Problems

By: Jade Sharma

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Maya's been able to get by in New York on her wits and a dead-end bookstore job for years, but when her husband leaves her and her favorite professor ends their affair, her barely-calibrated life descends into chaos, and she has to make some choices.

Maya's struggle to be alone, to be a woman, and to be thoughtful and imperfect and alive in a world that doesn't really care what happens to her is rendered with dead-eyed clarity and unnerving charm. This book takes every tired trope about addiction and recovery, "likeable" characters, and redemption narratives and blows them to pieces.

©2016 Jade Sharma (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Bad narration

story was fine but I couldn't stand the narrator. her voice is fine, but the way she dips from whispering to yelling over and over was exhausting. I could barely hear her sometimes, turn it up, and then she's screaming dialogue. ridiculous.

Okay but gross

Would recommend to those that enjoy books like My Year of Rest & Relaxtion or Milk Fed. It’s super raunchy and full of dread/nihilism so if you’re into that kind of stuff go for it

An unvarnished journey through addiction

Sharma strips away any sense of glamour or coolness one might have about hard drug use. She also avoids the crutch of trying to make the main character likable. I can’t say I “enjoyed” the journey - it was painful to watch the main character continue to march along her path of self destruction. I will say that I felt like I was given an unvarnished glimpse into the kind of damage addiction can cause.

Pedestrian writing I don’t know what to do with

I found this book uninspiring. There seems to be a new trend among young/up and coming writers to write about girls off the rails. This book tries to do this in an unremarkable way. At times listen to this feels like I am filling my head with garbage from an undeveloped person’s head. For me the point in listening to books is to go beyond the mundane and vulgar. This book is mundane and vulgar.