voices that show through time and time again.

This is interesting ...more

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Jun 27, 2008 Anittah rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: people who are currently drunk

(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-sounding phrases into my pas ...more

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Jul 29, 2007 Angela rated it liked it

Recommends it for: anyone who works with teens

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 to land and keep a ...more

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Apr 07, 2010 Kelly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 2010, to-keep-forever

From scanning all the negative reviews below, it would appear that I am in the minority with my opinions of this book. I personally found it to be outstandingly well-written, insightful, and unflinchingly real and honest. Koren holds nothing back as she recounts her decade-long love affair with alcohol. Much like a bad relationship, she clung to drinking in high school and college as if it were her oxygen; though it was clearly damaging to her physically, mentally, and emotionally, she returned ...more

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Sep 07, 2017 Nenia ✨️ Socially Awkward Trash Panda ✨️ Campbell rated it liked it

Shelves: mem-wars, nonfiction

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Recently, I read VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, and where some people seemed to see a trashy, bloated novel about fame-seeking women acting self-destructive for no particular reason, I saw a brilliant character study of ambitious women who could not cope with the cognitive dissonance of achieving their ambition while abiding by convention, and self-medicated their ensuing anxiety with sleeping pills and alcohol. That's kind of how I felt about SMASHED. SMASHED was published at the height of 2000s party culture, when Playboy bunnies were still seen as "cool" and you could get the necklaces at the mall (a lot of the girls in my high school wore them); Jackass the Movie was in theaters; Girls Gone Wild was a pop cultural phenomenon; and every Easter like clockwork, advertisements would run for tickets to the beach boardwalk for SPRING BREAK.

Don't get me wrong - this is definitely a memoir about substance abuse and drinking. Koren chronicles the start of her using from the age of a very young teen, and pushes forward, slowly, into her twenties. We see her at her worst, again and again, because the bar keeps falling. However, the culture she describes then feels so much more different than it is now, and really made me appreciate how much attitudes have changed over the last ten years with regards towards women, rape, sexuality, partying, and alcohol. That isn't to say that society is to blame, necessarily, when it comes to addiction and other problematic behaviors, but I do think that it can be a facilitator when people with a predisposition for such behaviors find themselves reinforced, again and again, by our cultural norms to engage in these behaviors.

I don't think it's appropriate to say that I "enjoyed" Zailckais's story, but it did move me. Her writing is beautiful (I'm a bit amazed by how many people criticized the writing in this book in some of those other reviews - she was in her early twenties when she wrote this book, and she demonstrates a level of self-awareness and reflection that escapes most people in their forties), and features some of the best prose I've ever encountered in a memoir. The subject matter itself is incredibly disturbing, but necessary. She came here to tell her story, and tell it she does, no holds barred. It's a brilliant snapshot of what it was like to grow up in the 90s and 00s, and is also an intimate portrait of alcohol abuse, told in a way that I think will be really accessible to and resonate well with younger individuals.

3 to 3.5 stars ...more

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Mar 18, 2008 Liz rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: no one. absolutely no one.

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 herself drunk out o ...more

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Jun 13, 2007 Tara rated it did not like 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. ...more

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Feb 26, 2008 Leslie rated it really liked 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

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Feb 15, 2009 Korinna rated it really liked 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 exactly why this is an ...more

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Apr 20, 2007 Jaime rated it it was ok

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 how ...more

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Jul 09, 2007 Kristen rated it liked 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 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 relationship with drinking throughout her education, although peppered with occasional moments of blackouts and vomiting. Within months of graduating college, she stops drinking altogether. While her experiences with alcohol aren’t unusual, I think her underlying motivations are.

Koren wants the reader to understand that she considers her drinking history overindulgent. She makes this clear on the cover, a seemingly real-life snapshot of the author slumped over in a chair, her hair gratefully covering her shameful face. She also punctuates the text with footnotes and statistics that tear the reader from the narrative, serving as a reminder that this book has an agenda. Heavy-handed tactics like these are informational and clearly prove that the problem is bigger than Koren herself, but give away the author’s secret: she didn’t think telling her story flat out would work as an allegory to apply to America at large. This detracted from all the wonderful attributes of the book, like Koren’s snarky sense of humor, her spot-on characterizations, and completely realistic retelling of the transition from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to wisdom, through the holding tank of extended adolescence called college. What’s unfortunate is that these wonderful facets of Koren’s writing could have easily made the story a very successful cautionary fable, rendering those distracting statistics unnecessary.

