🍭SUCKER PUNCH👊🏻 by Scaachi Koul was a scathing, yet appropriately gentle where warranted, self-analysis by the author of their marriage, their own demeanor and upbringing, and what it means to feel whole. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publishers, @stmartinspress and @macmillanaudio for the e and audio-ARCs.

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"We all need the stories we tell ourselves. It's good to romanticize some of your own experiences in order to stay alive."

This memoir of essays is so wildly raw and vulnerable. It is breathtaking to read Koul's work as she is fearless in her self-reflection and analyses. She discusses the difficulty of her marriage, which she fought her family tooth and nail to respect her decision about marrying a white man and how the unravelling of that marriage and the wounds it inflicted have caused her to reflect about her choices and her perspective. She discusses her struggles with an eating disorder, never feeling quite enough in a body bigger than she desired. And most fascinating of all, she discusses how verbal combat was like a game between her and her ex, until it became a chore.

This is my second foray into the brain of Koul and I know I will be reading everything she publishes as it makes me feel so alive to hear someone be so unabashedly self-critical and so publicly to boot. This read was a breath of fresh air in a society that seems to be allergic to authenticity and accountability.

The author read the narration herself which always makes for a more genuine experience in my view. As usual I appreciated her passion and introspection. Highly recommend both of her books as they are pillars of authenticity.

Sucker Punch was a great essay collection. Super interesting and the writing was propulsive. I would read more from Koul.

A stumble after Koul's first collection of essays, this collection never quite gelled. While reading, it was impossible to shake the feeling of the content being quite hollow, as if Koul hadn't had enough time or distance from the stories she was telling to be able to offer any real insight. Too many of the essays meandered without seeming to know where they were going, and the attempt to connect these stories to Hindu mythology ended up being a clunky mess. Even the book's most incisive bits - about why her marriage crumbled so quickly and spectacularly - seem to be half-baked, or like she's holding back the details that would allow a reader to connect. There are still funny moments here, and Koul's writing is sharp at times, but this was a step down from her first effort.

This is a heartbreaking yet rolling good time. Scaachi Koul manages to address tough themes of infidelity, racism, illness, and more while being riotously funny; her sardonic sense of humor really comes through. I wish I had read her first book; as much as I'd like to pick it up now, I'm worried I'd feel too enraged knowing what happened after she published it.

I went into this blind and found a beautiful, but at times heartbreaking collection of essays on heavy subject material such as divorce, body image, rape, distorted eating, and the loathing year of 2020. The deliverance was right on key, and the title makes much more sense now. I love the other's witty, hilarious take on things. Though it was heavy, at times it was like listening to a good friend.

3.5 Stars

After enjoying Koul’s first book, I was excited to dive into her sophomore book of essays. It did not disappoint. Primarily focusing on her marriage and divorce, Koul also touches on other serious topics such as sexual assault, her mother’s cancer, and the way society tends to treat women of color. Even with these topics, Koul does not lose the humor I’ve come to know from her writings which combined creates an honest, sometimes raw look into her life.

I love a good non fiction read, especially when it's someone talking about their life and their adventures and lessons learned. Thanks for sharing your stories Scaachi

I loved this essay collection and found it poignant, sharply written, and captivating. Held my attention the whole way.

I loved this--it was biting, refreshing, and real. Also...incredibly reflective and relatable. It was like a breath of fresh air to read this piece of Scaachi's work after reading her original book of essays and see the ways in which she has changed. It made me think about my own changes and transformations over the last few years.

This was a surprise for me. This packs a “punch” (pun intended). lol
It’s fast paced, interesting story and bam, got some twists. Super fun!

Scaachi Koul is one of my favorite podcast hosts and I love when she shows up in documentaries I am watching, so I was really eager to read this book. It did not disappoint. I enjoyed reading her essays particularly the one about dieting and body image which really resonated. I didn’t read the first book so the divorce element didn’t probably hit me as hard but it was well written and interesting to read the progression.

This book has a specific niche, but it crushes that niche. If you want a book about divorce from a person with a sense of humor that isn't trying to give you advice, this is the perfect one.

Scaachi Koul writes an email newsletter I love called “A List of People I’m Mad At.” Well, I’m currently mad at someone: her. It’s unfair that someone can write this well, this sharply, this unflinchingly.

This book of essays — where she unpacks her divorce and writes about other traumas she has suffered — is brutally honest. She never tries to make herself look good; she throws punches, she takes punches, and sometimes she pulls punches. Koul provides as much context as she can and lets the reader make up their minds. (I think she lets her ex-husband off much too easily. I’d like to punch him.) She packs plenty of humor into serious topics — disordered eating, sexual assault, the complexities of growing up in an immigrant family, a family member having breast cancer.

Her essays unfold like a novel in the book’s narrative structure, making for an enjoyable read where things have a wonderful flow to them — but, along with a somewhat disjointed structure, maybe make things come off a bit more like a memoir. Koul recontextualizes things she’s written about in the past, reframing them with the hard-won clarity that comes from time (and maybe therapy). It feels like a privilege to witness her working it all out on the page.

And her writing is brilliant. So yeah, I’m mad at her. And I can’t wait for her next book.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't sure how I was going to like this book as it is a very different format of what I'm used to as a reader. As primarily a fiction reader, I was intrigued by this essay format and the subject matter, so I thought to give it a try. I really liked the essays -- they pull you in and make you feel like you know the author. I really was drawn to these stories the more pages I read in this. Very easy to read and there were many revelations that hit home and connected with me. If you are looking for this subject matter (home, marriage, life, friendship) then you might like this book.

A mixed bag for me. I appreciated the raw openness of the author as she exposed the breakdown of her marriage. I did find the essays a bit scattered and repetitive though and this diminished my enjoyment of the collection.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

I don’t tend to rate personal essays/memoirs as who am i to deem the entertainment value of someone’s life. Scaachi showed us her soul and it was brutal and honest.

I just really struggled to get into the first essay and the writing style which was difficult to then get into the rest of the collection from.

I'm just not totally sure what to say about this book. It took me a long time to get through, even if it was relatively short. It did not really feel like a collection of essays but rather was mostly the author's musings on her failed marriage interspersed with other memories. There were parts of the book that were truly emotional and certainly traumatic, but overall it was about a marriage I don't understand existing in the first place. She never really gives indication that they really were ever that happy or in love, and it seems a little strange to grieve so much when I don't get the picture of happiness before.

I really liked her first book and admire how she shares things that don’t make her look great or sympathic when she could easily gloss over them or leave them out altogether but this book felt a little flat.

She has gone through a lot but it seems like she was able to dump the loser husband and get closer to her difficult family.

I wish there was a little more variety in the essays, they felt a little repetitive at times.

At first, I was feeling kind of lukewarm about this book of essays - the anecdotes were amusing enough but nothing too terribly exciting. But as I got further into it, the stories became more introspective and affecting. The author managed to be entertaining, while also writing candidly about the resolution of her marriage and how she experienced the subsequent fallout, both as a POC and a woman wronged.
Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this #arc of #suckerpunch in exchange for an honest review.