Publishers Weekly
10/28/2019
Freelance writer Khar holds nothing back in this moving debut memoir about addiction. She had been sexually abused and suffered depression beginning at age four; at eight, Khar filches a narcotic painkiller from her mother’s medicine cabinet and feels release from her emotional pain. She begins a drug habit, and at 13, moves on to heroin. Khar unflinchingly recounts being raped by an ex-boyfriend and details a long string of destructive relationships. At one point, she becomes pregnant by an aging rock star and reluctantly has an abortion. There are years of rehab and relapse until at age 28, in 2002, Khar finds out she’s pregnant for a second time and enters a short-lived, emotionally abusive marriage. After the birth of her son, Atticus, in 2003 Khar quits cold turkey. Rebuilding her life, she starts a blog, enters a healthy relationship, and eventually gives birth to a second son. Khar writes that she chose to share her story in an effort to reduce the stigma associated with having a drug addiction, “which prevents people from reaching out.” This heartbreaking yet heartwarming memoir puts a human face on the drug crisis and the factors that lead to addiction. Agent: Jeff Kleinman, Folio Literary. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
“Khar’s buoyant writing doesn’t get mired in her dark subject matter. There is an honesty here that can only come from, to put it in the language of 12-step programs, a “searching and fearless moral inventory.” This is a story she needed to tell; and the rest of the country needs to listen.” —New York Times Book Review
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“One of the strengths of the book is Khar's frank discussion of her relapses, the profound difficulty of those experiences and their utter mundanity…. [Khar writes,] ‘When we write the truth, when we write about our experiences, we reflect back what it means to be a human being. And that reflection creates connection.’ And connection, we can all hope, can reduce stigma, and shame, and pain.” — Ilana Masad, NPR
"The book is Khar’s reflection on how we, as a society, have preconceived notions of addiction that are fallible. The author writes eloquently about heavy ideas. When Khar describes her own cycles of relapses and getting clean is particularly insightful and fascinating. STRUNG OUT is a window into the world of addiction - a world that makes headlines daily. The reader will likely come away with a clear understanding and empathy for the power that drugs like opioids and heroin have over their victims." —TRACEE M. HERBAUGH, Associated Press
"Erin Khar's tender, at times desolate, yet boundlessly hopeful memoir Strung Out is, in many ways, a love letter to her oldest son, Atticus." —Los Angeles Review of Books
“[Khar] is such a natural, frank storyteller.” —SELF.com
"Any book about addiction is actually a book about feelings and the lengths that people who are suffering will go to not to feel them. Erin Khar’s memoir, Strung Out, is a compassionate account of her illness and will surely be the gold standard for women writing about heroin addiction.” —BookPage
“Khar is able to describe her behavior with refreshing perspective, and she is candid throughout…This contemporary take on an unfortunately too-common experience is eye-opening and relevant…A necessarily honest and emotional account that ends in earned redemption.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Khar holds nothing back in this moving debut memoir about addiction…This heartbreaking yet heartwarming memoir puts a human face on the drug crisis and the factors that lead to addiction.” —Publishers Weekly
“[Erin Khar] is very effective in recapturing the irrational nature of spiraling addiction and the unique misery of self-loathing during relapses after treatment…[Her] forthrightness goes a long way towards achieving her stated goal of helping to destigmatize opioid addiction…[STRUNG OUT] reveal[s] the complexity of each individual case, thus giving a human face to a national crisis.” —Booklist
“Freelance writer Khar shares her 15-year struggle with heroin addiction in this well-written debut memoir… Khar hopes to help destigmatize drug addiction by telling her story, and she effectively captures how her unprocessed trauma and self-loathing fueled her cycle of drug use… sharing her heartbreaking journey with truth and absolute sincerity.” —Library Journal
"In STRUNG OUT, Erin Khar reveals the insidious ways addiction can begin, even at a very young age, even where you'd least expect it. Her gripping story challenges the notion of 'it will never happen to my family' and shows exactly how it can. This vital memoir will change how we look at the opiate crisis and how the media talks about it. A deeply moving and emotional read, STRUNG OUT challenges our preconceived ideas of what addiction looks like." —Stephanie Land, New York Times bestselling author of Maid
