A frank and compelling memoir full of emotional wisdom.
Seemiller’s memoir charts her search for healing following the end of a romantic relationship.
In this work, the author explores themes of self-discovery and emotional resilience, using her own heartbreak as a focal point. Structured in four parts (“Getting Up,” “Getting Out,” “Getting Through,” and “Getting On”), the book covers a year in Seemiller’s life. Beginning with the first days after a breakup, the narrative takes readers through the author’s changing reactions, from pain and raw emotion to much more reflective understandings of love, attachment, and, self-worth. The book’s introduction, “Naked and Afraid,” finds Seemiller at a chaotic pool party: “Maybe spending the Fourth of July at a lesbian pool party I found online wasn’t the best idea,” she writes. From there, the author continues along the recovery path. Readers are taken on an emotional and humorous ride as Seemiller examines her fear of failure and her drive to find meaning beyond romantic validation. The author’s reflections are not limited to her romantic life—topics such as her parents’ troubled marriage and her experiences as a single mother allow her to address generational and psychological patterns that shaped her and others close to her. By the time Seemiller reaches the final section, readers will notice a transformation: Instead of looking for a new soulmate, Seemiller has learned to become emotionally whole on her own. The author’s voice—articulate yet unpretentious, self-aware but not self-pitying (and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny)—elevates this book above the typical memoir. Seemiller at times writes with the insight of a psychologist, and at others with the warmth of a friend; readers who have found themselves lost in the aftermath of a lost love will find themselves in her story (the author has a knack for making even ultra-personal confessions entirely relatable). Ultimately, Seemiller delivers a compelling account of grief and growth, demonstrating that even the most painful endings can lead to profound self-discovery and, perhaps, a new kind of love.
A frank and compelling memoir full of emotional wisdom.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9798896360681
Page Count: 256
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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