Emilie Pine’s book of essays is visceral, painful, and intimate. This is a book I will be recommending to every woman in my life so that there are more people who I can discuss it with, more people to whom I can say, “isn’t that so true?”.

The opening essay chronicles Emilie’s traumatic experiences in dealing with her father’s failing health after years of alcoholism. It is a gut punch. It is both difficult to read and impossible to put down. It feels deeply specific to her experience, but at times I felt like yelling, “are you me?”. She makes such a personal experience feel larger and more universal than I would have imagined possible. She goes on to discuss divorce, infertility, loss, anorexia… all in deeply vulnerable and immediate language that feels like a rod tugging from my heart to hers. I read the first half of this collection in one sitting.

For me, this book does start stronger than it ends, and I wish it had come together a little stronger at the end, but life is messy. Emilie is also clearly in a much better place now, which makes the rest of her experiences feel bearable. Or maybe the final chapters will feel heavier to me at a different point in my life. I think this is an incredible collection of experiences and memories that made me feel less alone, and for that I am grateful.