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  • How to Murder Your Life

  • A Memoir
  • Written by: Cat Marnell
  • Narrated by: Cat Marnell
  • Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (72 ratings)

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How to Murder Your Life

Written by: Cat Marnell
Narrated by: Cat Marnell
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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.

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What listeners say about How to Murder Your Life

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Awful!

I rarely find myself inspired to write a review, but if it saves you from wasting your time and money on this trite, poorly written and narrated story then it is worth it. It glorifies addiction, and boasts about the narrator vaguely succeeding while constantly being high and engaging in utter assholery. If reading about being stoned in New York and bragging about it floats your boat, then knock your self out. And If I have to hear the writer scream one more time, I may poke my ears out. There is nothing redeeming about this story. I’m not even sure how it ends because I couldn’t bear it anymore and quit about 3/4 of the way through.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I fucking love you cat.

The rawest memoir EVER. And the fact cat Is the narrater makes it that much better.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

i love you cat marnell

i've read the book three times now but once i saw that cat narrated the audiobook version, i HAD to listen to it. hearing her read it in her voice makes it more interesting than it already is. i'm so obsessed with her and her story and she's helped me to realise a lot of things about my own addiction problem. i love her writing style and the way she expresses her words in the audiobook make it even better. i can't wait to read/listen to another book of hers

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The screaming throughout the audiobook is insufferable.

Great story. AWFUL narration. Do yourself a favour and read this and take a hard pass on the audio version.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • MB
  • 2022-03-10

The best train wreck I have ever listened to!

Listening to Cat's story will instantly make you feel better about your life. I laughed (many times) and others wanted to shake this woman and tell her she doesn't have to live this way! There is a little redemption at the end...

I would (and have) definitely recommend this to my other hot-mess girlfriends. When I need some comic relief, or to feel like I am not screwing up my life too badly, I turn this back on (for a second or third listen!)

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Glad I stuck with it-EXCELLENT

Lemme just say, I can handle “valley girl” talk, but if you can’t, this is not the book for you! Totally rad book. Lol...Lots of “name dropping” haute couture, big name designers, beauty companies etc. Gotta be quick to keep up with Kat! Again, if you aren’t into fashion and beauty, and want the book for it’s “addiction” story, my feeling is it would be much better received knowing the fashion and beauty industry.....but I guess that’s up to you to decide. Loved it. Thanks Kat, glad you are feeling better.

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  • T
  • 2020-06-26

Love this book!

I honestly couldn’t get enough of Cat’s honesty and story. She is such a great writer - and kept my attention throughout the entire book. Hope she releases more books in the future!

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Reads like an angsty teen's diary

I'll admit, this review is based on only the first three chapters of the book, which I struggled through. It reads like the author tried to write an edgy YA, but ended up with a mundane day-to-day diary in the life of an angsty teen, read by the narrator with an abundance of lilts in tone and "like" and "ugh"s.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

love it.

love this memoire. some parts did hit close to home and I wasn't sure I would be able to continue to listen but glad I did. I also went on to listen to her second book as well. equally well written.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it

I absolutely loved this soapy, honest account of addiction. So real and funny and brutal.

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