How to Murder Your Life
by Cat Marnell
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Pub Date 2 Feb 2017 | Archive Date 28 Feb 2017
Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing | Ebury Press
Description
'I was twenty-six years old and an associate beauty editor at Lucky, one of the top fashion magazines in America. That’s all that most people knew about me. But beneath the surface, I was full of secrets: I was a drug addict, for one. A pillhead. I was also an alcoholic-in-training who guzzled warm Veuve Clicquot after work alone in my boss’s office with the door closed; a conniving and manipulative uptown doctor-shopper; a salami-and-provolone-puking bulimic who spent a hundred dollars a day on binge foods when things got bad (and they got bad often); a weepy,wobbly, wildly hallucination-prone insomniac; a tweaky self-mutilator; a slutty and self-loathing downtown party girl; and – perhaps most of all – a lonely weirdo. But, you know, I had access to some really fantastic self-tanner.'
By the age of 15, Cat Marnell longed to work in the glamorous world of women's magazines - but was also addicted to the ADHD meds prescribed by her father. Within 10 years she was living it up in New York as a beauty editor at Condé Nast, with a talent for 'doctor-shopping' that secured her a never-ending supply of prescriptions. Her life had become a twisted merry-go-round of parties and pills at night, while she struggled to hold down her high-profile job during the day.
Witty, magnetic and penetrating - prompting comparisons to Bret Easton Ellis and Charles Bukowski - Cat Marnell reveals essential truths about her generation, brilliantly uncovering the many aspects of being an addict with pin-sharp humour and beguiling style.
'New York's enfant terrible...Her talent has resided in her uncanny ability to write about addiction from the untidy, unsafe, unhappy epicentre of the disease, rather than from some writerly remove.' Telegraph
'I LOVE this book' Catriona Innes, Cosmopolitan Magazine UK
'An unputdownable, brilliantly written rollercoaster' Shappi Khorsandi
'Brilliantly written and harrowing and funny and honest' Louise France, Times Magazine UK
'Easily one of the most anticipated memoirs of the year...[Marnell's] got an inimitable style (and oh my god, so many have tried) and a level of talent so high, it's impossible not to be rooting for her.' NYLON
Advance Praise
-Marnell recounts parties and drugs and sex in writing that mirrors the experience of being on drugs – sometimes fizzing ... and, just as often, cold and blunt and brutal - Guardian
-Challenging ... captivating and controversial - The Atlantic Wire
-Marnell is arguably the Internet’s most divisive writer ... reading about a drug addict’s life while she’s an active addict, especially in real time, is fascinating and a little bit scary - The Daily Beast
-A gifted memoirist ... [She displays] a willingness to tell unflattering truths about herself that reminded me of Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation - New York Times Magazine
-With her divisive mix of ego, honesty, sordidness and humor, Ms. Marnell is becoming the latest online lightning rod - Wall Street Journal
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780091957353 |
| PRICE | £16.99 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 384 |
Featured Reviews
Samantha M, Reviewer
How to Murder your Life is, without a doubt, my favourite book of 2016. Released in February 2017, this book is the autobiography of Cat Marnell’s life so far.
Wowza. As soon as I saw this on Netgalley I knew I needed it in my life. I absolutely love fashion magazines and just find the whole fashion industry intriguing (and often ridiculous). If you loved The Devil Wears Prada you will adore this real life version. I recently read Inside Vogue by Alexandra Shulman (UK Vogue Editor-in-Chief) and I thought that was juicy! How to Murder your Life is something else entirely; it’s totally off the charts.
The book charts Marnell’s journey from growing up with a dysfunctional family, tricking her psychiatrist father into giving her a ton of prescription drugs. She becomes an (almost) functional drug addict, working her way up to Beauty Editor at Lucky Magazine.
I absolutely flew through this book as it was like living in an alternative universe. My life could not be more different than this and couldn’t believe some of these things actually happen in real life! Not to make light of Marnell’s troubled life, this has everything from psychotic best friends, drug-fuelled celeb parties and eating disorders to weird sex and teen pregnancy.
I found it interesting that despite all the issues her drug use has caused (not including the impact on her health), Marnell continues to use drugs albeit in a much more liberal way.
For me, books are there to experience things that you wouldn’t otherwise; learn from other people’s experiences and mistakes. I am so grateful to Cat Marnell for sharing her story as it took me on a whirlwind adventure I will never forget. It sounds like she’s a lot more settled now and I hope she continues to have a calm but never-boring life.
Roman C, Reviewer
This is real car-crash reading that is voyeuristically rivetting: Marnell seems completely honest in her grisly recital of addiction and humiliation. Talented, privileged (and knowingly acknowledging both), it's not completely clear how she gets into such a dire spiral but she depicts it in full-colour. The biggest mystery is how she ever managed to hold down such a public job in NYC when she was hallucinating, sobbing and wearing grubby, dirty clothes... Unputdownable!
Media/Journalist 374497
For existing Marnell fans, HTMYL is a welcome reminder of her much-missed way with words. Part memoir, part warning, HTMYL is a classic narrative of self-loathing and boredom anaesthetised with drugs, set in the world of Manhattan magazine publishing. This is The Devil Wears Prada as written by Burroughs, made all the more haunting by the fact that Marnell - as unsympathetic as she paints herself in the book - is fragile and raw, human, and deeply relatable.
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