REVIEW: Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget

A memoir by Sarah Hepola

This new memoir is an author’s dark yet comical passage in piecing together the nights she loses to alcohol induced blackouts, her decision to get sober, and her journey in sobriety. Hepola gives a revealing and moving look into the alcoholic mind. She details its influence in the growth and destruction of friendships and its haphazard navigation through establishing her writing career. A number of reviews have touted this book as hilarious, but honestly, it’s sad. Hepola has to use humor to cut the seriousness of her subject matter. Her road to recovery is a rough one, but triumphant and worth getting into. This is a timely read considering the The Post and Courier recently published an article showing that Charleston’s intake of alcohol is far greater than the national average . It doesn’t hurt to mention that Alcoholics Anonymous has 26 groups in the area which meet weekly and even daily.

— Codie Smith, John’s Island Regional Library, John’s Island, S.C.

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