I’ll Look So Hot in a Coffin offers a glimpse into Carla Sosenko’s personal experiences—both specifically as a disabled person and as just a woman in a body. The book touches on her struggles with body image and her accomplishments in overcoming negative self-perception.
Based on the description, I expected this book to be either a funny, relatable, “all women have body image issues and it’s society’s fault” narrative, or a self-help-style reflection in which the author shares how she overcomes her body image struggles—and how others might, too. I also anticipated meaningful disability representation and insights into how universal issues affecting women are uniquely experienced by women with disabilities. Any of this would have felt relatable, valuable, and much needed in this space. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that from this book, which left me feeling disconnected and unimpressed.
Instead, the most valuable, relatable, and educational content seemed confined to the book’s introduction. That section alone could have stood as a powerful essay. The remainder of the book reads more like a series of personal blog posts, with the author continually reminds us that her disability is actually just cosmetic and actually, she’s, like, really pretty & privileged. Rather than using this privilege as a tool for self-reflection or deeper social commentary, the chapters remain centered on her own experiences, without much effort to relate to the broader experiences of women or “outsiders,” whom she claims the book is written for.
As a result, the memoir comes across more as self-indulgent than a genuine attempt to connect with readers in a meaningful way. To be fair, the author does acknowledge her own conceit, so this criticism may not be surprising. And of course, memoirs are inherently personal. Still, it feels like a missed opportunity to engage with others living on the margins. Instead, the author focuses on how special and unique she is, when many of the stories she shares about people commenting on women’s bodies are actually quite universal.
Another major issue is the structure. The flow is often disjointed, with certain sections dragging while others feel underdeveloped. A stronger central theme and clear focus would make the book more engaging and impactful. Interestingly, the introduction gave the impression that the book would have a clear focus and purpose, but that premise didn’t carry through the remainder of the chapters.
While I personally found little value in this memoir, readers who enjoy highly individualistic narratives or diary-style reflections may find something here that resonates. However, those looking for a memoir that offers universal connection or deeper insight may be left wanting more.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for an ARC of this book.

i really wanted to enjoy this but i could not stand the writing. it felt like a bunch of millennial buzzfeed articles put together in a book (and that's coming from a millennial). i'm sure that the author intended to write about her experiences with dark humor and relatability, which i appreciate, but i simply couldn't get into the writing. i also felt a lot of the same ideas/messages kept getting brought up and it got repetitive at times. this was a personal preference for me. unfortunately i DNF'd.

This book originally grabbed me and made me want to read it. I started reading this and I couldn't get into it. DNF.

The catchy title immediately grabbed my attention, and I was eager to delve into Sosenko's work. Her writing is undeniably funny and witty, a quality that made the reading experience entertaining on a surface level. Sosenko does a great job at showcasing that if people have anything, is the audacity. However, despite these strengths, I ultimately felt a bit disappointed by the book's repetitive nature. While Sosenko employed various analogies, the core ideas seemed to be revisited frequently, creating a sense of redundancy. This cyclical approach, unfortunately, prevented me from becoming fully immersed and deeply engaged with the content, despite appreciating the author's comedic talent and the importance of the book’s core message.

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for this ARC.

Carla Sosenko's memoir I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin: And Other Thoughts I Used to Have About my Body most charts her relationship with her body. In many ways, the experiences she has do not differ much from other women who grew up as a contemporary of hers. She writes about struggles with dating, self-imagine, and diet culture. What makes her unique is that she was born with a rare disease that is exhibited through abnormal growths on her body (one leg is larger than the other, a large mass on her back) and she goes through life self-conscious about her appearance and when people notice that she is different. It is an interesting tight rope she walks because she discusses the irregularities with her body, but that she still has pretty privilege, she writes about fatphobia, but is not that large. I found it challenging after reading to book to understand why she wrote about was all that unique or distinct from what most women deal with and so this one did not stick with me.

Thank you to the Dial Press via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I had not previously heard of Carla Sosenko. I enjoying reading about her life and her struggles and triumphs. She has had a very interesting life and I think I would love to sit down and talk to her in person. I love that she really let it all out. She didn't sugarcoat her struggles or her congenital disease. I love how honest she was about the hurtful thing people have said to her over the years. I loved that she laid she insecurities on the line. I enjoyed reading about how she has come to terms with herself and how she has learned to love herself and her body. Everyone has these thoughts and struggles, her honesty is refreshing.

I would recommend this book to my friends and family.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House | The Dial Press for the ARC of this ebook. All opinions expressed are my own.

This is a well written and surprisingly funny memoir. The author did a good job describing her medical conditions, and how it has affected her psychically and emotionally throughout life. Even though I enjoyed the tone and brutal honesty, I must admit the book is short, but it read super long. Sometimes the themes become repetitive and draggy. Good book but I don’t think it will have a lot of lasting impact for me.

