Well, like so many people, I knew Anna Marie by her social media, so, when I found out she has written a book, I wanted to read it as soon as possible.
From the beginning to the end, this book is incredible interesting. From her days on a mental institution, the friendship that forged with a group of women in there (whom I came to admire so much), all her inner work in the outside, her past and present with men, her life with Petunia (I came to love her, too), her career as a successful artist, and life in general. Also, Anna is very articulate and eloquent with her writing, and her insights shows what a smart woman she is, which makes the reading even more delightful. And the ending left me sobbing. So, nothing but admiration and big congratulations to you, Anna, can't not thank enough to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this wonderful ARC, and hope I can read another work by Anna in the (near) future.

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

I am a fan of Tendler’s art, so I knew I had to read this book and I’m so glad I had the chance to!

Tendler gives an honest and heartbreaking account of her 2021 hospital stay, as well as pivotal moments throughout her life. I can’t recommend this book enough, it’s raw and gives a real look into how hard it can be to handle trauma and grief.

I loved this book. It was so well written and a lot of what Tendler had to say was actually quite relevant to my own experiences. I can’t recommend this book enough!

if you picked this book up hoping for a tell all, you will be incredibly disappointed. if you picked this book up hoping for an exploration of mental health and the patriarchy, you’re in for a satisfying and wild ride.

i will admit, as a casual fan of Anna’s ex-husband, i was excited to learn about their relationship (i am a nosey bitch, shoot me). but when i began reading, i knew i was about to experience something entirely different. it’s triggering, upsetting, and difficult but also enlightening, hopeful, and inspirational. i really enjoyed learning about Anna’s experiences. you don’t need to know anything about her (or her ex) to connect with the humanity of this memoir.

that being said, there were a couple things that bothered me in this book. i don’t mean to criticize Anna’s life choices or diminish her struggle, but she is very privileged which causes some parts to seem oblivious and out of touch. again, nothing against Anna but it’s hard to sympathize with someone who makes lampshades on her boyfriend’s budget.

this is a good memoir just remember that it IS a “celebrity” memoir (even if her fame is never mentioned).

thank you NetGally and the publishers for this ARC.

"I cemented my role in relationships as a pleaser, a convincer, a girl who, well into adulthood, would contort and confirm to the desires of a man."

"Here is the thing about men lying to woman while telling them they are crazy or overreacting. The lying, the underplaying on their side, makes us doubt our intuition or intelligence, so eventually when suspicions are confirmed, when we find out we have been right all along, we do go batshit fucking crazy. And it is warranted."

"I thought, "This will be fun, dating will be fun." It was not fun. Instead, what ensued was a series of unfortunate dates and romantic encounters that only reinforced my aversion to men."

This was so well done, Anna Marie Tendler has written something that I think will resonate with so many people. If you're looking for a tell-all of her divorce from John Mulaney, this book isn't it; in fact she references him only by mentioning her divorce. I'm about to be SO annoying about this memoir!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for sending me this book!

Anna Marie Tendler's Men Have Called Her Crazy exceeded my expectations. For those hoping that this book would be filled with gossip from her divorce, this book is not tale, and is the better for it. Tendler's memoir is a moving exploration of grief, anxiety, and womanhood. She opens her book when she checks herself into a psychiatric hospital after a year of intense anxiety, depression, and self-harm, and we follow her two-week journey at the hospital and her recovery following, as well as anecdotes of her experience with men from her adolescence and young adulthood. It is a hard read, but rewarding and beautifully compassionate memoir. This book will stay with you.

As with everything Anna Marie Tendler creates, this book is a work of art. This was such a vulnerable glimpse into the last 3 years of her life and struggle through different states of mental health. I cried through most parts of it, relating deeply to many of her struggles and dynamics with family and friends. I was glad to read Anna’s story and not more about what the gossip sites discuss. This is fully her story from her teenager years through adulthood and while heartbreaking at times, it was also beautiful to read about what she overcame. This was one of my most anticipated books for this year and I’m so glad I was able to receive this ARC through NetGalley. I cannot wait for its full release to discuss with others!

It's been a long time since I have felt so seen reading a book - as if my own heart was talking back to me through the pages. This book was beautiful, heartbreaking, powerful, and deeply honest. Thank you, Anna, for sharing your experiences with us.

First I would like to thank Simon & Schuster for sending me an ARC of this book!

I have not devoured a book in a day quite like this one. I was gripped from the first page and didn’t let go until the last. Tendler’s raw emotion and honesty is a rarity in this day and age. People tend to clean up their thoughts and histories in an attempt to be the “perfect subject”, but Tendler is not interested in that. Her ability to be so open is what makes this memoir so incredible. Not to mention her pitch perfect writing. The chapter about Petunia made me sob like a little baby because Tendler made her feel like she wasn’t just her dog, but ours as well. We feel for her and absorb her feelings through the novel, which I believe to be a sign of a fantastic memoir.

Anna Marie Tendler writes a compelling memoir about a time that collectively was very hard for a lot of people -- the pandemic. Tendler writes in a way that is raw, a little self deprecating and extremely self-aware of what she is experiencing. She shines at sharing the female experience of being analyzed through the male lens -- especially from a phycological stand point. She steps out of her ex-husbands spotlight on her own platform of dealing with mental health struggles and really bravely shares her experience of her time in a psychiatric hospital. I appreciate Tendler's candidness and absolutely love her connection with the late, fabulous Petunia. I feel that every girls girl needs to read this book. I see a woman who has experienced and lived life and has had her heart broken. We all collectively are trying to understand our experiences. I feel Tendler writes in such a way that is relatable and is truly magical and most of all real. #MenHaveCalledHerCrazy #NetGalley

Maybe the best "celebrity" memoir I've ever read? Really dug the structure of this and how robust it felt. The fact that there wasn't any tea to report was such a smart choice. Anna truly taking the high road by what she doesn't mention (and by writing a really killer book). Absolutely sobbed my way through the penultimate chapter. This would pair exceptionally well with STRANGERS TO OURSELVES.

