This book is perfectly fine, but these essays are basically semi-funny blog posts from 2006. To be fair, that was the height of blog post mania!

I absolutely loved Rax King’s book Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer, so I was excited to learn that she had a new book coming out. Sloppy is a collection of personal essays dealing with addiction, sobriety, mental health, relationships, and so much more. I really enjoy Rax’s writing. She’s able to infuse a lot of humor into essays about dark topics without ever feeling like she isn’t taking the material seriously.

Something that I appreciated about Tacky that’s also present in Sloppy is how she writes about very specific things or experiences. Like early internet friendships on the Neopets forums, early misunderstandings of feminism, or lessons learned from the reality show Alone. It makes the book feel distinct and not like something that could’ve just come from any writer. Rax’s writing has such a unique voice and the essays are full of interesting, humorous, poignant, and thought-provoking stories.

Personal essays about recovering from a life of bad behavior. She writes about sobriety, mental health, losing a parent and other heavy topics through an approachable lens. So honest, funny and engaging. You might not like her, but you’ll definitely love her.

Sloppy by Rax King is a sharp, funny, and tender memoir-in-essays that explores the messy intersections of love, trauma, and food. King cleverly uses lowbrow cultural touchstones—like mall food, trashy TV, and chain restaurants—as gateways into deeper reflections on identity, heartbreak, and recovery.

The prose is whip-smart and emotionally raw, Essays like her ode to Guy Fieri or her meditation on Hot Pockets are more than nostalgic—King treats pop culture with intellectual rigor and unflinching personal honesty.

Sloppy is about indulgence, shame, comfort, and how joy can still thrive in unlikely places. It’s a defiant celebration of loving what you love.

Funny, poignant, and fiercely original—Sloppy is a love letter to the imperfect parts of ourselves.

loppy is sharp, raw, and deliciously irreverent—the kind of book that made me laugh out loud while simultaneously wincing at its honesty. Rax King has a gift for dark humor, the kind that isn’t just clever, but also rooted in something real and vulnerable.

What I loved most about this novel is how it leans into messiness—not just in plot, but in emotion, relationships, and self-perception. King doesn’t clean up the narrative for the reader’s comfort, and that’s what makes it so engaging. There’s something refreshing about a voice that embraces chaos and contradiction with wit and style.

I've never heard of Rax King or read anything by her prior to this, but I do enjoy essays and yes, the quote from The Washington Post on the cover of the book "Bettie Page meets Carrie Bradshaw" helped to sell me on this.

I was incredibly impressed very early on with the first few essays. I connected with Rax as she wrote about school:

I desperately wanted to pay attention to whatever my teachers were saying about, I don't know, the Spanish-American War probably. (Anytime you can't remember what your teachers were blathering on about, it was the Spanish-American War. Doesn't it just sound like the kind of lesson you zoned out for?) The ADHD lad must have desperately wanted to pay attention, too. He acted out and I caved in.

And the 'helpful' mentors who think you're just not organized and need a to-do list:


"...Get a task, write it down, do a task, cross it off. All day, every day."
I squinted at his list. It was evening, and still the only one task crossed off: Make a to-do list. ... "Yeah, well. I'm not having such a good day myself."

Even when Rax writes about her work dancing (stripping) and how she wasn't particularly good at it, except for the one time ("It was a complete accident, as are most instances of me being good at my job."), I could identify - not as a dancer or stripper, but as someone who never feels as though they fit in with their job, even if they are 'successful.'

Unlike Rax, who grew up in what we might call a troubled family ("My family is drunks the way other families are Teamsters or actors.") and so my identifying with Ms King waned as I got deeper into the collection of essays. They were still well written and clearly Rax King was shedding some uncomfortable parts of her past as she was working to identify why she is the person she is today.

But I definitely got left behind when she talked about her drug use. I'm not that person and I have difficulty understanding understanding it myself. Anything beyond college experimentation is foreign to me.

Overall, as stated, I'm really impressed. I don't find a lot of essayists that I enjoy (I'm an outlier - I am not a fan of David Sedaris or Augusten Burroughs) but I will definitely look forward to reading more by Rax King. I think she has some very valuable things to say and she says them very well.

This book contains the following:

Sloppy
Proud Alcohlic Stock
Shoplifting from Brandy Melville
Pants on Fire
The Temple of Feminine Perfection
Anger Management
Ten Items
Your Pet Is Dying: An Online Life
Mr. Girl Power
Front of House
Bad Friend
Up from Sloth
Some Notes Towards a Theory of an Old Dad
Hey Big Spender
Commitment Issues
Domesticating the Wolf of Wall Street
Looking for a good book? Sloppy, by Rax King, is a delectable collection of essays. Hard hitting, personal drama calmly looked at with a discerning eye.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

A solid collection! Rax's writing is so compelling that even when I don't directly relate to the subject matter, I have a really hard time putting it down. Feels a little less focused than Tacky but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll read anything Rax writes. Fans of Samantha Irby and other humorous-yet-tender essay collections should read this!

Faves were Your Pet Is Dying: An Online Life and Commitment Issues.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! This book comes out on July 29th, 2025.

Thanks to NetGalley and Vintage for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After reading Tacky by Rax King, I was excited to read her next book, Sloppy. But this one felt, well, messier than her previous book. A little more unorganized and disjointed. I still liked it quite a bit, but it didn't feel cohesive. I appreciate how honest Rax King is in her work. Being able to see through her eyes is really fascinating. I'm generally a pretty boring person, so understanding even a little bit about her experiences is a great depiction of what reading can do, especially reading memoirs.

