Heavy topics but compelling. Almost felt like peeking into someone's life in a detached way which makes it sound not engrossing, yet it was.
Sam is a writer who is gay, a recovering addict with intense body dysmorphia, and has severe anxiety. We are in his head as he attempts to "cure" himself through a three-day ayahuasca fueled binge with a shaman, which basically is just him reliving all of the memories of past dysfunctional relationships in every minute, horrific detail.
And yet, so many of the emotions, the relationship problems, the self-loathing, the questioning, are universal. And the writing is so brilliant that it all feels personal.
Reminds me a bit of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.
I can see why some might not enjoy this. It can be uncomfortable, a bit pedantic, maybe even smug, with a somewhat pat ending. But I believe those are all or mostly intentional and to me the glimpse into the life of this character was fascinating.

Great memoir and parody of a memoir at the same time. The story itself is both sad and funny, but it's the metacommentary on memoir writing that makes this book shine.

I wanted to love this book but sadly I just could not connect with anything in the story. I picked it up and put it down so many times thinking maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for this type of book but just never found my self connected to it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book came to the top of my to-read pile at the wrong time. In the midst of a global pandemic and social revolution, there was no way that the majority of this novel would be perceived as anything other than tone-deaf. A white, affluent man complaining about his lack of understanding - of himself and from others - was never going to fly.

Ultimately, it felt exactly like the scene in the book with Sam and his editor - Lansky wanted to write another memoir and his real-life editor told him it wouldn't sell. So instead, Lansky concocted a "novel" that would perform exactly like a memoir, but it would be "fiction." I understand why someone who has Lansky's experiences might want to write them down; I don't think that means that any of us have to like reading them.

What else I didn't like:
- A white man at the age of 28 who speaks as though he has all the wisdom he ever needs to gain. Like he's lived through it all. "Looking back" for him is remembering four or five years ago.
- A cast of characters who would think that a dusty Paris flat is the most trying of circumstances.
- The name-dropping and brand-worship of upper class materialism.

What I did like:
I think Lansky exposed a few raw truths, namely about HIV in today's world, body image, addiction, and mental health.

Unfortunately, these truths make up less than 10% of the book, and the rest of it is the hard-to-stomach whining of a white boy who has no idea how lucky he is. Skip this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really can’t say I liked this book at all. The main character, Sam, is so self centred and unlikeable, and the style in which the book is written is not one I enjoy.

If you are a fan of last year’s best seller, Normal People, you will probably enjoy this too.

Sigh. Can the shaman fix Sam in three days? That's the question this poses up front but then you'll learn about his issues. This is kind of an autobiographic novel, with much of it paralleling Lansky's actual life (or does it?). How you feel about it might depend on how much patience you have with him. Yes he's had darkness in his past but there's some light. There's also steam. He's essentially an unlikable character (a little whiny in spots) but Lansky addresses a variety of things such body image which will soften your view. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I suspect this will face a divided audience- those who hate it and those who love it. I'm in the middle - I respect the writing and I value his insight.

While I found myself engaged in the first half of this book and Sam’s journey, I had a difficult time finishing and keeping up —by the end I even had a difficult time liking Sam’s character.

I felt like I was reading a gossip column about a second-rate author. The main character was way too self-absorbed and needy. Not a good read.

A recommended purchase for adult fiction collections, despite the fact that is the type of book that is likely to be polarizing among patrons. However, those who like it will probably LOVE it.

This was not what I expected. It did not capture my attention. I wanted to read based on prior reviews but I could not engage so I did not finish. The writing is good but the content did not interest me as read.

I just wasn't a fan of this book. The hook is that Sam overhears at a party a rave review of a shaman, that he takes just three days to fix people. Sam feels very broken- he loathes himself, sabotages relationships, and despite having successfully beaten a drug addiction and published a memoir, feels a fraud. I suspect many people could relate to this, but he's just not that likable a character for me, and the fix of the shaman does seem pretty simplistic. It's very written, but it's not a journey I'm glad I took. I received an advanced copy from Netgalley for an honest review.

The beginning of the book had a slow start and I kept being taken out of the book by the fact that Sam the narrator and Sam the author was the same person. Once the book hit its stride, though, it hit the ground running. I felt like I was a part of this strange journey and going through a similar kind of catharsis. A trippy roller coaster, I found myself slightly relieved when the book ended.

Broken People is a beautifully written glimpse into the life of an anxiety ridden, hyper critical gay man who doesn't know what would truly make him happy. His efforts to seek insight into happiness is the gist of the story and keeps the reader glued.

When I initially read the blurb describing this book, it sounded mystical and more like it would turn into a crime drama or a psychological thriller. Here's the publisher's description:

"He fixes everything that’s wrong with you in three days.”
This is what hooks Sam when he first overhears it at a fancy dinner party in the Hollywood hills: the story of a globe-trotting shaman who claims to perform “open-soul surgery” on emotionally damaged people. For neurotic, depressed Sam, new to Los Angeles after his life in New York imploded, the possibility of total transformation is utterly tantalizing. He’s desperate for something to believe in, and the shaman—who promises ancient rituals, plant medicine and encounters with the divine—seems convincing, enough for Sam to sign up for a weekend under his care.
But are the great spirits the shaman says he’s summoning real at all? Or are the ghosts in Sam’s memory more powerful than any magic?
At turns tender and acid, funny and wise, Broken People is a journey into the nature of truth and fiction—a story of discovering hope amid cynicism, intimacy within chaos and peace in our own skin."

