Second Chances is a trendy and stylish guide by Macy Eleni for sourcing wardrobe treasures on the secondhand sale venues (thrift shops, resale/consignment, estate sales, etc). Released 24th Sept 2024 by Simon & Schuster on their Simon Element imprint, it's 224 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

Funky, eclectic, exuberant, and kinetic the entire book feels like it's ready to burst its covers and explode in technicolor. The author has such an encouraging, chatty, and kind vibe. Definitely the opposite of snooty or "mean girl", she's inclusive and fun, and has filled the book with lots of good tips, but also the compassionately related background for her own style journey. She mentions her own challenges alongside tips for scoring great vintage clothes at an affordable price point.

The colorful graphics, funky photos, and non-conformist style choices give the whole a youthful (tween/teen to young adult) vibe. The chapters are short, with individual categories together, broken up by inset highlighted text boxes and photos (so many photos).

It's definitely not just fluff, however, and Ms. Eleni makes a lot of salient points about the unglamorous facets of the fashion industry, exploitation, landfills, fast fashion, and sustainability alongside her tips for scoring treasures. She also makes a conscious effort at inclusion and specifically includes tips for folks of all sizes/bodies, and LGBTQIA+ fashionistas.

The photos she includes are mostly her own (funky eclectic) style which calls to mind a bit of Cyndi Lauper with some 1985 Desperately Seeking Susan; not a bad thing, but not for everyone. There aren't a lot of specific, concrete bits of advice aimed at readers whose tastes deviate a lot from her own (and that's fine), it's just that readers who already know *what* they're looking for will probably find more to utilize.

The appendices include a list of good thrifts/sources arranged geographically by US state as well as a short glossary. There's a cross referenced index which allows searching by designer name as well as item.

Four stars. It would make a good choice for public or school library acquisition, for budding thrift buyers, or possibly for gift giving purposes.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

THE HOOK/APPEAL: She's big on TikTok for thrifting and going to estate sales, so this promises to give you the in's and out's for how she thrifts and gets big wins doing so.

THE REVIEW: There are a lot of people thrifting. I mean, hello, fast fashion. Ew! So it's about time we had someone young talking officially about how to make the most of this hobby that helps. I can dig it!

THE RATING: Solid 4.6! Rounded.

What a fantastic read! My only criticism is I wish it were longer. This is very much a beginner's guide/101 about the world of secondhand goods: thrifiting, estate sales, consignment shopping etc. As someone who is a novice myself, this book couldn't have come at a more perfect time. I will be getting a copy of the book once it's officially released to have on hand when I go thrifting, and I would recommend others do as well. There is a lot of content packed into this book, but it is organized in a way that if you are venturing to a flea market for the first time, or visiting an estate sale, you can just flip right to those respective sections and make your plan from there. I'm glad the author has social media so that it will be possible to continue to get real time tips, but I do hope she writes more books that are fully dedicated to each topic area. I would absolutely read a whole book on navigating estate sales alone.

* I received a digital ARC copy of this book through NetGalley

I'm a big thrifter and I got really excited about this book. I love that it touches on financial limitations, environmental concerns, and unique fashion sense. It has a lot of practical tips, and it focuses more on the practical than the creative. It discusses the types of places to thrift as well as what to look for and even how to mend or alter clothing. It is really well organized and helpful.

I've been a thrifter since the early 70's! I still enjoy looking for vintage treasures. What I have noticed over the past few years is that thrifting is getting real trendy and prices are being jacked up. The poor many of these places served, are no longer affordable by the very people they were meant to help! Ah, well, times have changed... Second Chances needs better editing. It's a tad too repetitive But perhaps the teens who will be reading it won't care. I was kid of expecting some fashion modleing of clothes to show teens some ideas of outfits. The books in inclusive in including the LGBT community and plus-sized folks in it's pages. If there is someone in your life who enjoys thrift shops, fleamarkets, second hand shops, etc, they may well enjoy this book. Oh, it sheds lots of light of the clothing industry fast fashion, recycling, bad for the environment clothing, etc. Lots of reasons to thrift for sure.