Smashed Story of a Drunken Girlhood

Garnering a vast amount of attention from young people and parents, and from book buyers across the country, Smashedbecame a media sensation and a New York Timesbestseller. Eye- opening and utterly gripping, Koren Zailckas’s story is that of thousands of girls like her who are not alcoholics—yet—but who routinely use booze as a shortcut to courage and a stand-in for good judgment.With one stiff sip of Southern Comfort at the age of fourteen, Zailckas is initiated into the world of drinking. From then on, she will drink faithfully, fanatically. In high school, her experimentation will lead to a stomach pumping. In college, her excess will give way to a pattern of self-poisoning that will grow more destructive each year. At age twenty-two, Zailckas will wake up in an unfamiliar apartment in New York City, elbow her friend who is passed out next to her, and ask, Where are we?” Smashedis a sober look at how she got there and, after years of blackouts and smashups, what it took for her to realize she had to stop drinking. Smashedis an astonishing literary debut destined to become a classic. Gripping... one of the best accounts of addiction, the college experience, or even what it means to be an average teenage girl in America. A.” –Entertainment Weekly

Koren Zailckas grew up in the suburbs of Boston and attended Syracuse University. This is her first book.