If this were a different story, with a different subject matter, I’m sure I’d love it. I love the author’s writing style, and she weaves a wonderful story. Smashed comes off as didactic though, narrating the various shames Koren experiences after drinking too much, the kind of things that are nationally publicized when they happen to today’s young starlets. This “Don’t turn into Paris Hilton” adage is clear from the beginning, and quickly becomes overkill.

The real problem, rather than Koren’s drinking, is her inability to stand on her own. She drinks because she surrounds herself with stronger personalities who drink, and follows their lead. She goes from person to person, admitting that she patterns all of her relationships, both platonic and romantic, after the one with Natalie, who “will be the blueprint for the kamikaze girlfriends… the suicidal personalities who seize the day by letting go of any expectations for a tomorrow.” If Koren chose better people with whom to surround herself, or if she blazed her own path rather than always passively going along with what was socially accepted, her life story would read very differently. She even uses alcohol as something to hide behind, something to rely upon to relate to people and use as her mouthpiece. It’s not her relating to others- it’s the booze. It wasn’t dependency on alcohol that thwarted her growth, but rather her dependency on others for identity and self-worth.

All that said, Smashed is still an entertaining, thoughtful, honest coming-of-age story. Koren Zailckas is a talented writer who I look forward to reading again, hoping her careful eye will be trained on personal strength rather than personal weakness. ...more

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Feb 11, 2009 Ley rated it liked it

As a drug treatment counselor I would not recommend this book to my clients. The author refuses and/or is in complete denial about what really took place in her life. She refuses to be truthful about herself and instead refers to herself and her terrible so-called friends as "alcohol abusers." She is an alcoholic in every way, shape and form. She also claims that she was one of the lucky ones and nothing really bad happened to her while intoxicated. However, she states that sex or 'fooling aroun ...more

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May 15, 2007 Heather rated it did not like 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.

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Feb 08, 2009 kathi added it

Recommends it for: absolutely no one

Shelves: books-read-in-2009

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 never done those things so she c ...more

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May 04, 2007 kira rated it did not like 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. ...more

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Jul 23, 2007 Kristen rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

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. ...more

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May 24, 2016 Valerie Haynes rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. On one hand this girl is the sort of over privileged basic with no actual real life problems who seems hell bent on destruction as an expression of how great her privilege actually is. Like look at me I go to an excellent college, never mention actually working or supporting myself and blow lots of money on booze! I wonder if she was paying for college herself if perhaps she would have take it a little more seriously. And I wonder why her parents who presumably foot the bills didn't question the On one hand this girl is the sort of over privileged basic with no actual real life problems who seems hell bent on destruction as an expression of how great her privilege actually is. Like look at me I go to an excellent college, never mention actually working or supporting myself and blow lots of money on booze! I wonder if she was paying for college herself if perhaps she would have take it a little more seriously. And I wonder why her parents who presumably foot the bills didn't question the huge amount she spent on alcohol. But anyway it's all "Tee hee my life is charmed and without accountability or consequences for my actions"!

It's kind of gross, how she appreciates nothing and she's just as boring and insufferable as those generic drunk girls in college that you know to avoid because they are incapable of talking about anything other than some generic guy on the baseball team or thinly veiled references to much their dad makes.

The book itself is tedious, just as tedious as spending time with any deeply self absorbed drunk. The author maintains she isn't an alcoholic but only a dry drunk could have the energy to talk this incessantly about the same boring repetitive years of drinking as if it was somehow interesting. As if anything actually happens besides just being drunk in various settings for literally years.

And I certainly don't want to victim blame but this girl knowingly puts herself in constant danger of being raped. All the situations a person instinctively avoids she seeks out. She dates a known rapist. She passes out constantly in a variety of places with a variety of random people. She arranges drunken overnight dates and doesn't communicate at all about her boundaries. She gets wasted and breaks into fraternity houses. Let me say rapists are responsible for rape, not the victims. It's not her fault. But she pretty much does everything everyone is warned not to do which is an interesting testament to her self destructiveness that she disappointingly doesn't really go anywhere with in terms of self awareness.

All the time she maintains a horror of sex. She can't feel her own breasts for a self examination because it's "too embarrassing" and she is super proud to have "maintained her virginity" like a penis entering your vagina is so important and event that it's somehow defining. She talks dismissively of sex workers and girls who are "easy" as an expression of her projected shame. In high WASP style she actually refers to sex as "fornicating." She wants to date a boy but instead drinks until she passes out to avoid closeness. She gets mad when the boys she dates leave her for other girls who idk probably actually like men. In short she's exhausting and never reflects on any of it.

