<i>Destroy This House</i> hooked me from the prologue and kept me engaged until around the halfway mark. The storytelling is straightforward with the occasional fact-checking of what she was able to find about her parents while writing the memoir. Unfortunately, I found myself speed-reading because the story became jumbled/repetitive and disorganized.

I sympathize with Amanda and know I cannot fully understand what she went through. Her tolerance of her parent's emotional manipulation and abuse was frustrating to read. Since it was not mentioned in the epilogue, I hope she has sought therapy to help address her complex grief and guilt because she gave so much more to her parents than they deserved.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!!

This book was so good! A true emotional depiction of a girl learning to grow up in an unstable environment. It was interesting reading about growing up with a hoarding house and how one learns to see the light in their own life.

Uhle's memoir is unlike anything I have ever read. It was fascinating to get glimpses into her life. The content is authentic and heartbreaking, but hopeful. I'm still thinking about it. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC.

Amanda Uhle’s Destroy This House is a powerful memoir about growing up in a world of extremes—wealth and poverty, deception and love, chaos and devotion. Her parents, a fashion designer and a smooth-talking schemer, moved their family through ten homes in five states, always chasing their next big break. As her mother’s hoarding worsened and her father’s risky ventures collapsed, Amanda struggled to make sense of their ever-changing reality.

At times, this book is frustrating and emotionally exhausting, but it’s also deeply thoughtful. The author's upbrining was both unconventional and largely dysfunctional. Uhle reflects on her parents’ wild choices with a mix of honesty, humor, and tenderness. Destroy This House is a gripping story of survival, resilience, and the complicated love between parents and children, no matter how messy that love may be.

Felt like reading an episode of Hoarders with even more intense emotion. I liked the exploration of parent/child dynamics; always feeling obligated to take care even in the face of manipulative psychological abuse.

I thoroughly enjoyed Destroy This House. While it’s a memoir, it’s written like a novel, which made it incredibly engaging and easy to read. The storytelling style drew me in and kept me turning the pages, even though the subject matter was often difficult.

The author’s account of her parents’ lives—her mother’s struggles with hoarding and both parents’ inability to manage money—was at times heartbreaking. Their constant financial chaos, with piles of unpaid bills, repossessed cars, and borrowing money from their children without repaying it (while insisting they had), painted a vivid and painful picture of instability.

What struck me most was the emotional weight of the author’s experiences. Her reflections on feeling unseen despite her efforts to help and connect were profoundly moving. The ending resonated deeply, especially when she tied their last name, Long, to its meaning as a verb: "To feel a strong desire or craving, especially for something not likely to be attained. To pine. To yearn." That insight encapsulated so much of her journey, perfectly summing up the themes of longing and unfulfilled connection that permeated her childhood.

Destroy This House is a beautifully written, thought-provoking memoir that stayed with me long after I finished reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I don't love ranking memoirs on a star scale because the story is so personal to the author. It is well-written, albeit a bit verbose at times, but I had some overall objections to the impact it left.

The blurbs compare this book to Educated by Tara Westover and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
but this is an imperfect analogy. While Uhle also tells of her experience growing up in a dysfunctional household, there is no discussion tying the issues back to a larger exploitative system. The story flip-flops from regarding her parents with reverence to character degradations which felt icky to me since both her parents have passed.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read but I do not think it rises to the level of thoughtful reflection that I was expecting based on the blurb.

Most importantly, a huge thank you to NetGalley, Amanda Uhle and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a copy of this publication in exchange for an honest review.

"In 'Detroy This House', Amanda sets out to document her parents unbelievable exploits and her own hard-won escape into independence. With humor and tenderness, Uhle has crafted a heartfelt and utterly unique memoir, capturing the raucousness, pain, joy, and ultimately, the boundless love that exists between all parents and children." -Dave Eggers, praise for 'Destroy This house'

Amanda Uhle was born into a loving yet dysfunctional family. Her father was a religious "motor mouth", her mother was a hoarder to the extreme and together they only saw the best in one another. Caught between loving them and hating the obstacles that love presented, Amanda and her younger brother Adam are left to navigate their childhoods and early adulthoods while striving to make sense of it all. Chaos ensues.

