In 2019, Natalie Beach went viral after her article "I Was Caroline Calloway" was published in The Cut. The article caused a sensation because Calloway had made headlines earlier that year for scamming folks into paying for creativity workshops that ended up either cancelled or became mere glorified meet-and-greets with Calloway. Prior to the scam, Calloway was an influencer most well-known for her embellished captions about life as an American student at Cambridge University. (Why she decided this internet fame gave her the ability to "teach" workshops on creativity, we may never know.) Beach's article caused a sensation primarily because she revealed that she had helped Calloway write many of her early Instagram captions - as well as a later book proposal. Not only that, but the article was chock-full of toxic friendship dynamics and scathing self-awareness on Beach's part. Thus, it's easy to see why the article was so captivating to many netizens.

As a fan of Beach's Cut article myself, I was eagerly anticipating this collection. I was glad to discover that her talent still shines clearly in Adult Drama; Beach is self-aware, insightful, and wry. I particularly enjoyed her essay about estate sales, which was ultimately a beautiful celebration of mortality. Another standout was her essay on becoming a wife just as her mother-in-law was dying from incurable cancer. Beach meditates on the institution of marriage, the strength of familial love, and overwhelming grief - all with skilled, crystal clear hindsight.

That being said, I think that Adult Drama as a collection lacked cohesion. Some of the shorter essays seemed undeveloped. And they would have benefited from being organized in a more chronological manner. However, Adult Drama is a quite entertaining debut collection, and I look forward to reading more of Beach's work.

This is the type of book where I wish I could rate each individual essay. While some essays were outstanding (Dead People’s Stuff), there were others that didn’t seem to bring anything new to the genre of coming-of-age essays. Generally, Beach is a strong writer, although several essays felt too long and could be tightened up. Beach is clearly capitalizing on her viral essay about Caroline Calloway (although Calloway is only discussed in two chapters of the book) and even though a number of the essays weren’t for me, good for her.

This book was just okay to me. While I enjoyed her piece that she wrote for The Cut, most of her other essays just didn't do much for me. Natalie Beach is a talented writer though and I may check out whatever she puts out next.

Like most of the world, I was introduced to Natalie Beach when she published her essay in The Cut about being Caroline Calloway’s ghostwriter. That was also my introduction to Caroline, and I have no shame in admitting I’ve been quietly watching her story continue to unfold on the internet (CC memoir update: still nonexistent.)

I also kept an eye on Natalie; I found her Cut essay really captured the messy experience of complicated friendship in a really beautiful way. So when I saw she was publishing a collection of essays, I was hype!

Adult Drama is a gritty look at surviving your twenties, and what exactly it means to reach adulthood. I’m about the same age as Beach, so a lot of her musings really struck a chord. Each essay follows a similar structure: an overall thematic idea, with (sometimes meandering) bits of her lived experienced woven together with bits of related pop culture history. Sometimes the meandering is a little too much, but most of the time I loved the way she connected ideas. The memoir ends with a second essay reflecting back on her relationship with Caroline, and I thought it was brilliant to come full circle like that; I also think this particular essay is perhaps even stronger than the one on The Cut because it explores more of her mindset surrounding the entire situation.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this collection and will absolutely read more from Beach in the future. If you enjoy memoirs, this will likely be a great read for you.

I — as I imagine many readers did— first read Beach’s writings after watching her former friend react… passionately on social media to Natalie Beach’s article about said friend in ‘The Cut.’ While I have ceased to follow Beach’s former friend over the years I expected to enjoy this book for any ounce of context about the drama I watched unfold through fifteen second snippets years ago. While there is one new essay about said relationship it wasn’t my favorite in the book by a long shot.

I think Beach explained herself why this collection works as well for me as it does when she relayed one of her former professors’ critique of her writing, “what you’re limited by right now is where you’ve walked through yourself.” While Beach is still limited by what she's been through all these years later, my favorite moments in this book are ones where Beach is observing others, whether her mother-in-law in the hospital, a quirky roommate, to protestors outside of Planned Parenthood.

My two favorite pieces in the book were:
— Abortion, Abortion, Abortion. Beach walks us through her time as a patient escort at Planned Parenthood through second person. By removing herself entirely from the essay, we get one of the most self reflective pieces in the entire work.
— Dead People’s Stuff. As a fellow estate sale enthusiast there are lines in this essay I will remember at every sale I go to from now on.

This book isn’t perfect by any means: there is very little flow to the collection, some of the stories tend to drag on, and despite the title being “Adult Drama” and Beach lamenting about the abundance of coming of age stories, the bulk of this collection exists in Beach’s early twenties / college years. That being said I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and look forward to seeing Beach’s writing advance in future publications.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked it! Natalie Beach is a talented writer and several essays were quite strong, though a few fell flat for me--I think Beach is strongest when she's writing about her emotions, and when she's further away her writing can be somewhat less compelling. Overall a fun and interesting read about the bumpy road towards full adulthood.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

So many funny essays! Though some seemed a bit slow, overall I thought there were enough interesting stories to keep my attention. I was a bit confused when the background/research portions appeared in some of the stories.

If you’re anything like me, you were captivated by the story of Caroline Calloway—an Instagram influencer who desperately wanted to be famous but seemingly couldn’t pull it together long enough to capitalize on said fame once she had it. You were among the first people to read The Cut article published in September of 2019 by her ghostwriter, and you even considered signing up for her Fyre Festival of a tour. Well, unlike you (probably) I will not leave a stone unturned! And with that in mind, I dove headfirst into Adult Drama: And Other Essays, the memoir written by infamous ghostwriter Natalie Beach.

