Heartbreaking and heartwarming, these are brief vignettes about people who tell their secrets to a stranger. If you like the blog/social media feed of Humans of NY, this will be your jam.

Craigslist Confessional made me weep, grieve, remember, and ache for all of the heartbreak, trauma and understanding that life is just damn hard. The overarching theme of “you’re never alone” has never rang more true.

Truth is, we all have a story, a moment - probably several - that could easily sneak into this collection. That’s both the beauty and the bane of it. We are incredibly flawed creatures. The Alzheimer’s stories broke me. The addiction ones hit close to home, too. This is not an easy read, but gaining perspective is vital to better understanding ourselves and others. Thank you to those willing to share their experiences.

We all have our own stuff. And that stuff connects us in ways we don’t even realize. ‘Craigslist Confessional’ was like a permission slip into the lives of strangers. I wondered if I would have been as invested had the strangers been fictional. I would like to believe I could see the potential of humanness even in fictional characters. Definitely for those who like to look in the windows of houses when driving down the road at night.

So sad

More like a 2.5

Heartbreaking but powerful stories.

Usually, I'm skeptical when it comes to books that are basically a website in printed form. However, I was pleasantly and emotionally surprised by how much I connected with this book.
I don't know if it's the fact that they're stories I hadn't read before or that having them physically in my hand made me have a deeper connection to them, something just made them hit me right in the feels.
It helped cement what Dea Bala is doing as a profoundly special thing that brings people closer to understanding each other. You truly do not know what others have or are going through. Be prepared for it to leave you with a deep there but for the grace of God go I vibe.

Deep thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the chance to read and review honestly.

This book should definitely come with many trigger warnings (listed below). It is heavy. It makes sense it retrospect that what is shared anonymously with a stranger is a lot of deep trauma and sadness that folks didn’t feel comfortable telling others. It was hard to keep reading at times. I really appreciated the ending - the author’s own story and snippets about how she kept in touch with some folks. But definitely a book to take breaks with since there is a lot of pain and heartbreak, abuse and trauma.

Trigger warnings include: rape, sexual assault, child abuse, suicide, eating disorders.