ACNE: A MEMOIR
by Laura Chinn
Hachette
Out Jul 19

Laura Chinn's memoir will grip you from the first page as she describes a tough childhood bouncing between her divorced parents in Florida and L.A.

Comedy writer and creator/star of the sitcom Florida Girls, Chinn experienced racism as a biracial child, the tragic loss of family members, and the alcoholism of her stepfather. She often had to raise herself, turning to drink and cigarettes at eleven and dropping out of school at 15, all the while dealing with severe chronic scarring acne.

It's a hard story to read but beautifully told, even redemptive and funny as Chinn eventually finds love and healing and creates a full satisfying life. Highly recommended!

Thanks to the author, Hachette, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.

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I didn't even know who Laura Chinn was before I read her memoir, "Acne". This was such a fun and heartbreaking read. I don't think there was anything I didn't like about this book. Memoirs can be a hit or miss for me, but this one was a winner all the way! This book is more than a girl/woman suffering from cystic acne. Laura has gone through a lot of personal loss and setbacks in her life. She also had a very unconventional childhood. She pretty much raised herself after her parents checked out mentally after their divorce. Laura's prose is hilarious, heartfelt, candid, and poignant. I'm so glad I went into this book with an open mind. She's very lucky she survived such a chaotic and traumatic upbringing. Such a down-to-earth and relatable memoir. Highly recommended!

Thank you, Netgalley and Hachette for the digital ARC.

If you struggled with acne as a teenager, pick Acne up. Like Laura, I spent my teenage years frustrated with my skin, frustrated with people's comments on my skin, and eventually went on Accutane -- reading about Laura's struggle and journey to loving her skin and herself made me feel seen. That being said, Acne is not only about Laura's experience with acne. In this memoir, Chinn talks about growing up bi-racial and living without parental supervision, her experience in the U.S. public school system and with Scientology (her parents are both Scientologists), her parents' divorce, and her brother's disability. Laura's writing is filled with humor and self-awareness -- I feel honored to read her memoir.

**Note to publisher: This review will be posted on bookstagram @movedbyprose closer to publication day**

This was a funny, introspective, sad, and hopeful memoir. I really enjoyed Laura Chinn's short-lived TV show Florida Girls, so when I saw she was writing a memoir, I knew I had to read it. I wasn't surprised to recognize some of the scenes from the show in the stories she told in this book. I didn't know all of the trauma and loss she has experienced in her life, but she somehow managed to survive and tell her story in a moving, funny, and entertaining way. Also, did y'all know she grew up a Scientologist? I never would have guessed, but her writing about Scientology in this book is super interesting and downright hilarious (don't worry, she is not a Scientologist anymore!).

I appreciated the part of the book where she reflects on the #MeToo movement and how it changed how she views sexual harassment as a woman. Growing up surrounded by harassment and assault, Chinn thought these things were "normal" for women to experience. It was only when other women started opening up about their experiences that Chinn realized how wrong it was for men to do these things to her, too. I really didn't expect myself to vibe with the final chapters, which are about how she healed her acne and involve some pretty woo-woo alternative things like crystals and energy work. I personally do not really put much weight into these things, but honestly, they seem to really have helped Chinn mentally, emotionally, and physically, so I say you do you. As long as you are not preaching anti-science beliefs, do what you gotta!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is not your typical coming of age memoir…well maybe. I know this book is called Acne and at first, to be honest, I thought it will be talking about the author’s acne and all she had to endure and possibly come to either accept or what worked for her to get rid of this Acne. Well, this book was so much more than that.
Laura Chinn was about 10 years old when her parents divorced and so she was in between homes from Clearwater Florida with her mom and then to Los Angeles with her dad (who then eventually moved out of the country). How Laura was able to survive the life that was handed to her speaks volumes of her strength to be quiet honest. She talks about how she basically raised herself, even living alone at times, for months on end due to her mom having to focus helping her sick older brother(like the synopsis says her alcoholic step father was near by)
This book shows the authors more cringe worthy moments throughout her life but also the vulnerable. Told with some dark humor you will laugh and really have the “what the hell are you doing!” moments, and cry and really just want to be there and listen to everything she went through growing up. It is a difficult read at times but I like that the author left nothing to the imagination.

Thank you Netgalley and Hachette books for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review of Acne by Laura Chinn.

I read the title and summary of this book and knew that I wanted to read it. Having no clue as to who the author was, I assumed she was of Asian descent, dealing with an annoying case of acne. Boy was I wrong! Laura Chinn is a comedy writer who is of mixed race, her mother is white, and father black. In this gritty, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, memoir, Chinn leads the reader through the episodes of drunken sexual encounters, living unsupervised in her childhood home by the age of 13, and chain smoking her way through school while her brother tackles his brain tumour. Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? And amidst all of this chaos, acne, the second main character of her book is introduced.

I couldn’t put this book down. The unbelievable events of her formative years, compounded with her lack of self-esteem from dealing with severe acne made for an interesting and very eye-opening memoir. She lays it all at the foot of the reader. I give her credit for her honestly and daringness to expose her life to the scrutiny of others. You will laugh, shake your head in disbelief, and maybe even relate to some of her experiences,… or maybe you won’t. Either way, you will be pulled into her memoir from the very first chapter.

Solid memoir! Chinn recounts her life growing up in both LA and Florida, as well as learning to grow up in spite of her parentless upbringing. I love her growth as an adult, and her goal to keep growing.

