While the author states it’s not a “tell-all”, she leaves in enough blind item style tidbits to keep the gossip hounds engaged. The pacing towards the end through me off a bit but the overall story felt like a peek into a wild, glamorous and sometimes dark world of the rich and noteworthy. Enough to make all the Midwestern girls thoroughly jealous of a childhood in Manhattan. Kirke balanced being funny, heartfelt and relatable. However, at times I wished some of the characters were more developed like her parents.

Great vacation or airplane read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for a review.

While I’m not usually a memoir girlie, Lola Kirke’s “non-memoir” was such a fun read. This was a wild ride of emotions and despite not totally relating to her experiences, I found myself identifying with a lot of her emotional journey.

I sped through this and it was a great book to start the year off with!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eArc in exchange for my honest opinion!

The cover and title captured my attention, so without knowing anything about Lola Kirke or her apparently famous family, I dove into this memoir in essays.

I found most of the essays entertaining and Ms. Kirke’s snarky wit shines through in each vignette. It is not clear that the vignettes follow a chronological progression, nor is it clear how much time transpires between vignettes. While Ms. Kirke is funny, it was frequently hard reading about her loose upbringing amidst sex, drugs and rock and roll.

The book is one shocking situation after another and one example of her family’s dysfunctionality after another. The book abruptly concludes with with Lola making her debut on the Grand Ole Opry without any prelude of the usual struggles to achieve that pinnacle of success.

Lola’s biggest success is her epiphany about her family, her place in it, and their love.

“But in that moment I began to see: success was just success. It was not the key to love. Rather, it was a distraction from it. I had all my family’s love already. Our love was just a little chaotic.”

I am THAT reader who can be drawn into a book just by the title and cover. After reading Lola Kirke's (not a) memoir, I have to say that both title and cover are perfect for this book. Despite growing up in a life of wealth and privilege -- thanks to her rock star dad and designer mom -- Kirke's family life is chaotic, and it's very clear right from the beginning that Kirke strives for the attention and love from her older (and to her, cooler) sisters.

Wild West Village is a brutally honest account of various periods in Kirke's life -- a "no holds barred" type of book. It's a raw, vulnerable, and, at times, funny journey as Kirke tries to find her own path despite the roadblocks and detours that her family puts in front of her.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Simon&Schuster for this electronic ARC of #WildWestVillage.

I was pleasantly surprised by how enraptured I was by Kirke’s writing! Raw and honest, yet not overly self-indulgent, I couldn’t get enough.

Lola Kirke, sister to “Girls” actress Jemima Kirke (among other notable siblings of hers) and sister-in-law to Penn Badgley, has managed something very tricky with her debut book – a “memoir” (although she doesn’t call it that) of a young B-list (maybe even C-list to be totally candid?) celebrity that doesn’t feel totally self-indulgent and unnecessary.

While Kirke’s childhood was chaotic and fairly unstable, she doesn’t write about it through a lens of self-pity. She’s also not pretending like she’s totally through it all, totally fixed. The writing itself sometimes mimics the chaos of her life – lots of characters are introduced for a few pages and then forgotten about. Sometimes she jumps around in time with her stories. But that’s not at all to say it is poorly written. In fact, I liked that it didn’t feel belabored or overwrought.

If you’re an adult who had a wild NYC upbringing, or always wished you did, you’ll enjoy this book. And for the rest of us I think you’ll admire the way Lola managed to navigate a childhood that sounds pretty nightmare-ish despite the veneer of glamour.

Thanks to NETGALLEY and Simon & Schuster for eARC (invited to review because of my input for Tendler's ‘Men Have Called Her Crazy’)

4.5 ★

This not-a-memoir memoir has sharp wit; Lola comes across as self-aware with even some satirical narcissism. She's clever in never naming things, like how she hinted and alluded to Amazon. It is *very* much nonlinear, with some blurbs being only a paragraph long, whilst others are longer. Sometimes the nonlinear leaps are a bit jarring, but Lola does a good job of letting you know what the time period is. A fairly quick read, which makes sense since she is on the younger side. I enjoyed this enough to look forward to more writings from Kirke, if there will be any! And I'm interested enough to read whatever her sibling(s) are allegedly releasing as well.

This is a funny book about Lola Kirke’s life growing up. She meets up with some interesting people. Very eclectic and a great read.

Really fun, cheeky memoir that had some surprising moments. The writing style was very engaging and felt like telling stories with a friend.

I loved it not even for the anecdotes but for the wisdom gleaned through the lived experiences Lola had. The anecdotes were delightful, of course - and she has a very natural sense of humor that made this book flow even better - but her depth of character, particularly as it developed and coalesced over time, was a delight to read.