I do generally wish this was a bit more organized or flowed a little better, but it's still a good book.

I am OBSESSED with Tacky, so I've been looking forward to Sloppy. King is as insightful and funny as ever in these essays, but I think the overarching thread/project is perhaps not as tight or clear as in King's debut. That said, I will continue to devour literally anything King ever publishes.

Rax King's "Sloppy", a collection of essays on getting sober, shoplifting, and other vices and virtues is a standout. King's quick wit, empathy and willingness to be open about "doing it all wrong" make each essay unique. Never boring and always honest, Sloppy is an easy recommend for fand of King or for those looking for some of the best writing available this year.

As someone who has never read anything by Rax King, I find this book messy and inconsistent with its pacing and plotlines. It jumped around a lot and had plot holes. While I understand that this is a memoir and, of course, it's not going to be perfectly organized and formed, it felt like this book was made in a rush and never finished. In terms of the content of the book, I enjoyed Rax King's writing and the fact that she psychoanalyzed herself, which is shown in the book. Overall, I think this book could have used another round of editing, and some points could have been expanded on. Thank you, NetGalley and Vintage, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. As always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.

The writers sophomore is release is much better than their last work which admitted a slog at some points. This book shows experience and pacing that is well done. However, there remains ever present oddball moments in the book that make you either roll your eyes, ponder how you can tell from writing that someone is chronically online, or consider whether the author is completely fabricating details.

At one point, the author accuses some their high school teachers of people that ‘wanted to work at Lockheed Martin’ but became teachers instead. I’m not sure such a person exists as most teachers pursue degrees in education and are community-minded but, if they did exist, I don’t think they would have been teach at her admittedly hippy dippy alternative high school.

Later comes the authors tale that two gentleman came to her strip club to talk about philosophy. In the course of this discussion, the author swooped into correct of the them on an obscure minor point of discussion. The guy in the club was actually a wise professor who then came to the club all the time to chat philosophy with the author. This strikes me as highly implausible. Adding these types of anecdotes always makes it seems like she wants her life to be more cinematic or interesting than it is and I always wanna say to the author: you were a stripper- that’s pretty out of the ordinary to most folks! You don’t have to embellish further.

Other strange inconsistencies pop up to- referring to people eating at an admittedly sub-par restaurant where she worked as “spoiled pets” whereas the authors own penchant for fine dining is a quirky “bad with money” habit. I suppose consistency is the hobgoblins of little minds but it comes across as a bit tone deaf.

Overall though, interspersed between these bits were well-written , poignant pieces about lying and infidelity, marriage and addiction that spoke to a higher truth and were worth reading.

Rax King is a very funny, unique, and sharp writer, and this collection as essays is as strong as Tacky, her first. “Proud Alcoholic Stock" was my favorite essay of the collection—it felt the most meaty and conceived. A few of the others read a bit as filler, but there was a loose narrative arc that supported the collection as a whole. Her strength as a writer is making you feel like your her friend, and the two of you are sitting together, heads close, sharing stories.

a sharp, hilarious, and sometimes gut-wrenching collection of essays. King covers everything from anecdotes of pop culture references to heartbreak and self-destruction, blending biting wit with brutal honesty. The essays explore identity, cultural nostalgia, bad relationships, grief, and the messy process of reinvention, all with a perfect balance of humor and raw emotion.
King’s ability to dissect both love and pain, particularly in how they shaped her, is deeply moving. The essays feel like a conversation—one that’s equal parts self-reckoning and catharsis.

Sloppy by Rax King is equal parts honest and exquisite. Everything she writes about is relatable even if you've never been addicted to drugs or lost as parent. Her writing style is easy, and unrushed and her essay collections feel like reading a lavish tale from a very good friend.

I’ll read any essay Rax King writes. She reminds me that, while I am able to relate to her on several levels, these experiences are more universal (and more humorous) than I originally thought. I love how she weaves millennial pop culture into her writing, and how she writes everything with equal parts reverence and levity. Great collection, can’t wait to read more!

Sloppy was a fantastic read -- I thoroughly enjoyed this series of essays, the writing style, and the overall tie in to the title and theme. King provides enough of the gorey details to make the reader feel like a close friend, while continuously surprising us with messy one-ups-manship. I will be purchasing a tangible copy for the shelf, and will recommend wholeheartedly for anyone who is a fan of memoir-style essay reads.

there are so, so many beautiful and poignant and knife-to-the-gut but in the best way moments about this non-fiction work… but ultimately, the time jumps and rapid switching between themes and motifs (which, to be fair, are very consistent throughout) are just a bit hard to keep track of and give it a bit of a blippy feel. It feels like an internal monologue in all the best ways but also in the ways that anyone who is an external person is missing key context. That’s the thing that kept it from ranking higher for me… but Rax is a lovable, funny, almost painfully real narrator, there’s no doubt about it.

GOODREADS REVIEW: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7294721109?book_show_action=false

BOOKTOK REVIEW: https://www.tiktok.com/@lucy_readss/photo/7468147083778805035

BOOKSTAGRAM REVIEW: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFt0OttNIaC/

This book was wild and sad at times but also showed a different side of a person. I found it to be insightful and a wild ride. I think everyone knows someone or is a little piece of this book.

I followed Rax King on Twitter for years and have always found her funny and insightful. Her collection of essays has the perfect touches of humor and self deprecation. It was not relatable for me but I didn’t need it to be—her experiences are her own and you can get something out of this book even if you don’t have a similar personal history to Ms. King. I was so pleased to receive this ARC. Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Books for giving me the opportunity to provide a review.