"Drinking Games" is a very self-reflective look at the author's relationship with alcohol and her decision to stop drinking. Anyone who drank in college will see some moments of themselves in her recollections. The audiobook is narrated by the author and her intimate connection to the words that she is reading comes through in her voice.

A thoughtful and honest memoir in essays. Levy's journey with alcohol might seem familiar to others, no matter their age, although this felt unique. She expands beyond recovery Into other issues which troubled her (and so many of us) such as body image and coping with social media offering more than the usual commentary. There's nuance here, especially with regard to what recovery works for who. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

I really enjoyed this book and have told everyone I know about it. I think everyone should read it to see the difficulties that people who have a seemingly perfect life have. I had no clue that Sarah Levy had as many struggles in her life. I am glad she shared her experience.

Sarah Levy takes a deep dive into her experience with alcohol and her decision to become sober. Very enlightening! Something I think most twenty-somethings can relate to - when drinking and partying is more the norm than it should be. Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the egalley in exchange for my honest review.

Drinking Games: A Memoir will be published on January 3, 2023. St. Martin's Press provided an early galley for review.

This memoir appealed to me on a very personal level; I wanted to see what Levy's own experiences with alcohol were and how they might have compared to my own. The first two chapters had elements that rang familiar to my college and post-college years - though no where to the extreme level that she was operating in.

In the second section of the book, she touches upon addictive personalities and how she has one. Whether snacks or drinks or work or dating, she explains how things could so easily spiral out of control for her. This is also illustrated by her experiences in the wellness field and her relationship with a social influencer. Addictions and their potential for poor decisions are not limited to just alcohol or other substances. She exhibits the feelings of awkwardness and the need to fit in that enable all of these kinds of over-indulgant behaviors. Many readers will be able to relate to this.

While I liked this book - the story AND the message it was delivering - I definitely didn't LOVE it. I felt like the last half of the book was very, very repetitive and I skimmed the last 25% or so just to get through it. I'm sure this was not the case, but the author was basically like, "I decided to quit drinking and I did and now my life is better THE END." I have many alcoholics within my own family, all of whom have struggled to stay sober, and wish the author would have been more forthcoming about her own experiences with that.
Overall, this was an interesting read and I may recommend it to others, depending on the audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC!

How can you not love this memoir. Personally, I’m 32, single and never been married so I found this read almost cathartic in a way after having experienced some of the same things. Once done, I felt like I’d had a really good therapy session speaking with a friend. Even through this read with just words, Sarah Levy makes you feel like you’re the direct person she is speaking to and you have her undivided attention.

This book was a did not finish for me. I’m sure for others who have had similar struggles as the author it may garner a completely different review and reaction, but for me I just didn’t relate and couldn’t stay interested enough in the writing to finish the book.

“Drinking Games explores the role alcohol has in our formative adult lives, and what it means to opt out of a culture completely enmeshed in drinking. Sarah explores what our short-term choices about alcohol do to our long-term selves and how it challenges our ability to be vulnerable enough to discover what we really want in life.”

Full disclosure: I read the first 60% of this book thinking the author was Sarah Levy of Schitt’s Creek fame. This coloured my reading SO MUCH, as I spent an embarrassing amount of time saying things like, “I expected this to be funnier.”, “I can’t believe Eugene would say THAT.” and “When are they getting to the Twyla part?”

You’d think I was born before the advent of Google, or something.

Ahem.

As for the actual book by the actual author, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Listen, she’s lived a very privileged life, and has the first-iest of First World Problems, but her writing about her struggles with alcohol were vivid and honest and I am very much rooting for her success.

6.5/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this genuine ARC.

I really loved this book. Levy’s unflinching honesty was so powerful to read. Not just about her alcoholism, but her own insecurities with her body, relationships and professional life. I related to a lot of what she said and reading this certainly made me look back on my relationship with alcohol, especially when I was in college and my early twenties. I liked how she brought up how alcohol masked all the different insecurities and uncertainties she had in her life and once she became sober, how she reevaluated things that were no longer serving her or things that she needed to focus more on. I also really liked how she was just simply telling her story, not telling other people what to do to become sober. This is not a self help book by any means and yet, I found myself taking away so much from it. It’s probably one of my favorite memoirs I’ve ever read and I’ll happily read anything Levy puts out into the world next.

TW: alcoholism, mentions of disordered eating, body image issues, mentions of suicide

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’m normally not one for nonfiction, but this one intrigued me. I am interested in the study of mental health, but specifically addiction, so a memoir written about a young woman who has battled addiction, overcame it and with enough wisdom to share it and help others.. seemed up my alley. And I was right.

