An exploration of the ills of modern girlhood that will likely appeal to more conservative readers.
How girls got to be this way.
Although adolescence is famously not an easy time, modern adolescence, specifically girlhood, is fraught with increased, unique peril. India, who was born in 1999 and writes the Substack newsletter GIRLS, recalls that when she and her friends “were ten or eleven, social media apps arrived, and everything got worse.” The typical anxieties of growing up were now magnified through new technologies demanding ever more of girls’ time and energy: editing selfies to perfection on Facetune to then post on Instagram, sending Snapchats to keep “Streaks” intact, and swiping through parades of profiles on dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble. The explosion of TikTok in 2020, coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic, had a particularly profound impact, especially as creators churn out ample content contributing to “the marketization and medicalization of normal negative emotions.” Rather than seek advice from relatives or community leaders, young girls turn to influencers’ vlogs and, increasingly, AI chatbots for companionship; across platforms, they are relentlessly targeted by advertising. In the wake of all of these advancements, girls’ mental health and overall life satisfaction has been impaired: “We have better technologies, but we have nowhere to belong.” India emphasizes real community and connection as well as “faith in something more” as antidotes to the challenges plaguing girls today. In a conversational writing style and with a focus on the U.K. and U.S., India raises some valid concerns but paints too often in broad strokes. She writes about rising divorce rates, the risks of gender-affirming care, and the downsides of women’s “empowerment” while providing strangely little context about the political, economic, and historical context surrounding these complex matters. This book may be a starting place for young women seeking guidance and their concerned adults, yet its slanted analysis should be met with a dose of healthy skepticism and would do well to be supplemented with broader context.
An exploration of the ills of modern girlhood that will likely appeal to more conservative readers.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781250442222
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
