How to Murder Your Life

A Memoir

By: Cat Marnell

Narrated by: Cat Marnell

Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

From Cat Marnell, "New York's enfant terrible" (The Telegraph), a candid and darkly humorous memoir of prescription drug addiction and self-sabotage, set in the glamorous world of fashion magazines and downtown nightclubs.

At 26 Cat Marnell was an associate beauty editor at Lucky, one of the top fashion magazines in America - and that's all most people knew about her. But she hid a secret life. She was a prescription drug addict. She was also a "doctor shopper" who manipulated Upper East Side psychiatrists for pills, pills, and more pills; a lonely bulimic who spent hundreds of dollars a week on binge foods; a promiscuous party girl who danced barefoot on banquets; a weepy and hallucination-prone insomniac who would take anything - anything - to sleep.

This is a tale of self-loathing, self-sabotage, and, yes, self-tanner. It begins at a posh New England prep school - and with a prescription for attention deficit disorder medication Ritalin. It continues to New York, where we follow Marnell's amphetamine-fueled rise from intern to editor through the beauty departments of NYLON, Teen Vogue, Glamour, and Lucky. We see her fight between ambition and addiction and how, inevitably, her disease threatens everything she worked so hard to achieve.

From the Conde Nast building (where she rides the elevator alongside Anna Wintour) to seedy nightclubs, from doctors' offices and mental hospitals, Marnell shows - like no one else can - what it is like to live in the wild, chaotic, often sinister world of a young female addict who can't say no.

Combining lightning-rod subject matter and bold literary aspirations, How to Murder Your Life is mesmerizing, revelatory, and necessary.

©2017 Cat Marnell (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

BUY THIS and read now so we can talk about it.

Vulnerable, fearless and a moving read. I stayed up two nights in a row rearing through it.

Story holds attention but narration distracting

Any additional comments?

The story itself held my attention. Unfortunately, the author who narrates the book herself, has a tendency to sound whiny and hysterical at emotional scenes. She also keeps inserting "sound effects" throughout the book, most notably, far too many fake screams. If this were less frequent, it wouldn't be a problem, but it's throughout the book. If it looks interesting to you, I would consider reading it instead of listening to it.

Ahhhhhhh!!! VERY entertaining

I really enjoyed this book - very entertaining, and I loved how it ended on a positive note. I also really enjoyed the author reading the book herself. Warning! You will need to have your finger near the volume button throughout the whole book as there is lots of yelling...as in, "I saw a mouse - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Definitely hurt my head a couple of times :) I think audible should've adjusted to volume when they worked on the audio.

It's No Fairytale

When you read a book like this you want someone like Cat Marinell to be 100% sober in the end but this isn't that book. Instead you got raw and utter honesty which makes her addiction so real. You can feel her pain and also her adoration for drugs. Even in her narration she becomes giddy when talking about certain drugs. She has a deep connection to drugs and the way you make her feel. Her narration gets a bit annoying at times but it's important to get to the end because you can see that this is a story that is still developing. It's a story that doesn't have a perfect ending. It's much true to life and how things so often go.

One of my favorite addiction memoirs

Where does How to Murder Your Life rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Wonderful narration, Cat Marnell is fascinating and enchanting to listen to.

What other book might you compare How to Murder Your Life to and why?

More, Now Again by Elizabeth Wurtzel.

What about Cat Marnell’s performance did you like?

Her storytelling abilites and it was like listening to a best friend tell a story.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes! Yes!

If not for the screams.

I LOVED it! Cat is hilarious, I've literally been laughing out loud all night while working with my headphones in, I'm sure my coworkers were wondering, since I have wireless ear buds. Her screaming &buzzing did bug me but it helped with the visualization. She truly is the underdog that wears Prada. I hope everything falls into place, that she finds her hubby her dog and has kids. If more people could talk about drug addiction the way Cat does, we'd have a lot more hope for recovery, & WAY less judgment resulting in even more self loathing & failures. How to murder your life is a definite recommend and a super fun read. ♡ Much Love!

Too much screaming!

This story was good! I was really entertained but the constant screeching was unbearable! She really could’ve just used her words to describe the moments instead of acting them out.

Yes

Best memoir I’ve ever read
1 year later, im still trying to find its match.

Loved it!

Great book. Cat's reading was awesome. Just felt like I had made a new friend that was telling me her background. Hope things continue to go well for her!

Fascinating and Honest

I loved this book, but I think I loved it because I was able to relate on a personal level.

I could understand how someone without an understanding of drug use wouldn't relate.

loved it