Thanks @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of Everything/Nothing/Someone, by Alice Carriere. This is a memoir and is very tough to read. Alice grew up in New York City with huge financial privilege, but awful parenting. She was expected to be an adult and a buddy for her parents, who were wildly inappropriate both with her and in their lives. Her mother was a famous artist, and lived a very unconventional lifestyle. Very sad, hard to imagine how someone makes it out of this alive. I did not love this, mainly because it was such a sad story. #everythingnothingsomeone #alicecarriere

I absolutely hated this book. An insufferable privileged rich kid detailing her life with abusive/negligent artist parents and subsequent descent into substance abuse, self-harming behaviour and debilitating mental health issues exacerbated by meds prescribed to her.

It felt like salacious trauma porn, almost delighting in the smorgasbord of triggers to I don’t know what—impress or horrify her readers? This was another memoir that tricked me into reading detailed accounts of psycho/sexual child abuse without any mention of it in the synopsis or back cover text. Surprise! Here’s the most sickening trauma you can think of! I think it’s particularly egregious not to let readers know what they’re getting into when it’s something of this nature. But, more disheartening is the author’s attempt to explain away and be ok with her father’s abuse at the end of the book. Just. What are we reading here? Why do I feel gaslighted?

The writing was fine, but not particularly outstanding and of course I can feel for her struggles but she seemed particularly self-indulgent in writing about her life, uninterested in recovery, selfish with seemingly no outside perspective to herself and just I don’t know, everything about her was off putting to me. I hated every moment of this book, I really should have DNFed it but for some reason I continued to struggle on.

Not every person with a bad life story should write a memoir is what I’m saying. I think this book in particular if you’re interested in memoirs about mental health would actually actively cause you harm the way she writes about it if you’re not careful. All of the above was probably made worse by listening to this narrated by the author.

Felt gross finishing this one. Do not recommend.

Everything/Nothing/Someone is the brutal and honest memoir of Alice Carriere that shows us all the ways things can go wrong when a life of affluence lacking in boundaries and supervision collides with mental illness and a bohemian culture of drugs and self destructive behavior.
It's a miracle that Alice Carriere survived. I can't stop thinking about how different the story would be if she had been born into poverty. Everything/Nothing/Someone is a difficult but important book. 4*

Trigger warnings: self harm, substance abuse, sexual abuse.

I received a drc from the publisher via NetGalley.

I

This book was very heavy with the topics discussed but I always appreciate when books don’t shy away from those. The psychiatry ties into the book fascinated me. Written very well. Will recommend.

I thought that this book was an incredibly interesting look into a troubled, but complicated mind. Definitely out of my comfort zone, but worth the read!

Alice Carriere's memoir is a propulsive and emotional journey. Her book provides a view inside a rarified and elite life as the daughter of a brilliant, renowned American artist and a reckless, creative German actor. Hailed as a genius child, surrounded by intelligentsia on two continents, Alice experienced many challenges despite her privileged background. By the time she became a young adult she was a tangle of emotions absorbing her parents' traumas, including their break-up, her mother's distance and determination to work at all costs, even her own child's mental health, her father's physical distance and his own struggle with family darkness. It's a painful path as Alice moves from self-loathing using drugs and cutting herself to self-discovery where she reclaims her sobriety, unpacks her genuine feelings about her parents, and connects with a supportive life partner. The book raises troubling questions about the limitations of mental health professionals and their use of psychotropic drugs. Someone with less fortitude than the author might have descended into a life of prescription drug-taking without ever discovering the underlying issues. The writing captures the author's trajectory in gripping and vivid prose and leaves the reader with respect for Alice Carrier's resilience, determination, and maturity.

Absolutely loved this memoir. Searingly honest, at times shockingly so, Alice describes her unconventional childhood being brought up by famous aloof parents and the psychological issues which followed her into adulthood. This really gave me a similar feeling to ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’, I found it addicting and read it over the course of a day.

A beautifully written, totally heartbreaking memoir. Author Alice Carrière thoughtfully describes her unconventional childhood, her struggles with mental health and addiction, all the way up to her current, much more hopeful state of being.

This was quite a painful read. Both of Alice's parents had their own struggles, and the cycle continued with Alice. She suffered from severe dissociation for such a long time. This novel really shows the importance of finding the care that works for you. The psychiatric care that she recieved for years was infuriating to read about. I truly hope that things have improved in the mental health sphere in the years since. This memoir is very well written. Despite the extremely painful subject matter, it is definitely worth the read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Such a powerful story because of its gripping and brutal honesty. I was interested in this book because I struggled with my mental health last year after the birth of my son and felt for a time as if I didn't know myself and who was I anyways...I think we all struggle with identity at one point or another. This book was helpful as I navigated my own life changes and as I saw how Alice told her own story and wrestled with her own past and present. Even though it is dark it provides hope because for one it makes the reader realize they are not alone in whatever struggles they face: life is tough, that is something we can all agree upon!

My chief complaint about most memoirs is that not everyone's story needs to be written in a full-length book. Most people have one or two major life events that make their story interesting - which is generally not enough to keep my interest for 300 pages. Alice Carriere's memoir is different - it felt like her story could have been told in multiple books (and I'm hoping she does write many more!). From the extremely complicated relationship with both of her parents to her mental health struggles, Carriere's life is heartbreaking, yet fascinating.

