My rating: 2.75 stars

While I appreciate Yuknavitch's honesty about her failures and even admire her ability to persevere despite it all, this short manifesto seemed more like a drawn-out therapy session writ large.

I agree with her assertion that we're not the stories we (as in the collective we of society) tell ourselves and that we need more empathy, especially for the homeless and downtrodden. But the book just seemed repetitive and the first-person stories she shares from her fellow misfits are just another, different form of the hero cycle, but a cycle nonetheless.

That being said, there is one big idea that will likely stick with me: that addiction is the obvious result of late capitalism. As we hunger for more likes and inundate each other with status updates and vacation photos, the difference between the junkie on the street and the middle-class, middle-aged clock watcher becomes less noticeable by the minute. Sayeth I as I write this book review on Goodreads for all my followers to see ...