I really enjoyed this book! I laughed out loud so many times!! The author definitely has a gift with her storytelling.

I went into this book knowing it was a divorce narrative gearing myself up for a depressing spiral into the author's state of mind as her marriage crumbles, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't depressing.

The author is a memoirist who has made a living having a public persona of all her most intimate moments out there online for people to gawk at and pick apart. She thought she'd be writing a collection of essays about her hard-fought majestic four-day Indian wedding to an older white man on the eve of the pandemic, and instead the book is a tender and wholehearted examination of love and all the ways it functions in our lives or falls apart. I was surprised that this book was more about presence than absence of love.

The author takes an unflinching look at her life and decisions, ranging from her striking up an adult friendship with her college rapist boyfriend to the way her boisterous family fights to show their love and how that taught her to be loud and argumentative. Because she now regretted how much she held back to protect his feelings in her first essay about her college boyfriend, I couldn't help but wonder if even as she detailed all her raw earnesty whether she was holding back now to protect people. This felt very honest and full-dimensional but I always wonder this with influencers, how much of what they share is real and what they hold back to protect their privacy or to craft the image and brand they want to project.

I liked how she ruthlessly examined that aspect of her life as well and the parasocial relationships that now demanded an explanation for her divorce. I admit I too have felt entitled to explanations from people I only know online when they constantly brag about how happy of a couple they are online and post happy couple pictures and then it just ends. This book is that explanation. It felt like a journalist reporting on a human interest portrait but it became a deep dive into her own life and emotions.

I appreciated how she didn't hold back in criticizing her own actions and I really felt her family's love for her and her love for them bleed from the page. But she showed their love in all its ugly complications.

Most of all I was surprised at just how tender and earnest this collection was. I left it feeling hopeful and that there are different paths to happiness despite cultural expectations.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I laughed, I teared up, I felt every emotion possible while staying endless entertained. Her narrative voice is so strong and I felt so invested in her journey.

A sharp, honest collection of essays that captures the end of the author’s marriage and life after divorce. Through a mix of personal reflection and social commentary, she examines race, family, and relationships with a meandering style. Witty and unfiltered, it’s a compelling look at life’s complexities.

The cover pictures brass knuckles with a diamond ring on one finger and it says a lot about what you're about to experience. Scaachi Koul is a fighter. She throws a lot of punches and she's on the receiving end, but it's the one you don't see coming that hurts the most. In this collection of deeply personal and raw essays, we get a glimpse of her life as a daughter of immigrants, body image battles, and the demise of a marriage. Infused with humor and sharp observances, it was impossible to look away.

This is a good book for those that have been through a breakup or divorce and need salve on those cuts.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy

Truly phenominal, heartwrenching storytelling.

I remember reading One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter and being spellbound - I still think of this title regularly because it's stuck in my brain. I related to her essays, even though we live very different lives, because her writing at the time was peak millennial. Of course I would identify with the difficulties of the late twenty-somethings who were now not young per se but definitely not the adults in the room.

Now, I feel I have grown alongside Scaachi. Her writing this time around is more mature, more soulful and gut-punchingly sad. I still can't wholly relate to her experiences but I can relate to her ennui, her recognition of the realities of life. Scaachi's writing, then and now, feels like catharsis - like validation for feeling emotions. For milennials being classified as the "everyone gets a participation trophy so no one's feelings get hurt" generation, it sure is hard to talk about emotions and how they affect us.

I want Scaachi to succeed. I validate her emotions for her, because I too have needed emotions validated. And I eagerly await her next collection of essays that will no doubt resonate with me.

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

TW

I personally want to start off by saying I was unfamiliar with this author and her previous works before this book. I had seen this book on several “most anticipated books of 2025 lists” and wanted to give it a go! I did not know anything going into it and from chapters 1-3 and 5-9 I really enjoyed some of her storytelling and thought the writing overall was fine.

I do not write lightly that this may be one of the most triggering books I have read yet as someone who grew up with a parent with an eating disorder. I cannot believe some of the content that was published within this book. I understand how common eating disorders are and how important awareness can be. I feel the way it was gone about was incredibly irresponsible when there are lines and passages like the following:

“I missed my eating disorder more than I missed my ex husband”

“If I could strangle myself with my own hands then I was beautiful”

“Will I emerge from divorce skinny? Because at least people will look at me with their sad Scaachi is getting divorced looks I’d look good”


I honestly wish I was taking these out of context but sadly there is no remorse, resolution, or reflective detailed in this book about the graphic bulimia the author suffers from. There is no sharing of how this mindset was reset or fixed in the slightest. It is not looked at through a lenses of regret or remorse. In a lot of ways I feel this book glamorizes eating disorders.