3.5/5. I really liked the author’s voice. She was blunt, honest and funny when tackling complex subjects. She just told it like it was. This memoir was short and to the point. I really was able to connect with the author.
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I really wanted to love this book - a memoir told through essays and dark humor is usually right up my alley, but I struggled to get into this one.

I enjoyed some of the essays and thought the overall topics and message was good but it was not quite what I expected. The editorial voice was incredibly millennial, often reading more like a buzzfeed article than an essay and the humor did not come through as strongly as I had hoped, instead reading more as anger/bitterness (fair based on the authors experience but less enjoyable as a reader)

The cover and title immediately drew me in and even though I’m not big on memoirs, I really enjoyed learning about Carla’s experiences and how positive her outlook is now. Carla was born with Klippel–Trénaunay syndrome and had to deal with constant reminders of a world that worships normalcy and skinniness. Would definitely recommend.

Reviewing memoirs can be so difficult because your subjective views on characters are no longer on characters but real people and the choices that they have made in their lives. Why do I get an opinion about this person, their likability, their privilege etc?? But here we are anyway, so let’s dive in.

There were a lot of things that were very enjoyable about this memoir and it starts with the title. The dark sarcasm mirrors Jennette McCurdy’s memoir and had me sold before I even opened the book. The deeper glances into life with a disability and especially one that is not so invisible puts a lense on our society as a whole and Sosenko very clearly has insight and was well articulated about them. The deeper dive into fat phobia and how our society treats fat women was something I wasn’t expecting in this but was looked upon with a lot of poignant examples and became the framework of this book.

With that said, there were times where I wanted the dark sarcasm to fit more with the title. Instead of dark humour, I felt more anger. And I’m all for angry women as we deserve to be angry, it merely wasn’t what I was expecting given the title. A lot of points were harped in so deeply that I wanted to grab the authour and tell her it’s actually all okay and not as bad as it seems, and I know it’s BAD out here.

There were a lot of times Sosenko would just start making actual lists instead of writing and this threw me for a loop. It was overwhelming, exhausting, and I kept thinking “but you’re a writer? Why are you just listing and bullet pointing PAGES at me??” I think she’s better than this and I feel confident in that given other bits of her writing. It felt like a cop out to include points without making the effort of succinctly story telling with them.

My last was gripe was *gasp* the privilege. I DO appreciate entirely that Sosenko continuously tells us that she has it. From her pretty face, to her rich parents bailing her out, to the emotional support and how good of a family she has, etc etc etc. but it got very tiring and made the story hard to carry on after the halfway point. Why do women so often have to be like-able? I struggled with this idea while reading because I kept going “UGH GIRL STOP” so many times. She doesn’t have to be like-able, she doesn’t have to be nice all the time, she doesn’t have to be skinny to have worth but it also felt like she was begging for this while also being incredibly hard to swallow too.

I do wish we had more on her actual disability and how that affected her more in life and not just her younger years and lack of autonomy. Mixing these points with a deeper dive into how fatness and women are affected in the medical community was more what I was anticipating here and seemed to be lacking overall. As a disabled woman it felt like a lot of this was just her young age and looking different to people and then moved on from the ramifications and how disability can and does affect day to day life. Disabilities effect everyone in different ways but the way it was framed had me wondering how it was effecting her outside of just narcissism and how our society sees bodies. So much of this story was about internalized fat phobia and our society on fatness but that wasn’t what I was expecting to get with this book.

I very clearly have a lot of thoughts on this book and I don’t want to demonize it in any way. There were a lot of great, high points to this but they were also balanced with very annoying and overwrought aspects that had me wanting her to move on already. There were some fall backs and some highlights and by no means am I mad I read it. I enjoyed quite a few moments in reading but they were often smothered by a lot of other rantings that dimmed the overall shine.

(this review was posted on goodreads on 04.11.2025)

i don't know if i can find the right words to accurately review i'll look so hot in a coffin, and what impact it had on me while reading it.

what i can say is that it's a powerful, raw, incredibly open memoir, told through a voice, sosenko's, that teeters in a perfect way between laugh out loud funny (pootsies!!) while, two lines down, smacking you in the face with the most accurately worded paragraph of what it means to be disconnected from one's body, to strive for invisibility, to belong to those that are "blurry" in the camera lens eye of modern society. as sosenko herself says, there is strenght in numbers, and no feeling was more powerful for me while reading this memoir than that of being deeply understood, of standing in a group with somebody telling me "yeah, it happens and it sucks but you have agency over how and how much it affects you". the writing is quick and accessible, almost comparable to speaking with a friend, as well as extremely poignant, so much so that sometimes i had to stop reading just to stare into the void and let every sillable sink in.

i dare say that EVERYONE should read this if they can, mindful of trigger warnings, either to receive a glimpse of a life they may not know, to learn something (like not feeling entitled to comment on other people's bodies!), or simply to feel understood and realize how much power we have in making our own choices with our own fundamental, beautiful bodies.

thank you to netgalley and random house publishing for the arc!