Although her writing seemed a bit jumbled and disorganized in places (I suppose the nature of the story is inevitably going to cause that), this was one book I couldn't put down and found myself making excuses to pick it up. Mrs. Uhle emotionally roped me in and kept me intrigued with how she would handle the bizarre situation presented. Her mom kept what on the counter for weeks?! Her dad did what with his taxes?!

Overall, 4 SOLID stars for this somewhat disturbing memoir of family and lovingthe regardless of everything they are, can be, and won't be.

4.5 stars. Extremely well-written memoir. The storytelling is straightforward and charming, even when managing to tell a difficult or unappealing story. I think this will be a hit upon publication!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster/Summit Books for the ARC.

Destroy This House is a compelling memoir! Amanda Uhle's been through some crazy things and this book is a wonderful retelling.

An interesting and often jaw-dropping memoir detailing among other things the complicated and troubling relationships with parents. The way Uhle writes brings us right alongside her, laying out all the details in a sometimes funny, sometimes uncomfortable manner that made me curious for more.
The author picks through the truth of her childhood declaring that half of what each of her parents said was a lie. Maneuvering through what may or may not be true, delivering it all wrapped up like a bow with the details finely milled.


An engaging story that assures I’ll keep my eye out for more nonfiction from this author.

this was a good memoir! I normally am not a fan of reading memoirs, but i did enjoy this one. It had emotions, funny bits, and some serious topics all rolled into one. It was well written

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Thank you to NetGalley & Simon and Schuster for providing me with this ARC. This review is crossposted on Goodreads.

I don’t typically like to rate memoirs because who am I to rate your personal life story, but this one is a very solid 4.

The writing structure is strong, blunt, and very Glass Castle-esque. I appreciated the combination of personal accounts and news headlines to share both the intimate and outsider perspectives on this family. There were some parts that fell into bit of a lull, but I think Amanda did a great job at capturing the important pieces while keeping the timeline on track and succinct.

The main reason this book is not a 5 for me is because it was a frustrating and grueling read. I very much sympathize for Amanda and cannot even begin to fully grasp the reality of what she faced, but it was still difficult to put up with what she endured. I felt as though her toleration of her family’s behavior was enabling them, but I think Amanda obviously knows that at this point in her life as well. The overall reflection is brilliant and disturbing.

I appreciate Amanda’s willingness to be so raw and share this all to the world. Highly recommend!

A strong 4 stars for this memoir. This is quite the story, and I’m guessing there are a fair number of families that are dysfunctional in similar ways.

The author grew up in a bit of a madhouse, with a dad who was always on the make in some way (though he did have a fairly long good spell) and a hoarder for a mother. Uhle and her family lived in five different states, always running from something, it seems and the family was generally in financial peril. Her father goes from wealthy entrepreneur to a poor seminary student then pastor, and her mother decides to become a nurse.

I found this fascinating. Within the first twenty five pages it seems clear that both of her parents were mentally ill, and while the author had few options when she was growing up in their home Uhle definitely enabled them as an adult…though she was a saint not to abandon them to their crazy. This reminded me a bit of Jeanette Walls’ THE GLASS CASTLE only not quite so tragic. The sections about food storage are going to stick with me in a bad way for a long time. Ugh. Oh, and nice shoutout to Racine’s famous Kringle which has long been a holiday staple for my family and I was likely enjoying some while I read this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
Amanda grew up with bizarre parents. I found it interesting that growing up, she told herself that her parent's problems were their own to figure out but as an adult, she had such difficulty setting those boundaries. The relationship between parents and children can be complicated enough without all the bizarre behaviors. The hoarding aspect was interesting to me too.