This book is completely outside of my usual genre comfort zone but the synopsis intrigued me so I decided to give it a chance. I’m glad I did! I found the story to be both interesting and frightening while still maintaining some humor.

Sports writer and novelist Drew Magary had a good life. He had just hosted the Deadspin Awards in 2018 and was at an after party at a karaoke bar in New York City when he went to use the restroom. Alone in a concrete hallway, he fell: he doesn’t remember it, and nobody saw it happen, but the result was catastrophic. He cracked his skull in several places, resulting in a traumatic brain injury.

The Night the Lights Went Out is Magary’s memoir of the event and its aftermath, and it reads like a page-turning, sometimes hilarious, novel. Obviously he recovered sufficiently to write this book, but after reading about the extent of his injuries, I wasn’t sure what that meant until the end.

Magary is thoughtful and doesn’t spare himself in his account but injects humor throughout. It’s an interesting--and, incredibly, entertaining--look at what it means to have suffered a traumatic brain injury and what it takes to recover. Highly recommended for anyone interested in TBI and the brain.

It was interesting to read about the author’s experience with recovery from a traumatic brain injury. I was intrigued by his perspective of dealing with the frustration of recovery but having no idea the terror that his family and friends were experiencing before he awoke from his coma. I have a new appreciation of having the full use of all of my senses. I hope I never take that for granted.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I feel like I learned so much from this book and not just about TBI. I loved how honest and open Drew was in his account for his recovery. He didn't paint himself as so grateful to be alive that he could manage all the other things that came from his incident. I think that he is probably doing better now than he even was at the end of the memoir, but I appreciated his need not to sugarcoat his trials. His family and friends are truly amazing people.


Thanks to Rodale Inc, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are expressed are my own.

A look at the authors life after horrific brain damage.Drew shares his new life his adjustment to his new life.This is so well written and so funny I could not put it down.Will be recommending.#netgalley#rodale

A fascinating (and even funny!) read about what happened to Drew when something happened to his brain that caused him to have horrific brain damage. There were parts that made me read faster to find out what happened next, and parts that made me laugh out loud. This is a really well-written book!

Calling all fans of medical memoirs! Magary was a writer for Deadspin when he inexplicably suffered a traumatic brain injury at a Manhattan karaoke bar in 2018 and almost died. This darkly funny account of what he went through on his road to recovery is hard to put down and written in a very engaging, relatable style. For the two weeks Magary was in a medically induced coma, he called on his friends and doctors to share their memories and anecdotes, which worked really well for that section. As Magary navigated deafness in one ear, a loss of his sense of smell, and a partial loss of his sense of taste, I did find myself a little frustrated with him at times, only to be won back when he finally got himself into therapy and sang its praises, genuinely committing to the process. This is a fascinating read with a lot of heart. Thank you to NetGalley, Harmony Publishing, and Drew Magary for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Night the Lights Went Out by Drew Magary tells the author's story of experiencing a traumatic brain injury and the gradual process of recovery. After hosting the 2018 Deadspin Awards, he collapsed, breaking his skull and his brain. In this book, he brings readers along as his life is turned upside down.

Since the author was not conscious for several weeks following his injury, that part of the story is pulled together from colleagues, family members, and doctors. It was laid out with a few sentences at a time from one person, then another person, then another person, etc. It captures the franticness and confusion of the time, as people tried to piece together what had happened. I think that this is probably a very captivating way of telling a story that would be compelling for a lot of readers; however, my concentration is crap because of the effects of depression, so I found it hard to follow.

When the story reached the point that Magary was conscious and alert again, it shifted to first-person storytelling, which I found much easier to read. The author's writing style is informal and candid, with plenty of humour and profanity thrown in. I learned some new lingo, too, including crack of ass (I'd heard butt crack of dawn, but I like crack of ass more), and butt-rock, which is apparently the genre that Hemorrhage by Fuel falls into. I also liked descriptions along the lines of "the requisite assless hospital gown: the one scientifically designed to rob you of your dignity."

The brain injury, as well as the effects of later cochlear implant surgery, had significant sensory effects, impairing his hearing, smell, and taste. I thought the author did a great job of conveying how these deficits influenced the way he related to the world, including what it felt like to lose sensory memories and be unable to replace them.

