#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"Funny, furious, and profane." —The New York Times
“Not your typical celebrity memoir.” —Jimmy Kimmel
Unflinchingly honest and darkly funny, You with the Sad Eyes unveils a side of Christina Applegate we’ve never seen, forever cementing her formidable and iconoclastic legacy.
Christina Applegate came of age on sets and stages, expected to be on time, with lines learned, ready for lights-camera-action. What started as a financial necessity soon became an emotional escape from a tumultuous home life in the infamous Laurel Canyon scene of the 70s and 80s. She rocketed to stardom on the sitcom Married...with Children and went on to captivate audiences in classics like Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead…, Anchorman, and Dead to Me in her five-decade long career.
Then it all stopped. A Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis in 2021 confined her to a king-sized bed and the company of memories she’d rather forget: memories of the self-doubt and body dysmorphia that stalked her meteoric rise, of her mother’s fight against addiction and abuse after her father left, and of the tax life had taken on her body and mind that was suddenly coming due.
Now, at her most intimate and vulnerable, she unveils a story not even those closest to her fully know. She returns to the diaries she kept her whole life, finding the pain matched by joy, the losses mitigated by the extraordinary, and the weight of life lifted by her unrelenting belief that something greater lay ahead. No longer willing to lock herself away and with the perspective only our own mortality can bring, she knew it was imperative to tell it all.
You with the Sad Eyes presents a remarkable woman and her legacy. In her own words, “I truly believe that books can make people feel less alone. That’s why I’m doing this. You with the Sad Eyes won’t be some big violin scratching for my life. But it will be real. It will be filled with the ups and downs, the humor and grief of life.
So here I am.
Real me.
Lots to say.”
A sad and shallow read
"I love reading celebrity memoirs that give an inside look into their public and personal lives. On only a handful of occasions, reading a celebrity has caused me to later view them in a different, almost negative, light (I'm looking at you Jeremy Renner and Patrick Stewart). Sadly, this is one of those instances. I hate that I didn't like this book, but it was poorly written with confusing jumps in time, a lot of her own poetry, personal ramblings and name dropping of people I've never heard of. I wanted to know more about her time on her popular TV shows and, most importantly, her experiences living with breast cancer and MS. Unfortunately, these experiences were glossed over with little to no exploration with most of the book being a deep dive into trauma. I felt for the little girl and teen who was all on her own, who was mistreated by her boyfriends and her own parents. Her constant denial about the toxic relationship with her mom being the most heartbreaking. But for me, Christina came off as entitled with a lack of accountability for her own actions and her blasé attitude about her consistent Hollywood success grated on me. I empathize with her health issues and feel for what she experienced growing up, but this book felt relentless in its negativity, complaining and was emotionally exhausting to read as she relays trauma after trauma. This review isn't based on her experiences - I could only imagine what it was like to BE her - but on the quality of the writing and lack of emotional exploration of those experiences. I'm in the vast minority with my views so if you're a fan of Christina, you may want to pick up this memoir."
