This may be the first memoir I have ever read where I was just so speechless at the end of it. I really resonated with so many things Anna talked about in here, I learned things I had never even considered before, and really just felt like this book spoke to me in ways I don’t even know yet lol. I read a few of these chapters multiple times. Fantastic. Powerful.

Thank you so much to netgalley & the publisher for the early copy of this! Will be at the bookstore asap on release day.

Men Have Called Her Crazy is Anna Marie Tendler’s long awaited memoir. Many of my female friends and I (and a lot of the internet) have been awaiting for a dishy tell-all. We wanted the full story after claiming Anna in her messy public break up. We all followed along on her viral social media and tabloid journey of heartbreak seemingly caused by the betrayal by her famous ex. Following Tendler exposed us to quiet resilience and healing through art and a nod to the women we all want to be when the road is low. Also Anna, she’s just like us, healing through dog kisses and housewives binges. This memoir is not that, it’s not what I expected but entirely something else that is beautiful, poignant and reflective. It’s also an important book on mental illness and the experience of seeking help and treating mental illness.

Anna’s memoir is reflective of her stay at an in-patient facility while attempting to diagnose her current mental state and simultaneously stabilize her current crisis situation. TW: Anna has attempted suicide and self-harms. She also really, really hates men through much of this memoir. The telling of her in-patient experience is intertwined with flashbacks of various relationships with men (professional and personal) especially those who have indicated or led her on to think she is ‘crazy.’

Spoiler Alert: Tendler does not discuss the breakdown of her marriage to John Mulvaney but that’s not to say it isn’t everywhere, hanging out like a ghost in this memoir. The relationship is a huge reason she is in an in-patient facility to begin with.

It is so hard to not judge Anna’s choices in this book but also easy to judge because we are outsiders reading about them (and human nature). It’s not a perfect memoir, it lacks some self-perspective. Her focus keeps circling back to hating men while completely missing the many important women in her life who essentially have also led her to feel invalidated or ‘crazy’ Except, as I write this, I don’t really think she misses these points. In sharing her stories and her experience she is writing them as they happened and the emotions she felt at the time leaving us (the reader) to make many of our own judgements. Tendler doesn’t take ownership while recanting because she didn’t take ownership at the time it occurred.

Towards the end of her journey in this memoir, Anna is still massively healing, she begins to reflect and take ownership for past decisions. She slowly starts to accept that there are men she loves, men who have helped and taught her but also sees more clearly those men that did truly gaslight her and made her feel invalidated. I am more than interested in continuing on this journey with her in any form. Anna Marie Tendler has a spectacular future ahead of her and is an incredible writer in addition to her many forms of art. Her experiences with men are valid and something most women have felt, the difference being we are not all mentally ill.

📚: Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler
⭐️: 3.5/5 (rounding down on #goodreads)

The gist: "My wish for myself is that one day I'll reach a place where I can face hardship without trying to destroy myself." Anna Marie Tendler writes this early in her voluntary inpatient stay at a psychiatric hospital. She goes through psychological tests, intense therapy, and makes connections with those going through similar programs over the course of 2 weeks, all in hopes of getting to the bottom of her anxiety, depression, self-harm and moving toward healing.

The good: In a similar vein of Prozac Nation and Girl, Interrupted, this memoir is a powerful, and necessary, mental health story. Tendler's experience at the inpatient hospital, as well as the community of women she created is so well written and resonated with me. Her struggle, her pain, her confusion, and her want to heal was emotional to read.

There's two disconnects in this memoir that, for me, fractured this read. One is a conflict with her then-therapist. It feels as though we didn't get the full story behind it until the final scene of the conflict, so to say. This left me wondering what really happened to cause such a divide - and that answer was never given.

The other disconnect that's apparent is her marriage and subsequent divorce. While mentioned a couple times at a surface level, there's nothing beyond that. None of the anecdotes about men Tendler dated are about her husband. (And one would think that an ex-husband would be the focus of at least one of the chapters revolving around men behaving awful.)

And then I realized that I read this entire memoir not realizing who Anna Marie Tendler is -- or who her ex-husband is. It feels like an obvious gap in narrative as a reader no matter what, but then finding that her ex-husband is John Mulaney, it feels like an even bigger missing piece to the story. While I understand wanting (and probably not being able) to have a section of a memoir read like an issue of Us Weekly, this disconnecting thread stands out as a miss.

Thank you to @simonandschuster via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Men Have Called Her Crazy is out today, 8/13.