I decided to read this book because of her experiences dealing with dissociative disorder. It seems like there isn't a ton of literature told from a first-person perspective about this diagnosis. Not only was I able to relate to a lot of Carriere's descriptions of depersonalization and derealization, but there was also a ton of common ground between us when it comes to trying to get treatment for any kind of mental health diagnosis.

This book would have been helpful no matter what because of what I related to, but I wasn't expecting the details of Carriere's life to be so insane. Every part of this book felt intriguing because Carriere's life has been so unique (famous parents, rich lifestyle, etc.). But the very best part of this book is that her writing is so beautiful. I found myself underlining a ton of passages because her style is just so impressive and moving.

Her honesty and self-awareness drew me in as a reader, but her gorgeous prose kept me glued to every page.

Incredibly beautiful and self reflective memoir that I can only hope was incredibly cathartic for the author to write. It was so painful to feel Alice’s trauma seemingly as it occurred to her that that is what it was. Definitely not for the faint of heart but I found it to be healing.

You won't read a memoir better than this!

TW: sexual abuse, suicide, drug use, self-harm, alcoholism

Alice Carrière's memoir is one of the most extraordinarily well-written books I have ever read. The way she weaves the story of her life together is so well-done and stylistically a masterclass in writing. She paints a heartbreaking (and at many times hard to read) picture of a life in shadows. Carrière explores what role memory plays in our lives, what living beyond yourself is like, and what it means to get out of your own way. At times wholly relatable and at other times unbelievably incomprehensible, this is a book that you will want to put down but cannot tear yourself away from. A lesson in living and what it means to both survive and thrive, you will leave this book with so much respect and care for Alice along with new ways of thinking about the relationships in your life and your own relationship to yourself.

A must-read for anyone who has felt completely and utterly lost in life.

Ergreifendes Buch das einen sofort in den Bahn zieht. Ich war sofort sehr ergriffen von dem Leben von Alice Carriere und ihr Buch ist wundervoll geschrieben und nimmt einen mit in ihr Leben.

This was such a raw, honest, and interesting memoir. It was the structure as easy to follow and the writing was beautiful. This is definitely worth a read, especially if you love true stories. Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for a chance to read and review this book.

I’d basically had it with this book when the memoirist’s father, Mathieu Carrière, talked about his dream of making a film in which he and his teenage daughter Alice would star as lovers. There would, of course, be a sex scene. Could it become more sordid than that? Well, yes, perhaps it could. The “banality of evil” is the phrase that came to mind once I’d reached that point. I had struggled to find a sympathetic human in the text and realized it wasn’t gonna happen. (Okay, maybe the nanny, but her time on stage was brief.) Alas, there’s just too, too much of Alice and her dysfunction.

Also, contrary to the comments of many, I don’t think the writing is anything special at all. The author is perhaps less interesting than she thinks she is. There’s something flat about the whole endeavour. I question the book’s being published. To what end? Sensationalism? By turns dreary and debauched, it could not and did not end soon enough for me. I simply stopped at the one-third point. Two hundred more pages seemed like unnecessary torture. Cannot recommend.

I was intrigued by this memoir; while it was unflinchingly honest, I found myself longing for the end starting about a third of the way through. Not particularly enjoyable.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

SUch a raw and amazing memoir. THe author really upped up and let us into her world. So beautiful.

A good memoir in which the author describes the difficulties of growing up in the shadow of famous, successful, not-so-great parents, and the mental health struggles that she has faced since childhood.
Thanks to #netgalley and #spiegelandgrau for this #arc of #everythingnothingsomeone by #alicecarrière in exchange for an honest review.

Reading memoirs about mental illness are tough and Alice Carrière's is no different. However, I'm so grateful for writers who are willing to delve into this part of our lives. It can make such a big difference in helping people understand themselves or a loved one and, at a minimum, feel less alone in their own struggles.

Specific to EVERYTHING / NOTHING / SOMEONE, I appreciate the author's willingness to be so frank about how young she was (age seven!) when she discovered self-harm. It's yet another example of proof that we can't dismiss things as "kids don't know" or "kids won't know." I hope this helps drive forward a conversation about mental health and kids.

A successful artist, caught up in the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s, convinces her teenaged daughter that the daughter has "mental illness" too. Then the teenager, who may or may not have more problematic emotions than most teenagers, is off on a wild ride with suicide attempts, memory distortions, false accusations, illegal drug use, irresponsible behavior of all kinds.

Because the family are apparently rich, they can survive a little more of this kind of thing than most families could stand. Teen Alice wants to live with her mother rather than her father, so she exaggerates a few memories to suggest that her father is a pedophile. He's not, but rather than being ruined by people's seeing him as a child abuser, he goes to Europe where nobody's heard the story and lives a normal affluent life with another woman.

And is it just lacking the stimulation of having to work for grades, money, or recognition that makes Alice crave the stimulation of painful drug reactions and doing her high school education in a mental institution?

Anyway, Alice survives. That's what makes it worthwhile to read about her. She even preserves enough of a conscience to try to explain what she did to her father, seek his forgiveness, and get it. She cares for her mother, too, during the mother's horrific final illness.

The gross-out level of this book is extremely high. If thoughts of intestinal parasites, surgical wounds that never heal, or the "Satanic Panic" itself, are likely to linger in your memory and upset your digestion, you will not enjoy reading or having read this book. Teenagers may want to read it for just that reason--to prove their toughness.

In many ways Alice Carriere's memoir is an updated remake of Janet Gotkin's "Too Much Anger, Too Many Tears," but with much more sex, violence, and squick.