Everything Nothing Someone

A Memoir

By: Alice Carrière

Narrated by: Alice Carrière

Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Compared to Girl, Interrupted, this “remarkable” (New York Times) memoir and love story, one of 2023’s most notable literary debuts, tells of a young woman’s harrowing coming-of-age journey, amid glamour, excess, and neglect, to find herself.

Alice Carrière tells the story of her unconventional upbringing in Greenwich Village as the daughter of a remote mother, the renowned artist Jennifer Bartlett, and a charismatic father, European actor Mathieu Carrière. From an early age, Alice is forced to navigate her mother’s recovered memories of ritualized sexual abuse, which she turns into art, and her father’s confusing attentions—her childhood is spent in an adult’s world, with little-to-no boundaries or supervision.

As she enters adolescence, Alice begins to lose her grasp on reality, as a dissociative disorder erases her identity and overzealous doctors medicate her further away from herself. She inhabits various roles: as a patient in expensive psychiatric hospitals, a denizen of the downtown New York music scene, the ingenue in destructive encounters with older men—until a medication-induced psychosis brings her world crashing down. Eventually, she finds purpose in caring for her mother as she descends into dementia, in a love affair with a recovering addict who steadies her, in confronting her father whose words and actions splintered her, and in finding her voice as a writer.

With gallows humor and brutal honesty, Everything/Nothing/Someone explores what it means for our body and mind to belong to us wholly and on our own terms. In precise, energetic prose, Alice manages to untangle the stories told to her by her parents, the American psychiatric complex, and her own broken mind to craft a mesmerizing narrative of emergence and, finally, cure.

©2023 Alice Carrière (P)2023 Spiegel & Grau by Spotify Audiobooks

Critic reviews

* New York Times Editor’s Choice

* Indie Next Pick

* Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction 2023

* Kirkus Best Nonfiction 2023

* Amazon Best of the Month

* B&N Most Anticipated

* Jennette McCurdy Book Club Pick

Absolutely incredible

So incredibly powerfully written. I had to pause many times in order to let the brilliance soak in. I also had to pause to holler out, “WHAT?!!” The author weaves her story unapologetically and asks nothing of the listener but to be present. She doesn’t want pity or applause. She unfolds this incredible tale one section at a time all to the listeners astonishment.

You have to stay till the end

I definitely struggled with getting through the beginning of this novel. The unsettling disposition of a young Alice I found to be disturbing and triggering at times. I also rated the performance as 4/5 stars because the rereading of accounts through the eyes of a young Alice seem exaggerated and overly punctuated, which getting through to the end of the story, now seems less of an act of inexperience, and more like the author’s creative choice to accurately depict the depth of craze and immaturity in the younger self.

Luckily, I stuck through her story of her healing and found a complete recount of extreme lows, followed by some extreme highs, fulfilling a full circle resolution.

Thank you for sharing, Alice!

Powerful and relatable

Carriere possesses a unique ability to vocalize her feelings in a refreshingly raw, creative and intelligent manner. Many of her descriptions prompted me to identify feelings from my own childhood trauma. I cried for her and for myself. Her words resonated with me at a very deep level and I'm grateful to her for sharing this amazing memoir.

Amazing Journey

What a treat to listen to this woman's journey through and to healing after battling mental health issues majority of life.

Beautiful and brutal

Incredibly well-written and her story is very interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in psychology

Most important book I've ever read

Honestly, when I picked up this book, I was skeptical that it might be for me. But this book is for anyone, anyone and everyone. It is for those with mental illness, for those struggling with addictions, for those with lots of money, for those with nothing. If you have a haunting past that you struggle to see more than your own point of view on, this book is definitely for you.
It tells the tale of a young woman struggling to find herself from the pieces of her own memory in order for her to live a life of meaning. She struggles with even knowing the truth of her of own history, And in it's unraveling emerges the truest meaning of love and family, support and bonds.
The narration was spot on, hearing the inflection the author gives also hints at her own feelings as you move through each phase of her life.
You will find meaning within these words. And it will be a journey worth taking.
Thank you to the author for putting herself into the vulnerable position of sharing her deepest pain with us, the readers.

Really engaging

A gripping story that is well constructed and well paced. I like the author’s insight and self-reflection.

Feels too real - with the greatest of compliments

Raw, heartbreaking, real, unhinged, meticulously crafted, and an opportunity to feel the widest array of emotions while listening to it. It made me chuckle, tugged at my heartstrings, filled me with disgust and contempt, enlightened me with all its revelations and gave me a glimpse into the life of somebody completely different. Would recommend.

Fantastic. Couldn’t stop listening.

I love memoir and this one is riveting. Highly detailed, somewhat dark and very smart. It made me want to write. I always get nervous when authors narrate their own books, but Carrière does an excellent job. She could narrate books for a living, though I hope she sticks to writing.

Wow. A journey of healing and the utmost in vulnerability.

I am so grateful for every morsel of this book, every story told therein, every raw and unfiltered sentiment shared. This was a read I will never forget.
Alice is the courageous story of anyone who ever wondered who they are, separate from parents and origins, including whether that is perhaps even a question that can be answered.
Five stars, again and again.