While some of the writing and details about her divorce was solid this extremely graphic chapter (and other bits sprinkled in throughout the rest of the book) soured the rest of the memoir. I hope there is a TW at the beginning of the book once it is actually published.

Scaachi Koul delivers a sharp, witty, and deeply personal exploration of resilience in Sucker Punch. With her signature humor and unfiltered honesty, she dissects the unraveling of her marriage, career setbacks, and family struggles against the backdrop of an unpredictable world. Her reflections on conflict—both internal and external—are insightful and relatable, making this book as thought-provoking as it is entertaining.

While Koul’s writing is as engaging as ever, some sections feel slightly repetitive, and the emotional weight of her experiences occasionally overshadows the humor that made her first book so memorable. Still, Sucker Punch is a compelling read that balances vulnerability with biting wit, offering a fresh perspective on growth, loss, and the fights that define us.

This is my first time reading something by this author and I’m presently surprised. I was immersed in the essays immediately and her vulnerability about her divorce is impressive. Her culture and humor is woven together masterfully and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

I subscribe to Scaachi Koul's newsletter and love to read her work. I really enjoyed her last essay collection and was so excited to read this!

As expected, the writing in this collection was sharp, so funny, insightful, and felt really honest. This is one I will be purchasing for my bookshelf.

Recommended: sure
For darkly relatable observations, for someone taking a knife to herself and sharing her most critical and intimate insights of her own being, for dark humor and lots and lots of pain with growth

Thoughts:
Wow. This hit pretty hard. Each essay block I tended to have to split up my reading because getting through an entire one was rough given the content. She is brutally honest about her assessment of herself and of others. I could feel so much of the raw pain and honesty, and I really hope that in a few years she'll look back and see that how she viewed herself now has changed and she has found love for herself again.

Anyway, this really cuts to the quick. Topics like divorce, family infighting, cancer, rape, trauma, self-confidence, there's really no holding back. Nothing in here is easy. Somehow though she does still inject humor at times -- very dark dark humor. A sort of "laugh so you don't cry" hysteria at times. And even though the title is sucker punch, she pulls no punches in her own discussions, of herself or others. She even calls out at times how much she would rather endure as opposed to speaking about herself publicly, specifically her own body, which she does in this book. Just giving some insight into how this must have felt ripped straight out of her.

The stories she gives here are deeply personal and yet somehow feel like tapping into a social current of things that many people have or will experience. She also ties in a lot of her religion and the lore of the different gods, and how that shaped her whether she realized it or not. I appreciated that there was enough context given for me to understand the impact and symbolism, though for folks more familiar I don't know if that might be a downside (hearing things you already know, that is). Her relationship with them grows over time and through the stories as well, so I appreciated being able to coherently follow along with that and understand the significance and catalysts.

Ouch, yo. This is a great model of how to write something ripped from your core. It feels like someone's hardest therapy sessions made into writing.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review.

I was not familiar with Koul before reading this collection of essays but she's made me feel as though I know her. There's a lot of anger here - justifiably so- as she recounts the various punches she's taken in the last years. But she's also rebounded. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An interesting entry into the genre.

I haven’t read Koul’s first book, or her essay that went viral, but I picked this one up (mostly because I liked the cover) and found myself really invested. I loved her voice and her insights. Looking forward to going back and reading her other essays!

Scaachi does it again. I've been following her writing for years as a fellow Indian woman in the world of media, and this collection of essays especially striking. She artfully draws comparisons between her own personal story and the stories of Indian goddesses, and they stopped me in my tracks — repeatedly, I thought, "What clear thinking and writing." Tender and devastating, and still, frankly, hilarious. Looking forward to her next piece of work.

