A review by booksalacarte
Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up by Selma Blair

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

Mean Baby- 5⭐️

Selma Blair has played many roles: Ingenue in Cruel Intentions. Preppy ice queen in Legally Blonde. Muse to Karl Lagerfeld. Advocate for the multiple sclerosis community. But before all of that, Selma was known best as … a mean baby. In a memoir that is as wildly funny as it is emotionally shattering, Blair tells the captivating story of growing up and finding her truth.
The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention.
Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape.
Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, devasting memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
In a voice that is powerfully original, fiercely intelligent, and full of hard-won wisdom, Selma Blair’s Mean Baby is a deeply human memoir and a true literary achievement

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✨My Opinion✨
This was such a touching memoir. I found myself crying multiple times listening to Selma Blair recount her life and experiences. 

I went in knowing only of her highlights. Cruel intentions, The Sweetest Thing, Legally Blonde… I came out with such respect and admiration. she shared memorable snippets of her life, from as young as she can remember to the dreams she has for her child… it’s so touching and relatable. She is self critical and open in such a way that is shocking and bold. Her humility and self awareness is something to behold. Nothing seemed to be off limits.

I felt connected to her experiences because she went through so many things that are common place in our world, critical but loving parents, mean kids at school, bad relationships, depression, abandoned dreams, motherhood… she recounts many things I could relate to, but haven’t thought of in my adult my years… bringing myself to tears on more than one (or even two) occasion.

Selma’s writing isn’t overly connected and tailored, in a good way. The snippets are connected through theme, rather than topic. I never felt like something shared was unnecessary or out of place. I enjoyed it, more than I expected to.