Beautiful Bodies

Praise for Kimberly Rae Miller’s

Debut Memoir, Coming Clean

Wall Street Journal Bestseller

Amazon Best Book of the Month and Best Book of the Year

Elle Magazine Best Book of the Year

“Reality shows typically stay with hoarders only long enough to portray them as objects of pity or ridicule, but Miller's story, Coming Clean, offers a uniquely nuanced look at her intelligent, loving, but broken father and the enduring effect his affliction has had on her and her long-suffering mother.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“Harrowing. You root for [Kim], you root for [her parents], and at the end, you marvel at the capacity for human resilience.”

—People

“In Kimberly Rae Miller's memoir, Coming Clean, the writer doesn't minimize the destruction the disorder causes families. But she uses her own experience to paint a much more compassionate and nuanced portrait of the illness than is usually shown on reality TV shows like 'Hoarders.'"

—The Associated Press

In Coming Clean, Miller, an actor and writer, chronicles her weird childhood and adolescence, but what’s really unusual about this buoyant, winning memoir is that for all that the author describes the familial dysfunction in heartbreaking, copious detail—and for all that she sometimes lost patience with her parents—she never stops showing that she loves them. As readers we come to love them, too—partly because, whatever else, they managed to raise such a smart and witty and generous daughter.

—Amazon Book Review, Sara Nelson

“[Kimberly Rae Miller] recounts a childhood in which it was impossible to shower in her house or cook in the kitchen, of being bitten by fleas and listening to rats rustle at night. The hoarding surrounds everything… This searing tale of the damage caused by the disease reflects Miller’s deep consideration of her experience; a deeply affecting, remarkably thoughtful, and well-reasoned book, yet the horror is always there.  One can only admire Miller’s courage in coming clean"

—Booklist, Starred Review

“As a child Miller realized her family wasn’t like other people’s families with tidy, presentable homes; far from it. Miller never invited anyone home and had to adopt a 'decoy' house to be dropped off at by friends… Stuff and unused purchases were piled so high that little room was left for the family even to eat or sleep or use the bathrooms.” 
—Publishers Weekly

“Miller renders her harrowing account without self-pity, and her empathy for her parents, as well as her refusal to treat the hoarding as a spectacle, allow space for redemption—both theirs and her own.”
 —Elle 

“Kimberly Rae Miller writes with insight about growing up the daughter of a hoarder in her family’s moldy, flea-infested home - and eventually overcoming her anger and shame.”
 —Parade

“An engrossing, sympathetic exploration of living with hoarder parents.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Astonishingly honest and heartfelt… Kimberly Rae Miller’s new memoir comes clean on how the reality of compulsive hoarding is very different from what we see on TV.”

—The Daily Beast, Women in the World

“Coming Clean is shocking and painful, but it’s also full of warmth and compassion… in some ways a tribute to Miller’s deeply imperfect parents.”

—PureWow

“Miller’s wry retelling of her upbringing will encourage others who also did not emerge from the cookie cutter."

—Library Journal