Marni by Marni Bates

Amazon.com:

Marni pulls. Pulls her hair, that is.

Unable to deal with the mounting stress at home, in school, and with friends, Marni's compulsion to pluck out her eyebrows, eyelashes . . . even the hair from the top of her head, helped her to quiet her mind and escape the pressures of the world around her.

Marni first began pulling the summer just before entering high school, and she was immediately hooked. Unfortunately, by the time she discovered that her habit was an actual disorder—trichotillomania or "trich"—it was way too late. "When I stared at the mirror and tried to recognize the girl without eyebrows, eyelashes, and bangs as myself and failed, I knew something had gone horribly wrong."

Because Truth Is More Fascinating Than Fiction

I really liked Marni's voice, she is and writes in such a way that you are cheering for her, wanting her to succeed and get through the tough things in her life. From her troubles with her father and her sister and problems at school. She just seems like a nice person that doesn't deserve an ounce of the bad things that happen in her life. And really some of the things that she goes through with her father, sister, and a unbelievably rude debate coach almost seem like fiction. It's sure a lot for one girl to go through. But if you listen to Marni speak, which I had the privilege to listen in on online a few months back, she's a very cheery person, none of her past pain comes through her personality!

The way Marni describes her trich really makes sense. How it's a compulsive behavior and something you can't just stop, it's right there on your head and face asking you to pull. Her trich isn't as much as the main storyline as I had originally though. But it was ok, because Marni fills her memoir with a lot of other interesting things from her life. From homeschooling to her love of reading as a child to being a self proclaimed geek. I could definitely get along with Marni, I think we'd have a lot of things in common.

My main issue with the book was that I just wanted more. It seemed almost too short and almost truncated. The chapters are little glimpses into her life, but I felt like they kind of jumped around time-wise and it made it a little hard for me to get my bearings at times. Did this happen before that etc etc. So I think more pages would have allowed for smoother transitions between the different times in Marni's life that she talks about.

I've heard from Marni herself that she's working on some fiction and really hopes that comes to something because I definitely would love to read it!

Marni was released on August 3rd
Genre: Young Adult Memoir
3.5/5 Stars
Review copy provided by publisher