Adult Braces, Lindy West
Adult Braces, Lindy West
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

Adult Braces
Driving Myself Sane

Author: Lindy West

Narrator: Lindy West

Unabridged: 9 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/10/2026

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

In her most ambitious memoir yet, bestselling author Lindy West takes listeners on a funny and unfiltered cross-country road trip through the most chaotic period of her life. Exclusive self-recorded voice memos captured on the road give this audiobook a raw, real-time immediacy as she rediscovers herself and reinvents her marriage in the process.
 
Through Shrill—the book and then the Hulu series—Lindy West became an inspiration. To this day she is stopped on the street and hailed as a beacon of empowerment by women who felt badly for not conforming to a narrow set of societal norms—thin, straight, compliant. But behind the scenes, Lindy never felt like she was the self-actualized woman fans made her out to be. When she found herself in the throes of a deep depression, with her marriage and sense of self-worth hanging in the balance, she knew she needed to make a change.  
 
In Adult Braces, Lindy shares the story of her rock bottom, and of the journey she took to claw her way out of it. With her trademark candor and sense of humor, she examines her post-Shrill emotional implosion, her shifting feelings about traditional marriage, and her search for her long-lost self. She also tracks the highs and lows of her journey, from eye-opening natural wonders and kitschy roadside attractions to lackluster tourist traps and campground epiphanies.
 
The result is an engaging and laugh-out-loud narrative of becoming as Lindy transforms from a passenger into the active navigator of her own life.

Includes an illustrated map of Lindy's journey.  
 
 

Reviews

Goodreads review by Melinda on October 03, 2025

At this point I’m basically only a librarian so I can get access to Lindy West ARCs.......more

Goodreads review by BansheeBibliophile on March 14, 2026

I almost never rate a memoir lower than three stars because part of me just thinks I really don't have the right. Who am I to judge someone else's vulnerable expression of self through writing? That being said, I really didn't enjoy this book and wish I hadn't bothered. I am familiar with some of Wes......more

Goodreads review by Cherié on March 07, 2026

Thank you to NetGalley for the early read. While I have enjoyed Lindy West's work in the past, this one was not for me. I expected a funny book, but there wasn’t a single point where I even chuckled. Instead, I finished the book feeling deeply sad. I’m glad that Lindy says she’s happy, and I truly ho......more

Goodreads review by Ann Marie on March 10, 2026

Lindy done did it again! 👏🏼 I’m always going to read anything she writes (books, substacks, Instagram captions, dental reviews, bathroom graffiti, etc). This book is GOOD. I highlighted all of my favorite lines and I was honestly worried it was going to run out of its neon ink. I laughed. I spat (uni......more

Goodreads review by lola on December 20, 2025

an extreme pleasure to read - contains the phrase “the vast and unforgiving un-Kokomo of life” - I gasped......more


Quotes

PRAISE FOR SHIT, ACTUALLY

"Sidesplittingly funny."—Seattle Times

PRAISE FOR THE WITCHES ARE COMING

"Searingly smart... [with an] overarching tone of swashbuckling courage: West knows what she wants to say, and she really doesn't care what you think... a stirring manifesto for honesty... and an exhortation to give a damn."—LA Times

"With her signature wit, brio, and laser-like clarity of vision, one of our foremost thinkers on gender unveils her unifying theory of America: that our steady diet of pop culture created by and for embittered, entitled white men has stoked our sociopolitical moment. Adam Sandler, South Park, and Pepe the Frog all come under West's withering scrutiny in this funny, hyper-literate analysis of the link between meme culture and male mediocrity."—Esquire

PRAISE FOR SHRILL

"Both sharp-toothed and fluid....To see so much of West's writing in one place is to appreciate her range. She can eviscerate the status quo with raunchy humor....She can attack entrenched sexism with skilled polemic....And she can leave both of those modes behind to write poignantly about growing up, losing her father, and falling in love....West is propulsively entertaining."—Slate

"There's some beautiful, joyful writing here: West defies cliches both by being persistently hilarious and deeply loving"—Washington Post