What really struck me during this read is how much like any other young female the author was. Independent, great social life, good career. And she managed to do this while drinking to blackouts multiple times a week. What sparks my interest about addiction in particular, is, how it doesn’t discriminate; it can happen to any one of us; is part of your genetic makeup; yet there is such a stigma around it, and it doesn’t get talked about often enough.

I think there is also a stereotype within society- alcoholics can’t hold down jobs, they drink alone at home, are drunk all the time, and by 8 am. But addiction can also look like a successful, driven, working person who goes out on weekends and just cannot stop drinking, no matter how bad things get while they are drinking. I think there are more people functioning and living successful lives, but being weighed down by the inability to enjoy themselves without alcohol, even if they regret it every time they drink.

This book addressed other topics that resonated with me, particularly struggles with self esteem and weight. The author talks about how, while drinking and being hard physicially on her body, she did not dress in nice or well fitting clothes because she did not appreciate or value herself enough to care how she presented herself. She didn’t like her body or herself, so she didn’t take the time to care for it. This really struck a cord with me, as someone who has struggled with body image and weight for years.

This book addressed difficult subject matter while still managing to be a light, good humoured read. I think Sarah Levy is talented, and so brave to use her difficult past and struggles to help others who do not know where to begin to seek help, or maybe don’t realize they have a problem because they do not fit society’s stereotype of an alcoholic. Recommend!

Drinking Games by Sarah Levy is a memoir about the author's alcohol addiction and the impact it had on her life before and after becoming sober. The story is also in a lot of ways a coming of age memoir about finding your way in life, dealing with anxiety and other mental health challenges, and learning how to navigate adult relationships. I love Sarah's honesty and ability to share even her most difficult or embarrassing moments in a way that feels so real and raw. Her writing is interesting and funny where appropriate, but also doesn't over simplify the challenges she faced. I think that more than just a memoir about her own self-healing, Drinking Games is an opportunity to help others who are struggling with addiction and determining when someone's alcohol abuse requires intervention.

I would highly recommend this book. Anyone who enjoys memoirs about mental health and addiction will definitely appreciate this book. Also, if you are a millennial, particularly a female, if you are Jewish, have a French background, or have had family members struggle with cancer or other similar illnesses, I think that it will be easy for you to connect with the author as her ability to relate with her reader is phenomenal. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, St Martins Press, for the opportunity to read this great book!

A memoir from a recovering alcoholic about her journey to sobriety and the good and bad of staying sober.
I’m genuinely happy that she’s in a healthier place and hope it lasts. However, my overall impression of this book is that there are much better stories about addiction and recovery than this one. The author wrote about a lot of her experiences in generalities - not super affective for this type of narrative. I also wasn’t a big fan of the way she separated her story into short essays rather than chronically. Not only did the timeline just jump all over the place, but some of the essays seemed kind of silly, like the one describing how getting sober enabled her to learn how to pick out clothes, or how she finally found the courage to refuse to watch movies about outer space. Umm, I mean, good for her, I guess, but I was definitely hoping for something a little more enlightening.
Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this #arc of #drinkinggames in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an honest portrayal how drinking is so engrained in our culture that it becomes the identity of so many. Levy’s internal struggle of her uncomfortable journey to sobriety is inspiring.

Sarah Levy, a twenty something living in New York City, fills her life with work, friends, hours at the gym and partying. Too much partying. Drinking until she blacks out. Again and again. Sarah knows that this is a problem but she can’t stop. She lies to her friends, parents and co-workers. She’s hospitalized after falls again and again. Still she drinks, until finally…she stops. Now she has to learn how to live, date and work without alcohol. How to live in a world full of people who drink at brunch, lunch, after work and at night. She has to negotiate sober dates, work without hangovers, find activities where drinking is not involved. She does and now continues her sobriety. There is a happy ending.

A good writer does not need compelling drama. However, add a good writer and compelling drama and you get Drinking Games, a memoir that is impossible to put down. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press an Sarah Levy for this ARC.

In her first book, Sarah Levy offers readers a candid account of her struggles with alcohol and her rocky path to sobriety. Drinking Games is a memoir-in-essays that peels back the layers of Levy's life--happy to all outward appearances--to reveal a much more difficult truth.