My heart actually hurt when I finished Acne by Laura Chinn. She is an incredibly gifted author. It has been difficult to find books that remove me from the daily stressors of the pandemic. This autobiography kept me riveted through all the glorious hilarious moments and the heart wrenching tragic ones. I loved the sheer quirkiness of her stories and her perseverance to put aside the crazy and continue to work toward her life goals. In spite of her nontraditional upbringing (maybe because of it) Laura shines as an exceptional human being: witty, loyal and kind. I think we've all found our new best friend!

Thank you netgalley for the free advanced copy of this novel. The opinions in this review are my own.

I am absolutely obsessed with this memoir. Chinn is hilarious, engaging, and relatable, even while having a childhood and adolescence I can't even imagine. I wanted to read this mostly for the title, as anyone who has experienced severe acne will understand, but wow, there is so much more here.

Chinn delves into growing up with interracially married Scientologist parents who divorce, moving to Florida, being biracial in the South, her brother's eventual illness, her lack of parenting and resulting wild antics with drinking and partying, and the general unfairness of life. I really appreciated the retrospective aspect, as she often clarifies, after a lot of work as an adult, that her behavior was because of a fear of abandonment, a lack of structure, etc. etc. Very compelling and emotionally satisfying.

Also, she's a comedy writer, and this book is hilarious. It's no easy task for me to laugh out loud while reading alone, and Chinn managed it. Highly recommend. Thank you to Hachette and NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A very moving memoir that I could not put down! I was drawn to the book because of it's extremely relatable title and description. I really appreciate how Chinn was able to intertwine the story of her dysfunctional childhood and young adult life with her battle with chronic cystic acne all while conveying the deep love she felt for her family despite all the hardships. Some parts of the book were tough to read but I really appreciated the honesty and her ability to make you laugh despite the pain you felt for her. Chinn's fortitude is so admirable and I, while not being a very "woo woo" person, really appreciated the way she tied it all with a bow in the end!

I could not put this memoir down! Laura Chinn has worked as a comedy television writer/producer/actress and her skills are evident here. This book had me laughing out loud and trying to tell the nearest person all about it. That's no easy feat for a book that traces many serious parts of Chinn's life.

"There's nothing like polishing off a pack of cigarettes and then climbing in bed with your mommy."

She writes about her rough and tumble upbringing bouncing back and forth between California and Florida (and briefly Mexico). While the book is titled for her decades-long relationship with acne, she weaves that thread through the times in life when she was faced with grief, addiction, poverty and other traumas.

"She was gorgeous--really tall and had that glow that comes from a trauma-free childhood."

The humor is dark at times, but overall Chinn's writing belies a compassion for her younger self and the adults in her life who couldn't be everything she needed at the time. I appreciated Chinn's willingness to share her experiences as someone who grew up in the Church of Scientology and has mixed feelings about it. She also writes candidly about her experience as a mixed-race, white-passing person.

In the latter part of the book there were sections that bordered on self-help that I didn't care for. I'm a Californian and have a high tolerance for "woo" content, but I'm particularly tired of rhetoric espousing "clean food" or fear-mongering around "toxins," because I find these labels harmful. These sections are about Chinn's health journey, and she emphasizes that this was just her own experience, so I don't take great issue with it.

Trigger warning for content (I noticed): death in the family, terminal illness, ableism, euthanasia debate, racism, colorism, addiction, suicide, sexual assault/assault involving minors, divorce.

I voluntarily obtained a digital advanced reader copy of this book free from Netgalley and Hachette Books in exchange for an honest review. The book is expected to publish in July of 2022.

Laura Chinns writing her description of her acne break out drew me right in to her life her teen years.Asides from her painful acne eruptions her parents sudden divorce their living cross country had me laughing out loud and at the same time sympathizing with the life of a child of divorce.This is a terrific oy entertaining read highly recommend.#netgalley #hatchettebooks

I’d like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I will admit I didn’t know who the author was but as someone who struggled through their teen years with acne and needed accutane this book spoke to me. It was a really interesting read seeing how she coped with this horrific acne all the while going through the trials and tribulations of life and everything that was thrown at her.

what a fantastic, funny, tragic-but-laugh-through-the-pain memoir. Laura Chinn writes not just of crippling cystic acne (relatable) but more so the trauma of her parents’ divorce, zig zagging coast to coast trying to navigate life without real parental figures, her brother’s terminal brain cancer, drug-addled friends and questionable youth escapades (not relatable at all but wild and intimate and entertaining). this kind of memoir could definitely fall into the dark humor puff pity piece, but Chinn describes it all with a really biting humor that acknowledges she was going through a lot, but also maybe also was an asshole at times, just surviving. What can I say, I laughed, I cried, I bookmarked like crazy bc the little quips cut right to the emotional core of healing from trauma, I’m a fan.

This book comes out in July 2022 — Thank you so much to Hatchette Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn’t stop reading, I could relate to the author in different ways throughout this book and really needed to hear what was said in that last chapter.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the free arc in exchange for an homest review.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I could not put this one down. Everything that Laura went through growing up kept me entertained and invested. She went through so much at a young age. I also enjoyed how she intertwined the concept of her acne throughout the essays and how it always came back to her appearance and how she viewed herself. There were so many laugh out loud moments as well as a few heartbreaking ones as well. Though by the end of the memoir, I was happy to see that Laura took the time to work on herself and accept her life. I enjoyed Laura's writing style, I felt like a friend was talking to me and sharing stories.