To Read or Not to Read: How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell

Cat Marnell’s memoir has been hotly anticipated ever since 2013, when it was announced that she had scored a book deal with Simon and Schuster worth a rumored $500,000.  The self-professed drug addict and New York City party-girl had just quit her job as the Health and Beauty Editor at XOJane (the irony, she knows) to famously announce that she would rather “be on the rooftop of Le Bain looking for shooting stars and smoking angel dust with [her] friends and writing a book…”.  Fast forward almost four years and we finally have her memoir, which hit the New York Times Bestseller List at number 15.

How to Murder Your Life chronicles Cat Marnell’s life from growing up as a privileged child with ADD in a wealthy suburb of D.C., to her time at boarding school where she became pregnant and had a late-term abortion, to her life as a beauty editor at Lucky magazine and XOJane.  During most of this time, she was heavily addicted to Adderall and also a user of almost every other drug under the sun.  Marnell writes grippingly and honestly about her drug use and her memoir captures the loneliness of drug-addiction and constant conflict between her addiction and ambition.  At the same time, she writes about her experience working at Conde Nast and gives readers a glimpse into the ever-alluring magazine industry in NYC.

I’ve been reading Marnell’s articles on XOJane from the beginning and despite her raw and honest way of writing about her life, I had always thought of her life as somewhat glamorous.  How to Murder Your Life pulls everything into the harsh perspective of daylight and shows readers how lonely and difficult Marnell’s journey through addiction has really been, with very little glamour.  Her self-awareness is also refreshing.  Very early on she warns the reader that if you’re grossed out by “white-girl privileged (who isn’t), you might want to bail now.”  If you can get past that, and you’re interested in memoirs about drug addiction or the lifestyles of magazine and beauty editors in New York City, this book is for you.

Book image: Simon and Schuster