"I looked like I had it all together," Levy writes in the first pages of Drinking Games, "but my insides told a different story." Despite a successful job with a hot new start-up, a vast network of friends and an active social life, Levy was drowning inside--sometimes literally, consuming copious amounts of alcohol at any and every occasion, with sloppy blackouts her norm. Because she hadn't hit her definition of bottom--drinking on the job, losing her housing, driving while intoxicated--she convinced herself for years that her drinking wasn't really a problem. But, as she notes, "hitting bottom doesn't have to be catastrophic; it can simply mean that we are ready to stop digging." For Levy, this came after waking up next to a stranger, another blackout one-night stand. After years of trying to drink in moderation with no success, she found a support group and built up a new sober life, one day at a time. "The insanity of my drinking," she notes, "was my inability to accept that it wasn't serving me."

With raw honesty, Levy explores the years it took her to learn this truth for herself. She offers details about her partying lifestyle and her mindsets around drinking through her 20s. She recounts the ways she inched toward sobriety; tells of her last drink and her first recovery group meeting; and finally explores the ways that sobriety has given her a sense of freedom--and even joy--that felt impossible when she was drinking, but equally hard for her to imagine would be possible when sober. Ultimately, Levy's path to sobriety becomes a lens through which she reflects on drinking culture and what it means to be sober within that. She also explores the challenges so many people (and particularly so very many millennial women) face in entering adulthood. Her stories examine how people navigate grown-up friendships, the toxicity of social media, emotionally secure romantic relationships, unlearning toxic diet culture and disordered eating habits--to name just a few.

Drinking Games is hard to read at times, yet never judgmental; in her vulnerability and willingness to share the highs and lows of her relationship with alcohol, Levy invites readers to consider what might not be serving them in this moment--and what might be possible on the other side of whatever habit is holding them back from true freedom. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Shelf Talker: A memoir-in-essays considers one woman's struggles with alcohol--and her rocky path to sobriety--to examine the challenges of adulthood.

Every book about getting sober is important as it could help others who are struggling. Drinking Games will be helpful to Millennial and younger folks who are struggling with drinking and who are upper middle class and highly educated. (As a Gen X’er, I had a hard time connecting.). I appreciated this novel in that it focuses on sobriety, not the gory details of being drunk all the time. (Although for that reason, the experience of being an abuser of alcohol is sanitized to a degree.). It was difficult to connect with the author because she had so much going for her financially (she could afford NYC in entry level jobs) and she also attended an elite university and had good, albeit complicated, relationships with both her parents. The point is that alcoholism does not discriminate I suppose. The first half of the book was very compelling. The chapters on archiving social media posts and manifesting should have been cut. They were too much and it comes off as see reader, I manifested my boyfriend and book deal into existence. It ruined the rest of the book for me.

This book makes me realize I really don’t like memoirs by entitled well to do white people. While I believe this writer had a true issue in her drinking the complaints she has in her day to say are sooo minor compared to some of the other stories I read it just sounds so ridiculous. She beats herself up for not doing her dishes or having a pile of unread books. Oh boy.
This collection of essays makes her comes across as the most unassured young woman who ping pongs from trend to person looking for validation and some kind of direction. Her background of blackouts and ending up hospitalized or in unwanted sexual situations is definitely terrible don’t get me wrong but the surrounding people and perceptions were so cringey. At one point she tells us abt a socialite friend who watches her get so drunk she ends up hospitalized. Instead of helping her, the friend decides to break off their friendship. These people are awful. I’ve had friends with drinking issues and I never would have abandoned them like that. And her boyfriend who told her she’s fat?! Oof. She can really pick ‘em.

If you liked Alyssa Shelasky’s memoir:essays this might strike your fancy. Similarly this writer is very honest and I applaud that aspect. The vulnerability she shows is fantastic. I just maybe didn’t need a chapter on archiving instagram posts. Oh millennials. Sigh.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this memoir by Sarah Levy - 5 stars! I started reading the digital copy but switched to the audio because the author narrated it - love listening to an author tell her own story.

Sarah Levy was 28, living in NYC, and was an alcoholic even though she wouldn't have given herself that label. She was like many millennials feeling that she always had to be on her best game, in real life and in social media, and couldn't imagine navigating life without alcohol. Until too many blackout incidents made her take a hard look at her life.

This was a look into Sarah's experience with alcohol and it was honest and real. But it was never preachy - Sarah told her story before and after alcohol and how life looks now. It's a tale for anyone with an addiction or even a drive to constantly be bigger and better instead of living. Add to all that, it was a well-written, intriguing story and tough to put down. Highly recommended!

Sarah’s memoir is more a series of essays than a linear timeline but a compelling read full of honesty about her journey to sobriety. Whether your sober, struggling, or have no issues with alcohol her story has something to relate to, especially female millennials.

Thanks NetGalley and St Martins Press for my arcs!