As a result of the injury, the author joins the young old people club that many of us with chronic illness are already members of. He needed to use a walker, get a pillbox, and transition to being "a Hearing Aid Guy," and wrote that, "In the span of less than two months, I had aged thirty years." It's interesting to hear the perspective of someone who experiences those changes suddenly compared to the slower adjustment in chronic illness.

The author is open about how hard it became to interact with the world with a brain that wasn't working properly. He talked about being a "cranky old turd" and "an overly sensitive prick," and realizing he needed to figure out a way to "get the fuck over myself." He observed, "The more I recovered from my hemorrhage, the more pronounced my losses became to me." It was one of the many points in the book that highlighted how much commonality there is in different kinds of wonky brain experiences.

The book also addresses the push/pull of wanting to be normal yet wanting people to accommodate his limitations. He grappled with acceptance, and realized stubbornness was serving as "a flimsy cover for outright denial." When he found out that a coworker was also deaf in one ear, he discovered something a lot of us in the mental health blogging community have already learned: "It never hurts to know someone who's been through your very specific brand of shit."

Vulnerability was another theme that came up, including the need to get over his own mental block that made him reluctant to see a therapist. This book is certainly proof that he's prepared to be vulnerable, even if it isn't easy.

Culturally, I live in a very different world from the author, who is currently a columnist at Defector, which I hadn't heard of before I read this book (nor had I heard of Deadspin). I think many of my cohabitants in the chronic illness world will likely be able to relate to a lot of the issues that come up in this book. Where I think this book will really have value, though, is in bringing these kinds of issues and this vulnerability to audiences within the author's cultural world.

2.5 stars. Interesting story and odd injury, but my problem with this book is in the storytelling. I feel there was unnecessary repetition throughout which made me lose interest and caused my mind to wander.

I have read Magary's fiction before and not always found it to my taste So while I was very intrigued by his memoir about surviving a TBI I wasn't sure if his writing style in a nonfiction context would work better for me than it does in a fictional one. I'm pleased to report that It does.

I found his voice here to be true, brutally honest, and raw in a way that rang clarion-clear given the situations he was writing about. His journey was difficult to read. I appreciated that he didn't sugarcoat any of what he went through or downplay any of the negative aspects both of his accident or his recovery. I particularly appreciated his thoughtful consideration of how everything he went through impacted his family and friends. I also have a family member who suffered a TBI (as a result of a car accident) and all our lives changed afterwards. It made this a more moving (and difficult, at times) read for me, but also a more meaningful one.

The Night the Lights Went Out is about Drew who made a come-back after a near fatal brain injury. It was a grueling 2 year process all during Covid too! I enjoyed this and felt every emotion there was to feel. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read it. I would add it to my collection.

This was an enjoyable memoir. Quippy and fast paced like the rest of Magary’s writing. The subject matter is sensitive though. I wish the mentions of fentanyl were not included having just recently lost a family member to the effects of that drug. Can’t win em all.

Drew Magary is a bro you can love. He's smart. charming, not gross. I guess it's weird that I think all memoirs by white men will be full of microaggressions. This is, blessedly, not.

Thank you Netgalley and Rodale Inc. for allowing me to read the arc of this book. I don't read much nonfiction and was not familiar with this author but I decided to give it a a try. I am so glad I did - the book was so well-written! I was immediately drawn into the drama, even though I knew the author lived to write this book. I loved the memories from his friends and coworkers and would have liked more of them interspersed throughout the rest of the book. The loss of hearing, taste, and smell were fascinating to read about and scary to think about. I liked learning why they all occurred. I loved how the author grew and realized some self-truths, and applaud him for that. The book was heartbreaking as well as triumphant and well worth the read.

4.5 stars!

I'm not sure of the exact year I first discovered Drew (and the original Deadspin), but I know it was late summer. I know this because one day, while wasting time on the internet, I came across an article titled "Why Your Team Sucks: Pittsburgh Steelers" (my favorite team; sorry, Drew). "Why Your Team Sucks" is an annual celebration of the new NFL season by roasting every single team in it. While Drew admirably burns every team, he does have a special vitriol for the Steelers, and he did not hold back. I was laughing at the all-too-accurate burns (yes, too many yinzers do consider a Steelers jersey appropriate attire for all occasions), and instantly became a fan of his and original Deadspin (now Defector).