Raw, heart-wrenching, and wry would be the three words I'd use to describe Sucker Punch. The follow-up to Koul's debut, One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, this new essay collection arrives in light of some heavy changes in the journalist's life -- namely, her divorce and her mother's cancer diagnosis. Structured in sections entitled after different concepts within Hinduism -- Moksha, Dharma, Samsara, and Karma -- readers take a wandering path through the author's narrative of her marriage and its end.
Using her divorce and mother's illness as jumping off points, Koul continues to explore topics familiar to readers of her past work in The New Yorker, Huffington Post, The Guardian, and Slate -- racism, the immigrant experience, body image, gender politics, sexual assault, all observations made with her usual balance of dry sarcasm and thoughtful insight. I particularly loved the essay centered around Lolita and all of its interpretations, how the book became a reference and in-joke in her May-December marriage, reflecting on calling her husband "Hum" in humor and defiance.
Another really impactful essay gives space to how her family reacted to the announcement of her divorce. Koul alludes to the long-term battle she waged to convince her parents to give their blessing of her engagement to her white, significantly older fiancé. After an almost-picture perfect traditional Kashmiri wedding, things fall apart. COVID-19 sequesters the couple in their NYC apartment. An affair surfaces. Scaachi is laid off from Buzzfeed. And and and....
"'You got what you wanted!' Papa said in glee after the wedding. 'But you got what you wanted?' Papa said when I told him I didn't think the marriage was working. 'You got what you wanted,' Papa said in a quiet panic when I called crying because I knew I had to move out.
I always get what I want. I'm starting to think that might be the problem."
Like, kill me. I just kept being reminded that Koul isn't just a great journalist in the sense that she finds access to the biggest creeps and offers knowledgeable insights into the sins of society's past (looking at you, Girls Gone Wild), but in that she's a damn good writer too. There are so many passages when I paused to highlight, lines that echoed in my head for days after setting the book down.
So this maybe isn't the best book for a starry-eyed newlywed to pick up, but I've been a fan of Scaachi since her Buzzfeed days, a regular listener to Scamfluencers, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to read an ARC provided by NetGalley and Macmillan. For anyone who enjoys a solid essay collection, Sucker Punch will easily win your heart. It stands out in the intimate way Koul tackles topics like rape and racism, in the mic-drop lines, the sardonic tone and sharp humor. I'm definitely reaching for her first title, and I continue to look forward to whatever she turns her eye to next.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this.

I really enjoyed Scaachi's first book and have been a fan of her work as a cultural commentator since that came out, and this is another collection that knocks it out of the park. These essays all orbit around Koul's divorce, and I appreciate her willingness to not only pull that apart, but take a look at how the stories she was telling herself (and us, in her previous collection) weren't what they seemed to be. There's a really admirable frankness to everything in this collection, and it's also laugh-out-loud funny. This is another killer addition to the litany of divorce-focused books that have come out in the past year.

I have never read any of Scaachi’s work before, so I came into reading this book with no expectations. It was a raw, honest take on dealing with the many sucker punches life can throw our way from loss of a job, a loved one getting cancer, and a marriage falling apart. It was well written and I appreciated the honesty and responsibility the author took for their part in the marriage failing, and their look into how culture and religion shaped their desire to stay in something that was not working. If you go into the book expecting that I think you will enjoy the story. However it seemed marketed as a humorous set of essays, and it was definitely not that. I received an ARC and this is my honest review.

Sucker Punch by Scaachi Koul was a miss for me. If you read and enjoyed her first book, One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, you may enjoy this as a follow up, but I just found myself not really sure of what her purpose was in writing these "essays." They felt disjointed and random. Her work is touted as being snarky and witty, but it felt more like she was trying to say things just to pick a fight (which she self-proclaims is something she loves to do) or just write out a series of complaints. The premise that this was an unexpected turn of life events during lockdown didn't deliver for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

You would not believe the excitement I had when I saw the email about this one. Scaachi Koul is one of my very favorites. I listen to her on Scamfluencers weekly, I loved Where To Be A Woman, and her last book was so poignant in ways I couldn't fathom now, reading this one. This one hit me harder than that one, given that then I was divorced, and yet she was in a "happy" marriage at that time. This book saw me highlighting so many passages about having a bad ex-husband. About learning to love? or appreciate your body. About the friends you have who become family. About the love her mother has for her. I loved this so much and am just so thankful I got to read it. Now to go pre-order my copy!

Funny, witty, sharp, thoughtful. Scaachi Koul remains one of my favorite writers. I never read her first book, but the way she revises her own unreliable narration is very interesting.