Interesting memoir that chronicles the journey of one woman's struggle with identity, patriarchal society, cutting, anxiety, suicide, and depression. While the topics were heavy, it was very readable.

right off the bat i must praise tendlers ability to write about her life in such a way that made me truly unable to put it down. the style and pacing is something i have never experienced in a nonfiction book before. i felt deeply for her through every chapter and several times had to remind myself that this is her real life and she presented it for the world to see so beautifully! immediately after finishing this arc i preordered a signed copy, how tender talks about her journey with her mental health parallel to the relationships throughout her life really resonated with me in a way i never expected. men have called her crazy will easily be in my top favorites of the year and i highly recommend this to anyone even if you’re not typically a memoir reader!

Right off the bat I was drawn to this book by the cover and title. Being called “crazy” by men is practically a rite of passage for women and girls. I went into this unaware of her famous ex husband and thankfully so. He wasn’t mentioned at all with only a few references to her divorce from him throughout the book. During this book, we go back and forth between her voluntary stay at a mental hospital and flashbacks to relationships and other significant moments before and after her hospitalization. My one complaint is I wish the timeline would’ve been more clear. Maybe a date at the beginning of each chapter? Aside from the timeline, I loved reading about her experience. So much I related to, also being a woman who has struggled with her mental health and has been called crazy by men, but even the things I couldn’t directly relate to I sympathized with. A wonderful memoir.

Thank you to NetGalley and Anna Marie Tendler for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

I don’t even know where to begin. This book made me feel so many things that I’ve only felt in regards to my own experiences before, and I’m so grateful that I was not only able to read this book at all, but especially to do so prior to its release. I know that the experience of reading this book will never leave me, and I can only hope to continue following Tendler’s career in the future. This book made me emotional in a myriad of ways, and I recommend it to the fullest extent, especially to any woman, anyone who has ever experienced mental health issues, anyone who has struggled in personal relationships. You will be better off having read this, I can’t express that enough.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I admit I didn’t know a ton about Anna Marie Tendler prior to the headlines swirled about her divorce from John Mulaney and the fallout there. And admittedly, it was this that motivated me to request tbis book. But this isn’t a takedown of Mulaney, in spite of its attention-grabbing title, and he figures in only in passing and never by name. It is a solid choice, as not only are there many more men who have impacted her life, but this choice allows the reader to get to know her as her own person and follow her on her journey toward healing, with the primary focus being on her hospitalization as a result of her mental health issues. The narrative is told somewhat in a non-linear fashion, using this hospitalization as a framing device to explore the many experiences she’s had that brought her to this point, but she crafted it in a way that I never felt lost in time, and her prose guided me through her story beautifully.
I really enjoyed this book, and I would gladly read something else from Anna Marie Tendler in the future!

Thank you to Anna Mariel Tendler and Simon & Schuster via NetGalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I found this book thoroughly captivating and excellently written. I think the author exquisitely portrays the muddled way many of us go through life when we’re constantly in fight or flight mode. Her thoughtfulness and analysis of her life is raw and interesting.

There are so many ways Anna and I are similar and also so many ways we’re complete opposites. I found myself agreeing and sympathizing with a lot of her thoughts about herself and situations, but also disagrees with her harsher condemnations of the world at large, but I completely understand where she is coming from. The title is impactful. Anna isn’t crazy. She’s angry, and has every right to be.

I would highly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in reading one woman’s account of her mental health, how she got to her breaking point, and how she’s lived since.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc.

This review is coming from someone who doesn't ever reach for memoir books, at all. But this one peaked my interest. While I first learned about Anna due to her previous marriage, I found her to be an interesting and complex woman from the start (beyond the jokes on stage). Having both worked in museum and archival settings I could see part of myself in her school struggle of not wanting to fall behind while her personal life was falling apart. The routine and constant of school always made me feel more together than I really was. I think it's always an eye opening experience to see what life was like in the early 2000s for young women, as it was really untested waters of not a lot of mental health offerings as well as uncharted internet access. Towards the end of the book I found myself reliving my own grief of loosing my childhood pets that held me together through every single life moment, as Tendler said goodbye to her beloved dog Petunia. While this might not be the memoir for everyone, I do think it's important to note learning about other women's struggles and seeing how they take those struggles and turn them into a woven story are just as important as a tabloid article about something we have zero incite into.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy!