This is a really deep exploration of mental health, grief, and personal growth. Would also make a great companion to Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl. Tendler compellingly navigates a very public crisis without ever naming or discussing her very famous ex, which is a powerful and effective decision. I appreciate that the cover and marketing seem to telegraph that this is not some kind of celebrity tell-all, but a deeply personal and well-written memoir.

I was very excited to receive this ARC. Thank you so much! I really resonated with her memoir. Many of her life events were eerily similar to my own. It was hard to read at some points because it was like holding up a mirror. I wish there was a little more joy or hopefulness in the writing.

I do think it's important to share stories like this one to show that putting your mental health is important and won't be fixed overnight. I, myself, have stayed in a psychiatric hospital. I was scared to check myself in, because of how mental hospitals are portrayed on TV, but that is not normally the case. As in her story, my stay was scary and I was not with "crazy" people. I felt safe and protected when I was there.

I loved the Petunia chapter.

I would edit the last chapter, 29. When she reads Dr. Samuel (and others) report. Her defensive tirade, makes her seem like an unreliable narrator. But the rest of the chapter is good.

I just genuinely loved this. Her story, her internal monologue, her self doubt, her relationship with her dog… it just moved me to tears. The authenticity was incredible. I loved reading about her journey and I genuinely just want her to be happy and flourish. Highly recommend!

So freaking good. I related to a lot of it and I think a lot of people will. A hard read at time but so important.

Thank you for an advance copy of this book! 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4 stars. I really loved the first 3/4 of this book. I appreciated the author’s honest retellling of her mental health hospitalizations. The last 1/4 of the book lost me a little bit and I didn’t really connect with how she wrapped up the book. Overall, I enjoyed it.

Anna Marie Tendler’s Men Have Called Her Crazy is an an amazing debut, showcasing a voice that is as pointed as it is compassionate. It’s the rare memoir that seems like a gift to its author as much as its audience. Many will undoubtedly pick this book up looking for dirt or tea on the artist's very public relationship. They will be pleasantly surprised to find very little on that topic, but instead find a thoughtful, worthwhile memoir about Tendler's inner workings.

Men Have Called Her Crazy includes two interwoven memoirs—Tendler’s childhood & young adulthood and her time in rehab during Covid. Through both sections, the author articulates the complexities of heavy subjects like self-harm and gendered violence. Tendler's maturity and growth is demonstrated in the very fair light she shines on different people who came and went in her life. Highlighting the complexities of human interaction, Tendler goes to great lengths to write about the messiness of the grey area.

This is an excellent memoir that young women will especially relate to. I hope to see it somewhere on the bestsellers list this coming August.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this book in advance of its release.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this eARC!

I don’t think I can put into words what this book did for me. Every paragraph, every sentence was so beautifully written and held so much emotion. This book is a beautiful reminder that you never know what is going on in someone’s private life. I enjoyed the dual narrative of “this is what’s happening right now” and “this are things that led me to come here” I cried, I laughed, I felt deep emotions. Please pick up this book, you will NOT regret it.

Men have called her crazy is an insightful memoir about mental illness and the various and complicated paths women often feel forced to walk as the navigate their life.
I deeply enjoyed this memoir, but want to note that if you are looking for discussions of divorce this isn’t really the book. I know several reviewers mentioned her not sharing details, but one thing I was surprised by was the way she mentions her divorce but doesn’t give any of her perspective or feelings on it, which is totally fine, but was somewhat surprising in a book that delved so deeply into her inner thoughts, experiences in relationships and time in a mental hospital.
I found her discussion of her relationships (as patient, friend, etc.) with various women (both positive and negative) and her trouble navigating them to be one of the most impactful elements of the memoir.

AnnaTendler has opened with an absolutely vulnerable and poetic debut of “ the paradox of being a woman, no matter what path you choose chances will end up feeling invisible. “
I started following this creative creature during her scandalous divorce and the path she has chosen to explain her story is heartbreaking, raw and unexpectedly, barley a mention of that celebrity man who pulled the rug out from under her , so she checked into a hospital to figure out wtf to do from here. Anna is the focus so you won’t get the tea if that’s why you are interesting in reading this insightful memoir. This v purposely avoids speaking about that marriage, because she and so many women I know, have been chasing men and validating her worth through their gaze. This book is part of her journey to decentering men. I wish Anna and all of us well. Thank you so much for this highly anticipated arc and it did not disappoint. Can’t wait to see what Ann Tendler does next.

Immensely grateful to have been granted access to not only this eARC, but also to @annamtendler’s thoughts, fears, hopes, vulnerability—all of it. There were moments in this book where Anna articulates feelings that, until reading them, I don’t think I was aware of feeling myself.

This was unputdownable, I read it every second I could—during lunch breaks at work, whenever I had 5 extra minutes to spare in the mornings, while waiting for water to boil on the stove.

I’ve been familiar with her work for a little while before reading this, but whether or not that’s true for you, I highly recommend picking this up when it’s released in August. If you do, I hope you feel as held by it as I did.