When I first started this book I was often left feeling unsure about whether or not I liked it and I believe that is mostly do to the story’s main character, Andrea Bern. All Grown Up is an honest, heart-wrenching story about a woman as she struggles to live her life entirely on her own terms. However, settling down does not seem to be the way Andrea wants to live her life. You even see her mother pull herself together and wish Andrea to do the same, settle down, and be happy. That is before he and his wife struggle to raise their terminally ill daughter. You learn that her brother seems to have made it out of their dysfunctional childhood pretty much unscathed, to become a reasonably successful musician. Between her drinking habits and casual drug use it’s also quite apparent that she just doesn’t want to grow up.

She tends to fall for the wrong men- falling head first in the beginning, and not long after the relationship begins the two end up hating one another.

Her father dies from a drug overdose when she is a teen, her mother always sought to help others rather than her own family, she ends up dropping out of art school, and as a result Andrea ends up not really knowing what she wants for herself. All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg tells the story of Andrea Bern and her struggles from adolescence through adulthood.

All grown up by jami attenberg