A funny and touching memoir. Shines a light on how women are taught--taught to hate their own bodies.

This was such a raw, emotional, enjoyable memoir. Sosenko covered a whole range of topics pertaining to her relationship with her body, from self-perception to mental health and mental health struggles. Some of the topics covered dipped into emotionally heavy areas, but the author had a phenomenal sense of humor that balanced the book wonderfully. It is extremely impressive how vulnerable and honest the author was in sharing her stories and experiences, and that came through to create a grabbing and moving book.

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc!

i recommend checking trigger warnings as a lot of sensitive topics are discussed, include but are not limited to death/wanting to die, anxiety, abusive relationships, and compulsive behaviors.

the title of carla sosenko’s memoir elicited the same feeling i had when i saw the title of jennette mccurdy’s memoir: “wtf is that title” and “i need to know the context immediately”

i’ll look so hot in a coffin is an hilariously unfiltered but extremely honest look into carla sosenko’s life — she holds nothing back, from her feelings towards herself, her family, men she’s dated, and society. particularly, she holds nothing back regarding her life as a woman with a “pretty face” whose “body doesn’t match”, as she has K-T, or klippel-trenaunay syndrome.

overall, this was a fantastic memoir!

What a raw and open read. Much gratitude to Carla Sosenko for being vulnerable and offering us insight into her world. As someone who also lives with a disability I appreciated her use of humour and how her essays were accessible and easy to read. I enjoyed the tone and would read more from this talented author. - particularly as it pertains to disability rights and fat culture.Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for the ARC.

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for this advance copy!

What a powerful and funny book. I loved how Carla walks us through her life and her vision of her own body. It was vulnerable, real, funny, and irreverent at times. She educates about her life from birth without moralizing it, but doesn't give herself or others space to pity her. Instead, she lets us in and gives us an honest vision of her successes and challenges and it is great. A quick read, there is a lot happening on each page and I gobbled it up. Just a fantastic memoir.

This book hit SO HARD for me!! One of my most anticipated disability memoirs of 2025 in which the author who was born with Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome (basically a body full of deformities) shares about her life challenges with anxiety, disordered eating, ADHD, overspending, depression and other mental health issues.

I loved how she is able to write these essays with such self-deprecating humor while also unpacking important societal critiques about ableism, body-shaming and forced medical intervention on children's 'disabled' bodies in a very raw and honest manner.

Great on audio read by the author herself and perfect for fans of books like It must be beautiful to be finished by Kate Gies. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review!

Review posted to StoryGraph and Goodreads on 3/31/25. Review will be posted to Amazon on release date.

What a powerful collection of essays. Sosenko tackles topics surrounding her medical conditions including having physical differences, ADHD, anxiety, depression and takes on a journey exploring how all of these things are part of her and also make her the woman she has become. As a fellow small fat who has done their time in the WeightWatchers cult I particularly enjoyed reading her essay on her experience with diet culture and eventual usage of wegovy. It felt as if I could have written just about all of it myself. I appreciated the way that Sosenko isn’t afraid to show all aspects of herself even the ones that folks might judge her for (hello shopping issues!). The flow of the essays was perfect and I felt like each one built on the last to create this whole picture of where Sosenko finds herself now.

Carla Sosenko’s I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin is an unflinchingly honest, darkly funny, and deeply relatable memoir about living with obsessive-compulsive disorder, disordered eating, and the ever-present fear of not being “enough.” With razor-sharp wit and heartbreaking vulnerability, Sosenko takes readers through her lifelong battle with perfectionism—one that manifests in calorie counting, obsessive rituals, and a relentless pursuit of control.

What makes this memoir stand out is Sosenko’s ability to balance raw emotion with humor. She doesn’t shy away from the ugly truths of living with OCD and an eating disorder, but she also infuses her storytelling with the kind of self-deprecating humor that makes you laugh even as your heart aches. Her writing is compulsively readable (pun intended), making it easy to devour while also sitting with the weight of her experiences.

This book is for anyone who has ever struggled with anxiety, body image, or the exhausting pressure to be perfect. It’s also for readers who appreciate memoirs that don’t just tell a story but invite you into the author’s mind, messiness and all. Sosenko’s honesty is a reminder that healing isn’t linear, and self-acceptance is an ongoing process.