So on the other hand her sexual self is so skewed and cut off I have to wonder if behind all this nonsense is a past sexual abuse history or if she possibly has borderline personality disorder. To support the idea of bpd she has no real identity and no sense of self, but that's kind of a chicken and egg question for someone who has been drunk since they were 14. So I kind of want to have compassion in that she's maybe mentally ill and not just an over privileged girl who thinks the rules of reality shouldn't pertain to her. It's multi determined is my final analysis.

And her politics. Ugh. She talks about her sad tragic friends with (horrors!) divorced parents and (gasp!) half siblings. It's like this book is from the 50s not the 90s. But at the same time there is a weird lesbian undertone which is never examined. This book also has some casual racism, such as describing a sorority as being "babes" because they are "all white and blond." Because obviously that's what beautiful. Ew. ...more

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Feb 20, 2008 Melissa rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 30, 2007 Holly rated it it was ok

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. ...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Erin rated it liked it

Recommends it for: young women entering college

I first read this book as a sophomore in college, when I was grappling with some alcohol issues spurred on by having an older group of friends, attending a university with liberal drinking rules and "thoughtful" punishments for underage drinking, and the thrill of living on my own in a tolerant, safe environment where I could experiment at will. My mom gave me this book to help me process my own actions and determine what drinking meant for me, in my life.

I read it a second time, recently, as I I first read this book as a sophomore in college, when I was grappling with some alcohol issues spurred on by having an older group of friends, attending a university with liberal drinking rules and "thoughtful" punishments for underage drinking, and the thrill of living on my own in a tolerant, safe environment where I could experiment at will. My mom gave me this book to help me process my own actions and determine what drinking meant for me, in my life.

I read it a second time, recently, as I reevaluate the impact drinking has on my adult life, and attempt to finally transition away from unhealthy college-level drinking. So, I do have an investment in this story. I believe the narrator's story is one worth telling, and I believe the overarching issue of binge drinking and the dangerous level its reached on college campuses is something worth talking over and over about. I understand that, like it or not, binge drinking often has much more disastrous effects for young women. I also understand that alcoholism in women is something women are often hesitant to address or talk about, because it's a problem that is seen as inherently masculine. So I get it. I get where the author is coming from. But reviews of this book that emphasize the extent to which she blames her environment are right - she started and began to enjoy drinking to get drunk at a very young age, so it seems surprising that the level of drinking she found in college came as a shock to her. I agree that society does young people a disservice by failing to address the issue of binge drinking, but I don't know that her complete indictment of her friends, men around her, her sorority, the college environment generally, the alcohol and advertising industries, and society as a whole, is well-supported. I have been able to reconcile many of my actions and behaviors by taking responsibility for them, but her tone sometimes becomes preachy and she veers dangerously into slut-shaming, especially when talking about the other actions of girls from her sorority, whom she blames harshly for their alcohol-induced behaviors, while letting herself off lightly by saying she was only influenced by those around her. What made me saddest about this story was not that the author decided to stop drinking or that she felt she drank too much, but that throughout the entire story, she struggled so much to make genuine girlfriends. She seems to blame this both on alcohol and on the perceived quality of the women around her, but I think this might have been a more interesting exploration for the author to make than that of her drinking problem.

That said, this kind of drinking and the ramifications that come from the behavior are shared experiences among many girls, and the story is valuable for that reason. The writing style is accessible. I do wish the narrator would have possibly explored taking more responsibility for her actions and addressing her problems without blaming others and going cold turkey. But I do think the exploration of problem drinking that isn't alcoholism is a valuable way of exploring the way that binge drinking can change lives before it ruins them. The author seems to suggest that there is no way to live within the culture in moderation - that the only way to be healthy is to isolate one's self. I don't know if I agree with that, and I wonder if the author's relatively young age at the time of publication influenced her attitude (which can come off as naive or bratty) and her choices. I wonder what this memoir would have been like had it been published several years later, once the shock of early adulthood wore off. I would recommend this book to young women entering college or young women who feel intimidated or isolated by the social scene on large universities.