After finishing the book and then rereading the description, I realize that the fault lies at my door more than the author's. So, take my opinion for what it's worth know this.

Instead of being any kind of twisty thriller, this book reads more like a memoir thinly disguised as a novel which turns into a self-help treatise by the end. I freely admit that I never would have picked this up had the blurb been more accurate, or had I read it more carefully and really known what I was getting into. I only finished this book because I received a free copy in exchange for a review. I do wish that I had read a little more about the author before I requested this book from Netgalley, because if I had known that he wrote a bestselling memoir about his experience overcoming drug addiction and that he is gay, it would have been easy to make the connection that this book wasn't a psychological thriller, or even really a novel, just a continuation of his memoirs. That being said, if you are interested in lgbtq memoirs, then definitely give this one a try. If not, give it a pass. Instead of reading a twisty thriller, I got lots of vulgarity, lengthy and repeated descriptions of gay sex, whiny "there's something wrong with me I hate myself" angst, and then a little "we all have to learn to love ourselves" new age wisdom at the end. Not my cuppa.

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Funny, sad, heartbreaking and triumphant. Deals with a very deep subject - our view of our self and how that view affects our entire life. Tough to read in some parts - but so glad I made it through and happy that Sam did!

One-hit-wonder writer Sam lives a life of twenty-first century of cynicism and mental malaise. He’s known happiness in the past, but is much more likely to complain about all the bad times in his life. His literary career even hinges on a memoir of his years as a teen-aged drug addict. But, in Broken People by Sam Lansky, Sam has a chance to “fix” himself. And who wouldn’t take a chance to fix the broken parts of themselves? Sam’s problem is that this fix comes at the hands of a self-styled shaman. Will he be able to put aside his very chic disbelief for a chance to heal himself?

I have to be honest. For the first third of the book, I found Sam insufferable. He whines. He wallows. He is always focused on the negative parts of his life. Sure, he knows that he’s insufferable, but Sam figures that he’s doomed to be an insecure, body-hating, impostor-syndrome-having gay man. When he talks to his similarly afflicted (apart from the homosexuality) friend Kat, they sort of but not really joke about how broken they are. Yet for all of his negativity, Sam joins a new friend in meeting with a shaman. Yup. A shaman. Jacob freely admits to borrowing methods from indigenous people all over the Americas and to making heavy use of ayahuasca in his ceremonies. He claims that he can (with some slight caveats) fix people in three days. Most of Broken People takes place over three chronological days, but it feels longer than that because Sam goes on a journey through his memories. Sam visits events in his life where he hurt and was hurt by the important men in his life. Every memory takes him closer to the root of his brokenness.

Because this book is all about Sam’s issues, it’s hard not to try and diagnose Sam. There were all kinds of labels I could have applied to Sam, based on my one semester of Psychology 101. I wasn’t wrong, entirely. The more I read about Sam’s life, the more I empathized with him. (I also confirmed that I am definitely not therapist material.) Reading Broken People was a bit of a chore at first, until I started to see glimpses of the deeply loving, quirky Sam that was buried under layers of coping and defense mechanisms. There was a moment when Sam, reviewing a particularly excruciating memory, wishes he could reach out and slap some sense into his younger self. That moment completely one me over to Sam.

It feels ironic that I read this book just a few weeks after discovering the Am I the Asshole? and Just No MIL (Mother-in-Law) subreddits, in which people reveal all kinds of self-destructive, delusional behavior. (I started reading them for the schadenfreude. I’m not proud of this.) In thinking about all of that bad behavior that I didn’t understand I realized that Broken People has done its job. Now, when I read another bizarre story from the depths of Reddit, I will always wonder about the damaged person inside of layers of thoughts and actions that make fed-up people ask strangers on the internet for advice.

Can a person change? Can a shaman fix you in three days? Sam's journey through drug addiction has already been documented in his memoir written in his early 20's and strives to understand why this didn't cure him of the self hate and doubt that plagues him. A great debut novel, with some early slow paced development that turns into a fairly compelling read.

Thanks to Netgalley, Sam Lansky, and Hanover Square Press for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Not my cup of tea. At nearly 50% I found I couldn’t care how this story might end. Sam was flat and uninteresting and it seems to me the book so far is just a long list of stereotypes strung together. The body type of gay me, all people in Portland have one of four jobs etc
Sam seems to be stuck in a. Negative cycle of self hate and believes a weekend with a spiritual healer will fix him but is torn because he is an addict and will be using a drug during the process.
I think the premise of the book is excellent but the writing did not engage me. I really wanted to live the book but ended up DNF
The profanity was unnecessary and didn’t add to the scenes and may be off putting to some
Trigger warnings should include eating disorders, body dysmorphia, sex addiction, drug addiction

This book had an intriguing premise: a Shaman who can heal emotional trauma in three days. After years of therapy that have not really helped, Sam is hoping that this will help end his self-hatred and unhappiness.

I was disappointed in this book. Rather than focusing on the process and the Shaman's methods of healing, the book seemed to be more a trip down memory lane of Sam's past. Seemed self-indulgent and frankly kinda repetitive and boring.

I did not get past the first chapter. This may be an excellent book, but it’s not the right book for me at this time.