This book was really raw and so well written. Anna was such a great storyteller. I finished this in one sitting because I was so engrossed in the story. The story centers around her time in a psychiatric hospital and weaves in parts of her past and growing up and all the different relationships in her life. The mental health representation in this was so real and felt so reflective for her. She didn’t shy away from the tough topics and really went deep with her mental health experience and all her past traumas. This was a memoir that was done really well and you can tell felt therapeutic for the author as well. I do really recommend this one!

Thanks again to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy!

Men Have Called Her Crazy is a memoir that explores dealing with mental health, pivotal moments in her life that have been impacted by men, and her sometimes difficult relationship with her parents. I found Tendler's writing very engaging and vulnerable with experiences that felt familiar (ex: predatory men, complicated relationship with Mom, and mental health struggles). The way she clearly analyzes her mental and emotional states helps readers follow her line of thinking and shows how much care she put into this book down to the sentence. Overall, I highly recommend picking up this book!

Amazing recollection of a woman in crisis. I really related to this story. It's an understated condemnation of the way "nice guys" treat women, and how they're threatened by a woman expressing her individuality.

Anna Marie Tendler is the bravest person I've never met.

I was so thrilled to read this book early from the ARC Galley God's at NetGalley. I'm so happy I had access to it. This was such a tender book to read. Anna's novel really spoke to me. I could see myself so easily in the chapters where she spoke about her past experiences with men, so much so that I felt like we would have been great friends if we had know each other in our youth. I've been called crazy by past lovers and never heard it phrased in the way's Anna did and it really made me think about these experiences in more detail.

I loved this book in a way that I truly can't describe, and I think it's so important for everyone to read. I cannot wait for everyone to get their hands on it!

Anna Marie Tendler makes the incredible feat of writing a very personal memoir while retaining her privacy. I usually finish a memoir feeling like a friend to the author, but Tendler, who is described in the book by herself and others as extremely introverted, remains a mystery to me. I feel this is a strength in the time of extreme parasocial relationships.

I, like many who will pick this up, learned of Tendler through the comedy of her now ex-husband, John Mulaney. The (at least, public aspect of the) drama behind their breakup, along with the title, had me thinking that this would be an Arya Stark-style list of Tendler going through the many mistreatments of the men in her life and how it has impacted her. I believe the title, while incredible, is misleading. This book mentioned numerous mistreatments by men, but gaslighting and 'calling her crazy' is not necessarily one of them. I fully respect the way she navigated this book, but I think many 'misandrists' like me (she notes in the book that this is not a real thing) will be slightly disappointed. You'll also be disappointed if you want the tea on their divorce - John's name does not appear once and all we know about their marriage is that it ended. Good for her, getting coin from people who are buying her memoir just to be nosy.

For anyone who has struggled with their relationship with men, I think you'll enjoy this. I felt extremely seen by her in this, particularly in her description of her relationship with her dog. In regards to Petunia, she calls her the "literal love of her life," and I feel that to my absolute core.

This memoir is not perfect, but if you enjoy a memoir, you'll enjoy this one.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalleyf or an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher. This was a pretty dark read. It was so well written but did feel distant.

Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir by Anna Marie Tendler offers an intimate glimpse into the author’s personal struggles and experiences. While Tendler's candid storytelling is commendable, I had a hard time connecting with the narrative on a deeper level. The memoir provides valuable insights but may resonate differently depending on individual readers' perspectives.

My God, what an impressive memoir this was.

In Men Have Called Her Crazy, Anna Marie Tendler gives the reader insight into her journey through mental health struggles and the pervasive impact of men on her life in her debut. Through her time in a psychiatric hospital and the pivotal moments that have shaped her life, Tendler offers her perspective of the unreasonable pressures women face in today's world. I appreciated how deeply personal this memoir was, well organized and relatable. This was one of my most highly anticipated reads this year and it far exceeded my expectations 🩷

Thanks so much to @netgalley, @simonandschuster, and Anna Marie Tendler for the opportunity to be a reader.

This went to some annoying places and skipped over things I would have been interested to read about (**** *******), but I'm nosy so I had a good time. Recommended for fans of intricate interior design and French bulldogs!

I requested this book as a fan of Anna Maarie Tendler. I didn't read the description before going into the book but from snippets online I knew this would be a bit of a tough read because of the subject matter. I ended up finishing this book quicker than anything else I've read this year. The writing is just as you'd expect from a talented artist, and I really felt like she poured her soul into it. Anyone who enjoys memoirs that detail mental health journeys will enjoy this one,.