The chapter about her brother made me weep. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a portion of a memoir with that level of authenticity, rawness, and openness. It was beautiful. Through and through.

This book was and is exactly the sort I adore. It was a pleasure to read and ended on a lovely high note, too.

I thank NetGalley and the publishers for offering this ARC in return for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC. I didn't immediately recognize the author, but after a quick Google search - I realized she was in one of my favorite shows of all time (Mozart in the Jungle) AND she made one of my favorite country songs (Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?).

This is a memoir in essays, so the events do not follow a clear chronological progression. The time between one vignette and another isn't entirely clear, but I think that actually adds to the ambience of it all. This is a book that rides on vibes. She is a nepo baby, but because she doesn't waste her time trying to argue she works just as hard as everyone else, it doesn't grate against my nerves. She tells a good story, even if that story would not be possible without an incredible amount of privilege.

Lola Kirke, despite her comparison to her sisters, actually holds up well against them. She is cool in her own right, and fits into the tapestry of her family better than she assumes for the majority of the book. A star-studded cast of background characters (including a Joan Didion appearance) and a strong voice make this a delight to read. Highly recommend.

I was intrigued by the title and cover. It seemed fun and probably over the top. Which I enjoy!

I had no idea who Lola Kirke was but I know her sister from watching Girls. Lola says in the beginning that she starts a lot of stories but doesn’t always finish them. I’d say that’s true. While I enjoyed the randomness of it, I started to feel disconnected with the book and the timeline.

But it’s worth checking out if you enjoy memoirs like this! Thanks to NetGalley, Lola Kirke and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read Wild West Village. I have written this review voluntarily and honestly.

At points, this book feels like a more bohemian and more unbelievable Gossip Girl (Lola’s sister did end up marrying Penn Bagdley, after all).

I wasn’t sure if this this book was for me at first. It takes place in a world that seemed too unrecognizable to me but Kirke’s humor and charm completely won me over by the end of the first chapter. Each chapter conveys an experience that feels universal (the peaks and valleys of sisterhood, insecurities, and general way-finding, to name a few) no matter how unrelatable it appears on the surface.

What a wild ride. I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling in this "not" a memoir book by Lola Kirke. It was fun and included celebrity sighting (looking at you Gael Garcia Bernal), chaotic family members, and so many rich people behaving badly, ah the drama. I was here for all of it. I appreciated Kirke's love of her family and especially her siblings, even if she roasted them a bit.

Thank you for the advanced reader copy Simon & Schuster and Netgalley.

really interesting memoir that i didn't think would be nearly as interesting as it was, but it definitely did turn out to be interesting. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Lola Kirke didn't ask to be born a nepo-baby, and while readers may think she grew up with glitz and glamor (after all, her "Aunt Joan" is the one and only Joan Didion), she had a family with struggles similar to those of the everyday person: drug addiction, cheating, secrets, and lack of boundaries. Considering this, Kirke's writing reads less like a memoir and more like the vignettes of someone trying to find their place in the world.

Kirke's writing is sharp and witty, and her lovely storytelling holds no punches back. I most appreciate her vulnerability - that shines throughout and makes her story just that much more special.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lola Kirke's Wild West Village fell flat for me. I can really enjoy a pop culture memoir, so despite some lackluster reviews, decided to accept this advanced reader copy. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to care what happened to Lola. The home life is interesting-ish, but the storytelling is bland. As much as I wanted to care about what happened in Lola's life, I just couldn't bring myself to. Unlike other readers, the 'who' of is involved is opaque to me; I hadn't heard of Lola prior to this book and most of the people she does reference by name are unknown to me. Overall, not recommended, but, as always, grateful to the publisher & NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had not heard of Kirke before this book. However, reading this was fun. She seemed honest and didn't try to portray herself as a starving artist. Instead admitted growing up pretty affluential. Overall, it was a fun and easy read. I liked the way she managed to bring her personality through the different chapters was just fun. It made me just really like her and want to read more about her.

I think this was a book that took less than a weekend for me to read.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I am a fan of Jemima, Lola's sister, so I knew if she was anything like her, that this was going to be a very fun time. The book is a slice of life of living in the West Village and all the trappings that comes with that. I loved all the quirky characters and the "not a memoir" style.

I had no idea who Lola Kirke was until I read this. I found her to be funny, witty, and honest. The chapters about her family were the ones I found most interesting and I wish there were more of them. I felt like this book stayed relatively surface level. I would have liked to see her go more in-depth on pretty much everything mentioned in here. It was definitely an entertaining and fun read.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the ARC.