You may not think someone who has used every swear word as every part of speech and absolutely abuses all caps as a form of emphasis would be able to write a moving account about the time he temporarily died, but Drew pulls it off effortlessly. I remember when this happened as a fan of Deadspin, wondering what had happened to him and being extremely worried (especially when his colleagues would put nice stories about him in while covering the Funbag). It gives the account (from the point of view of Drew's friends and family, as an oral history) of Drew's brain injury, the harrowing time where he almost died because many health care professionals (somewhat understandably) wanted to dismiss it as someone who was drunk, to the two weeks he spent in a coma after emergency surgery to repair the massive brain bleed.

The actual injury is only the beginning; Drew also takes us on his journey towards recovery, with an honest appraisal of both the physical and emotional issues he faced as he sought to get as much of his "normal" back as he could, and the (even longer) road to accepting his new normal.

This was a deeply moving book without straying into the "phony inspirational" tone that a lot of memoirs about recovery adopt. Drew doesn't spare himself from his typical blunt criticism as he recounts his recovery. I'm very relieved that he has been able to resume some level of normalcy after such an awful event. I had previously only read The Postmortal, but am now eager to read his other novels!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley to read and review.

This is the story of Drew Magary's near-fatal brain hemorrhage and his struggle to successfully recover from it, physically and mentally. Drew had been hosting the annual Deadspin awards event earlier in the evening that he passed out, suffering the severe brain injuries.

The first third of the book is told primarily through the voices of Drew's friends and family. Drew was in a coma for several weeks and had no idea what was happening to him, but his strong support system (friends and family) sure did.

The surgery took away Drew's ability to hear properly, smell and taste - all abilities he was fiercely determined to recover.

Drew gets in the weeds a bit on the medical details, which was less enlightening than the mental trials and tribulations he chronicled as he sought to become himself again.

Drew does not portray himself very favorably. While very determined, he was also often obnoxious. While he was/is blessed with a fabulous support system, led by his wife (Sonia), it was a wonder that these people tolerated him at times. He was very self-centered and self-absorbed.

In the end, Drew comes to grips with his undesirable behavior and engages a therapist to get him back on track mentally. A quote: "I was the lucky one. I was the last to understand it."

Personally, I have a 5-minute rule with my friends and family when it comes to medical matters. Discussions of my or anyone's medical issues must be limited to 5 minutes in length. Reading a whole book about someone's medical issues is a MAJOR violation of this rule, but I found Drew's story to be very entertaining and educational. Though at times, I wanted to say: "TMI!"

I love reading books that portray real humans going through real things. I liked that in this book Drew Magary gave us insight into before, during, and after his collapse. The book is neatly divided into 3 parts. I definitely found the recovery process and Drew's state of mind throughout it all to be interesting. You will love The Night the Lights Went Out if you like books about true life medical stories.

I profoundly appreciated this book. Life is a fragile and delicate thing, and the story that Drew tells, of a sudden subdural hematoma and profound skull damage from a resulting fall on concrete, brings this fact to the front of the mind. The section of the book about the night of his accident—the events of which he, obviously, does not remember—consists solely of interviews with his colleagues, his doctors, and most notably his wife, who is clearly a tower of strength even in the face of a harrowing situation. Drew adds no editorialization to these stories, which makes them feel even more real and unguarded. The story of his recovery is more light-hearted—Drew is able to see the absurdity that comes with irreversible life change and disability—but no less honest, especially in his emotional recovery in the face of his and his family’s trauma. It takes a great writer to be funny about a profoundly unfunny situation, and Drew is just that. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Wow this book was quite literally a page turner. I read it in one sitting because I couldn't wait to read what happened next. While the story was remarkable, what I found myself admiring most was the authors sense of humor. I literally laughed out loud in several spots. The way the book was paced and how the story was told from different perspectives while the author was in the coma was really well done. The authors way of writing is so visceral that you feel as if you're going on the journey with him.