The author was clearly very influenced by studying with Mary Karr, and when I read the book the second time, I wondered if, in writing a memoir about her own drinking, she was trying to echo her mentor's successes. ...more

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Jan 03, 2009 Danielle rated it did not like 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 is not good e ...more

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Jan 23, 2009 Sarah rated it it was ok

Shelves: memoir, 2006

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. i’m glad k got this for me from the library. i thought i’d really like it, and i did like some of it.
i thought it would mostly be a memoir of the author’s drunken childhood--which it was for the most part. but then, part way through the last chapter, she tried to make it some sociopolitical thing about girls and drinking and how its bad and why we do it and how she talked to all these other women--which she’d never mentioned before--who’d had similar experiences to hers. but she didn’t offer a i’m glad k got this for me from the library. i thought i’d really like it, and i did like some of it.
i thought it would mostly be a memoir of the author’s drunken childhood--which it was for the most part. but then, part way through the last chapter, she tried to make it some sociopolitical thing about girls and drinking and how its bad and why we do it and how she talked to all these other women--which she’d never mentioned before--who’d had similar experiences to hers. but she didn’t offer a solution to this problem. i didn’t want a treatise, i wanted a memoir. i didn’t want statistics, i wanted a personal recounting of teenage alcohol abuse. i didn’t want to hear about why drinking is especially bad for girls, blah.
anyway. she drank for the same reasons that i drank (mostly). it wasn’t peer pressure (until after we’d stopped drinking). it was because it made us feel good. it made us feel like we could approach boys and talk to them and have us like us, when we couldn’t do that sober. it made us forget the problems that we had. it allowed us to drop our inhibitions that were caused by low self esteem and low self worth. it let us open ourself up to experiences we might not have had otherwise.
i honestly have no idea when i had my first drink, though i can remember my first cigarette. i wasn’t a drunk, and i wasn’t an alcoholic. i was a binge drinker. i didn’t drink OFTEN, but when i drank, i drank a lot. even after i went to the hospital . it was my senior semester of college, i was having fun, wishing boys would love me. what can i say?
i stopped drinking, on my own, after i’d lived here for almost a year. i needed to get that shit under control. i didn’t drink anything--not a drop--for about a year.
now i can drink socially without going overboard and without binging. i don’t do it often though because mostly it just gives me headaches and liquor shits. and it’s expensive. sure, it’s ‘fun’ to go out and have a few drinks with friends, but for the most part, to me, it’s not worth it.
and i really don’t understand why drinking and going out for drinks is such a big part of our culture. as a mostly non-drinker i don’t shove it people’s faces, but it sucks that i can’t go to a bar and just order a water or a coke without getting THE LOOK from the bar tender and then getting a teeny tiny glass of water when i could get a fucking huge stein of beer. why can’t we just go out and socialize with out the fucking lubricant of booze? i just don’t get it.
oh, and don’t get me started on alcohol being legal and pot being illegal. stupidest fucking thing ever. i think alcohol should be more heavily regulated and more heavily taxed and that pot should be legalized and have the same regulation and taxes. that’s the only way the government will ever curb the ‘drug problem’.
/rant
...more

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Jul 15, 2007 Celeste rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: women

Shelves: 2007

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 gets hazy and some ...more

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May 11, 2008 Jennifer Wardrip rated it really liked it

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Taylor Rector for TeensReadToo.com

SMASHED is a chilling novel of female alcohol addiction. For Koren Zailckas, it started at age fourteen, and from her first drink of Southern Comfort she was addicted. Koren later joins a college sonority, which just gives her more of a reason to get really drunk -- and more people to do it with!

The writing isn't the most brilliant that I have ever read but the story is definitely good. Most alcohol addiction books are about a male, so this is a gre ...more

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Feb 18, 2009 TheSaint rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, adult

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 and hangover ...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Carol rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book was pretty good, as far as memoirs go. Koren Zailckas writes about her experiences with alcohol abuse as an adolescent/young adult and correlates these experiences with well-documented and researched facts and figures. I believe she has become very insightful over the course of her writing and introspection.

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Apr 29, 2012 Tim rated it did not like it

Shelves: biographies, flying-poes-klap

I have met many sad, broken individuals here in South Africa who have hit the bottle because of the horrors they have born witness to, been at the receiving end of, or even themselves perpetrated. This privileged girl has no such excuse and receives not a murmur of sympathy from me, from my slightly jaded third world perspective.

Also, it was extremely poorly written.

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topics	posts	views	last activity
At one point koren is lying on top of a tombstone very drunk. what are some symbolism's that we can connect with her lying on a dead persons gravce	2	7	Jan 14, 2015 05:57PM
The Equity Book G...: Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood	1	18	Jun 29, 2012 05:33PM