The Cut article was, of course, reprinted, about two essays in, but other than that the references to Calloway were sparse. What I wanted when I began reading this book was a detailed creative nonfiction tale of the adderall-driven days and nights spent writing on Calloway’s floor. I wanted what Beach’s original memoir project promised to be. And sure, it wasn’t going to be about her, but I was hoping that she would inject the frenetic magic of her Calloway character into her own life. It seemed like that would make sense, given it was her that wrote most of it.

What I found, however, is that for the most part Natalie Beach lived a normal life. She, like me, grew up playing travel soccer in Connecticut. She fell prey to brands such as Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch, which promised to fit everyone while simultaneously fitting nobody. The memoir was relatable in the way it captured and then elaborated on normal human experiences, managing to turn “being a shopgirl” into a commentary on the human condition. Essays were well-researched, citing sources and studies in addition to just discussing Beach’s life. This was necessary because, like I said, Beach’s life was rather unoriginal, with the glaring exception of Calloway.

It’s likely my preconceived idea of what this memoir would be that lead to my disappointment. Beach is a talented writer and her essays were well done. Were this a human being I had prior investment in, I most likely would have loved the essays. As it was, there were about half which I adored and half that I skimmed. If you are someone who frequently reads researched first person essays, then this will be right up your alley, just in book form. Go into it expecting more of a series of Cut articles than a true memoir, and you’ll enjoy your reading experience.

I, like so many others, read Natalie Beach's essay on The Cut. It was an outstanding look at the internet and it's affect on society and (honestly) the participation ribbon generation. She was open and honest about her hurt and pain from the end of her friendship and partnership.

The rest of the stories in this essay collection, well....my eyes would glaze over after a few pages. I skipped around quite a bit, trying to find one that I could connect with....and I couldn't. I'm not saying that this is a bad book, just not a book that I necessarily enjoyed.

It's clear that Beach is a talented writer, but I can't see myself rushing out to pick up whatever she releases next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Unfortunately this book is just not for me. The writing style feels a bit young, and the topics Beach chose to write about didn't feel quite substantial enough to power an entire collection. I hope the author keeps writing and I'll keep an eye out for their work in the future.

Immediately requested this because I’ve closely followed the Caroline Calloway drama since Beach’s 2019 essay for The Cut. This collection was well written but ultimately did not draw me in like The Cut essay did. Some of the essays rambled on for far too long seemingly without a point.

I am curious how the readership of this book will break down between Caroline Calloway scholars (me) and regular readers of essay collections (also me). I thought this was a good book of essays that show someone truly challenging themselves to become a better person despite some of their worst instincts. Because of my knowledge of the Callowayverse, it was especially interesting to see how much more alike they come across in writing than I would have guessed. For me, the weakness in these essays is a persistant habit of not quite exaggerating, but emphasizing the unusual details in a story. It comes across as a little try-hard, like the person who wants to have the reputation "the craziest stuff always happens to you!" It's an overreliance on zaniness that cheapens otherwise very thoughtful work.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed these. She's not yet at the level of other essayists who write dense, referential, meandering essays (your Jia Tolentinos, for example). But they were really solid. I especially enjoyed reading about what it's like to be an escort at Planned Parenthood, and I really enjoyed the estate sale piece. I will happily continue to read what she writes!

I came for Caroline Calloway drama, but stayed for Natalie Beach’s incisive cultural commentary. I don’t read a lot of nonfiction but the short essays and witty writing style kept me interested, and as a young millennial woman I found a lot of the commentary very relatable.

Three stars doesn't seem like enough, but it isn't quite four stars. At times, the essays seem to veer off, but eventually come back to the central point. Some of the pieces could sue a little tightening up, but the journey is worthwhile. A good book to take along with you, if that makes sense.

Great memoir and excellent descriptions of her experiences. I felt like I was with Beach for a lot of the time she wrote about. Like a friend explaining her stories about growing up. Some shocking and some very relatable.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars!

I guess I was expecting something different with a title like that. Though well written, the stories just weren't that interesting to me. With the exception of a few insightful or somewhat amusing pieces of the essays, I found myself skimming paragraphs along the way. Not for me.
Thank you, Netgalley, publisher, and author for the ARC.

This is a really beautiful and smart essay collection. Beach has a natural way with words and especially wonderful single lines; there are so many places to pause while reading and underline a sentence. The book feels worked on and carefully crafted. There's also a lot of empathy for all of the characters on the page, and a humor that helps lighten up the heavier subjects. Several essays in the book directly involve Caroline Calloway; the second and the last come to mind right away. They're definitely interesting, and arguably part of the reason this book exists at all, especially with a major publisher. That's not a knock at Beach at all; it's very hard to publish a memoir or essay collection if no one knows who you are, regardless of talent. That said, the essays in here that don't involve Caroline are smart, beautifully written, and include a healthy blend of cultural criticism. The first essay in the collection still stands out to me; it's puberty and playing sports and Abercrombie and low-rise jeans. It's a great example of a well-constructed essay; I can imagine people teaching it in a workshop. Some essays kept my attention less, but overall, this is a very nicely put together collection that covers the Caroline storyline without letting it saturate the book. I'm so curious about if CC will ever actually publish her memoir, and if so, how they'll read together.

This is a reasonably well written book. It has some fine lines, a few well-conceived set pieces, and a fair share of perceptive and insightful observations. That said, try as I might I found neither the essay subjects nor the author's enthusiasms engaging enough to arouse or hold my curiosity and attention. As a consequence, it doesn't seem fair to write much more of a review, apart from encouraging inquisitive readers to give the book a try.

Will update when the Harper Collins union new contract is finalized. Thank you again to the publisher for the copy.