Review by Booklist Review
Written for the girls who never felt like they were doing girlhood correctly, and yet, in a cruel twist of fate, grew into women anyway, Beach's first book is less a tell-all exposé of the messy creative relationship with influencer Caroline Calloway that made Beach's name, via a viral piece for The Cut, and more a rumination on identity and connection in a post-Instagram world. In her debut collection, Beach guides us through the inherent instability of young adulthood with humor and aplomb, secure in her insecurities and surefooted in her fallibility. Beach's inability to "[radiate] girlishness" colors each essay, as does her insistence on finding meaning--or, at the very least, humor--in each vignette she paints. Beach's voice is a synthesis of whip-smart cultural commentary and vulnerable self-reflection as she searches for an identity she can call hers -- contractor, shopgirl, estate-sale junkie, memoirist. Adult Drama is an unflinching self-portrait by an artist who's done with telling any story that isn't hers.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Beach, who is best known for her viral 2019 essay documenting her fraught relationship with social media starlet Caroline Calloway, debuts with an elegant memoir-in-essays that mixes gossipy anecdotes about that friendship with gorgeously rendered reflections on her own life. "Distressed Denim" explores the sexual politics of Abercrombie and Fitch's low-rise jeans ("There are no atheists in an Abercrombie dressing room," it begins, "so I prayed... please fit, please look good for one goddamn time") from Beach's perspective as an insecure 14-year-old; "Self-Centered" recounts Beach's sophomore year in college, when she met Calloway, with whom she ghostwrote a book proposal and countless social media posts; "Abortion Abortion" deals with Beach's experiences as a volunteer at an abortion clinic in spring 2017; "Wifeliness" examines in painful detail the swift death of Beach's mother-in-law, Mary Ellen, due to pancreatic cancer. Throughout, Beach's wide-eyed honesty and utter lack of pretense ("There's no good way to end a memoir, short of elegantly dropping dead after you write the final sentence," she muses at one point) contribute to the sense that she's mined every inch of her experience for these pieces. Incisive and candid, this is a must-read. Agent: Cait Hoyt and Mollie Glick, CAA. (June)
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