Review by Booklist Review
Actress, model, and artist Fox learned the power of telling her own story when, after she outed a boyfriend for his abuse and he threatened to reveal her past, she did so herself in an art book that immediately sold out. Fox's powerful instinct to survive and to harness her own narrative are all over this well-crafted, exciting, shocking, heartfelt, and altogether unputdownable memoir. Her sustaining friendships with women, several of whom she recounts losing to overdoses, are another key to this survival and to Fox's work as an artist. Fox recalls all in present tense, starting with her free-form childhood spent straddling Italy (where she was born) and New York City, along with her parents' uneasy relationship. Ensuing decades see her flipping through schools and friendships, trying out sex and controlled substances, visiting her boyfriend on Riker's Island, working as a dominatrix, starring alongside Adam Sandler, becoming a mom, dating "the artist" (whom readers will recognize as Kanye West); and so very much else. Through moments of harrowing difficulty and true beauty, with Fox as our confident and skilled pilot, the pages fly.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Fox started the buzz herself, calling her memoir-in-process "a masterpiece" last year. Her star is rising, and fans will find that buzz utterly deserved.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Actor and model Fox debuts with an unvarnished account of her tumultuous childhood, struggles with drug use, complicated friendships, and volatile romances. Beginning with her move, at age six, from Italy to New York City--where she and her family had been homeless for a brief period when Fox was a toddler--Fox chronicles her rise, fall, and resurgence in Manhattan's downtown milieu. Along the way, she recounts relationships with a series of violent men and the scars she weathered from a procession of best friends with whom she fell out. Key episodes include a torrid affair with a young drug dealer from the Bronx, a hot-and-cold romance with a softhearted sugar daddy, a cleansing stint in Louisiana, and the birth of Fox's son in 2021. Throughout, Fox discusses heavy subject matter, including her early experiences with heroin and her teenage stint as a dominatrix, in blunt terms ("As I stand there, completely naked with my legs apart and wrists tied up and hooked to the ceiling, I can't escape my reflection. I can see myself from every angle... Then the most forbidden thought of all crosses my mind: What if my parents saw me like this? Cringe"), which works both to the book's advantage and to its detriment: it lends the proceedings an air of intimacy, but prevents Fox from varying her emotional register. Her present-tense narration can feel like a shortcut to immediacy, though it's an effective one. Less effective is her reliance on clichés ("My hero turned out to be nothing more than just another flawed human being"). Though Fox's recollections feel somewhat undigested, their gossipy appeal is difficult to deny. (Oct.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A memoir from the Italian American actor and model. Though she lived in Milan until she was 6, Fox (b. 1990) spent her coming-of-age years in Manhattan with her frazzled, indifferent father; for a brief period, they were homeless. The author haphazardly packs the details of her childhood into an opening chapter clouded with scandal and betrayal involving her father and her best friend's single mother. Fox chronicles how the horrific events of 9/11 traumatized and prematurely ushered her "into adulthood before puberty." She matured mostly on her own, since her mother had "no interest in performing any maternal acts." During her adolescence, Fox moved between New York and Italy, experimenting with shoplifting, sex, and drugs. She also experienced a psychiatric breakdown, and a host of unreliable friends and lovers led her astray. Fox worked for a few months as a dominatrix named Valentina, though she soon tired of the "mental gymnastics" of the BDSM scene, and hard-partying adventures with several addict friends ended in tragedy. In 2019, Fox appeared in the hit movie Uncut Gems, alongside Adam Sandler, and her debut performance became a sensation. From there, she focused on sobriety and mothering her newborn son, Valentino, as well as keeping a custody battle at bay. Only in the closing chapters does Fox divulge her brief and "uncomfortable" 2022 romance with "the artist" (a thinly veiled Kanye West), which unceremoniously shifted her into the public eye. She also writes vividly about her search for the drug dealer she feels is responsible for the death of her friend. The epiphany in the final pages doesn't quite mesh with the rest of the memoir, which, while breathless and exhilarating, reads more like a druggy, often rushed novel that could have used tighter editing. A chatty, meandering, splashy self-portrait that may appeal to fans. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