"I love Erin Khar's work with my whole heart and body. The way she uses her own life's struggles, her gift of language, her impossibly large sense of empathy and compassion, to make you feel less alone, is a rare thing in this world. You don't want to put this book down as if it is a piece of your own heart, and my guess is that it will become just that." —Jennifer Pastiloff, author of On Being Human
"I love Erin's unusual use of language. My air was caught in my throat a little bit and I knew I was in the company of a writer who is willing to take risks, who knows what it is like to NEED to take risks to get the story right. That makes what she is doing ART." —Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water, The Book of Joan, and The Small Backs of Children
"An addiction memoir that doesn't ask for pity of forgiveness, Erin Khar's STRUNG OUT is raw and real, and shows the hard life lessons behind the beloved advice column, Ravishly's Ask Erin." —Lilly Dancyger, editor of essay anthology, Burn It Down
"It's hard to understand how people hit rock bottom and turn to heroin and other addictions, but Erin Khar's lyrical memoir takes us to her darkest of places, where we can almost feel the despair of what it means to be so lost, so broken, that you need to escape. What sets STRUNG OUT apart, though, is knowing that no matter how knocked down she gets, over and over, she will get up again and triumph." —Amy Klein, author of Not Expecting: A Girlfriend's Guide to Infertility
"Peering into one's dark abyss is hard. Sharing that abyss with the public is infinitely more difficult. In STRUNG OUT, Erin Khar boldly excavates and illuminates her own shadows with great (and painful) detail. This is a look at the heavy cloud of addiction, told from both inside and outside of the epicenter. Poignant, revealing, and ultimately inspiring, this is the kind of book that changes lives." —Lisa Marie Basile, author of Light Magic for Dark Times
"Erin is a hauntingly beautiful writer with the kind of story you think has nothing to do with you but has everything to do with you. She transcends her specifics and speaks to anyone who has ever fought hard to stay in the game of being a human being. She is a true inspiration." —Kimberlee Auerbach Berlin, author of The Devil, The Lovers & Me: My Life in Tarot
Library Journal
01/01/2020
Freelance writer Khar shares her 15-year struggle with heroin addiction in this well-written debut memoir. Khar first experimented with opioids at age 13, when she found momentary relief after taking her mother's painkillers. Born into a wealthy family, Khar seemingly had everything, but she endured childhood sexual abuse, was raped by an ex-boyfriend as a teenager, and suffered from depression from an early age. She abruptly stopped using heroin after the birth of her son, Atticus, at age 28, but spent years trying to hide and minimize her addiction while losing herself in unhealthy relationships. Khar hopes to help destigmatize drug addition by telling her story, and she effectively captures how her unprocessed trauma and self-loathing fueled her cycle of drug use. Some passages feel slightly rushed and in need of more detail, but Khar makes up for it by sharing her heartbreaking journey with truth and absolute sincerity. VERDICT Purchase where memoirs about addiction or books about the opioid crisis are in demand.—Emily Patti, Fox Lake Dist. Lib., IL
Kirkus Reviews
2019-10-23
A deeply confessional memoir by a widely published advice columnist who went all the way down the rabbit hole.
In her first book, Khar, who writes the "Ask Erin" column on Ravishly, opens with a stark question from her 12-year-old son, Atticus: "Mom, did you ever do drugs?" It turned out to be a question with a voluminous answer from a woman who had kept her secrets close. The author started stealing pills in her early teens, experimented with other drugs, and ended up addicted to heroin for 15 years. Those who have read addiction memoirs before will recognize the pattern in this story: Eventually, the addict must take dope not to get high but to get "straight" enough to pretend to be a functioning human being. Then they usually suffer multiple relapses, which only add to the grief of their loved ones. Hopefully, like Khar, they can kick the habit and emerge on the other side with a semblance of a life intact. Now that she has gained some distance from her addiction, Khar is able to describe her behavior with refreshing perspective, and she is candid throughout, especially about how she continually drew people into her dangerous orbit before spontaneously pushing them away. While not as blisteringly shocking as some addiction memoirs, this contemporary take on an unfortunately too-common experience is eye-opening and relevant, especially as we continue to witness the escalation of the opioid epidemic. "I have compared my years spent in active addiction to being in a room on fire. With each passing year, with each line I crossed that I'd said I wouldn't, those flames got bigger….And I couldn't figure a way out of the room….The last time I detoxed—when I was pregnant with Atticus—I knew…that staying in that room would kill us both. I made a decision to walk through the flames and fortunately made it out."
A necessarily honest and emotional account that ends in earned redemption.
