A cheerful chronicle of bravery and self-compassion that encourages all readers looking for love.
Goodson discusses navigating dating with a disability.
When the author was 8 years old, she developed bleeding in her brain stem that required surgery. Though the surgery was successful, she was left partially paralyzed on her left side; she had to re-learn how to walk and talk with therapy and carried a lack of self-confidence with her into adulthood. As Goodson entered her 30s, she was eager for love but still hadn’t found the serious romantic relationship she wanted. With the help of life coaches and friends, she realized that her disability wasn’t the thing holding her back—it was her mindset. After years of frustration, the author began working with Londin Angel Winters, an intimacy coach, who helped her to stop judging herself for her disability and lack of sexual experience (“I was judgmental of my history because I thought it was wrong. I thought it wasn’t how I was supposed to be doing life”) and start celebrating her differences. In this book, Goodson shares the insights she has gleaned and frames them for all readers, both disabled and not, who believe that certain parts of their identity are “dating deal-breakers.” In the last section of the book, the author summarizes the principal takeaways from her experience for readers to use on their own journeys. The tone of this book is empathetic and warm; like a good therapist, Goodson instantly puts the reader at ease. As the author shares the lessons she’s learned, they register as authentic because she doesn’t describe them as cure-all solutions that fix everything overnight. (She did not instantly gain a boyfriend, but she did increase her confidence in how she presented herself to the world, which was the real goal.) Often, it feels like Goodson’s stories could be expanded upon to yield deeper insights—for example, she describes the first and one of the last sessions with Londin but not much of their work in between. Still, the overall message is bright and encouraging.
A cheerful chronicle of bravery and self-compassion that encourages all readers looking for love.Pub Date: Dec. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9798891386402
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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