Pieces of a Girl

Name: Pieces of a Girl
Brand: Penguin Random House
Availability: InStock
Author: Stephanie Kuehnert
ISBN: 9780593907337

Author: Stephanie Kuehnert

Narrator: Stephanie Kuehnert

Unabridged: 9 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Listening Library

Published: 03/26/2024

Categories: Young Adult Nonfiction, Social Topics, Drugs, Alcohol, Substance Abuse, Cutting & Self-harm, Biography & Autobiography, Women

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

A raw and bold memoir about abuse and addiction, and the power of expression and community that helped Stephanie Kuehnert, the author of Ballads of Suburbia and regular Rookie contributor, survive and thrive. Told in varied narrative styles, including journal entries, original illustration, and pages torn from her actual diaries and zines, this is the memoir of Stephanie's life as a struggling outsider who survived substance and relationship abuse to become a strong young woman after years and years trapped in a cycle that sometimes seemed to have no escape.

*Includes a downloadable PDF of the comic strips, journal entries, and zine pages from the book, as well as the photos of the author growing up

About The Author

Stephanie Kuehnert got her start writing bad poetry about unrequited love and razor blades in eighth grade. In high school, she discovered punk rock and produced several D.I.Y. feminist zines. She received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago. Her first YA novel, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone was published by MTV Books in July 2008, and her second, Ballads of Suburbia was published in July 2009. In addition to writing novels, she is a teacher and was a staff writer for ROOKIE, an online magazine for teenage girls. Stephanie lives in Seattle with her husband and two cats.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Andrea on April 22, 2024

3.5. The first part the memoirist wasn’t super likable but I started to like her more as it went on. Def quotable. Also made me think too much about a past abusive relationship of my own.......more

Goodreads review by Victoria on July 08, 2024

Actual rating: 4 1/2 stars. I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone is without a doubt in my top 3 most influential books that I have ever read in my life. It made me the punker chick that I am today and so I pre-ordered Kuehnert's memoir ASAP. I was looking forward to reading about her creation of I Wanna Be Y......more

Goodreads review by Wren on October 15, 2024

This would be a good memoir for a teen girl who feels like a misfit, loves pop culture, and lives with the burden of abuse. This is a introspective, confessional, chaotic, multi-media tale of a young woman who has a lot to manage and strikes out in various directions to create a place for herself in......more

Goodreads review by Malissa on July 09, 2024

I loved this author's Ballads of Suburbia a LOT, so I bought this in two formats immediately. Then, I struggled to engage with this biography in the beginning. I think mostly because I'm 42 years old and not the teen she was or published for. I ended up really liking it, but there was still a part o......more

Goodreads review by Courtney on January 31, 2024

Vulnerable, and tough to read, but so important. The unbelievably true story of a girl who shatters her life and slowly gathers the pieces into something whole again. With writing that doesn’t condescend to its intended younger audience, Stephanie channels all of the riot grrrls that inspired her to......more

Quotes

“Harrowing but ultimately triumphant.”—Booklist, starred review

“[S]trong, captivating voice . . . a memoir with sharp teeth and a soft underbelly, the product mirroring the author’s catharsis in creating art.”—Publishers Weekly

“A raw, deep dive into one young woman’s struggle for wholeness.”—Kirkus Reviews