The synopsis for Craiglist Confessional: A Collection of Secrets from Anonymous Strangers says, "For fans of Humans of New York and PostSecret..." I have not read Humans of New York (it is on my "to read" list now), but I have read most of the PostSecret books and I use to frequent the website during college to kill time between classes. I would agree that Craiglist Confessional would be good for fans of PostSecret except that at least PostSecret breaks up all the heavy, depressing stories with an occasional shot of humor. Not so in Craigslist Confessional. When you think the stories cannot get any more depressing you read the next one. I am a huge advocate of treating everyone with kindness because you never know what they are going through at home and this book really brings that home in a big way.

Here is how I would recommend reading Craigslist Confessional. I would have a second book that is humor based close at hand.

Craigslist Confessional is divided into five sections: Love, Regret, Loss, Identity, and Family. Each section have eight to ten confessionals that only take a few minutes to read. I think most on my Kindle said five minutes in length with the longest being about eleven minutes.

I read this book from cover to cover and was able to finish it in a couple of days. I don't recommend this at all. If I was to read it again, or if a Craigslist Confessional 2 was released, I would read one section and when I was finished I would read a couple of chapters from my humor based book just to lighten the mood.

I love non-fiction, so once I found out about Craigslist Confessional, I knew I had to read it!!

I loved how the book is comprised of several stories from anonymous individuals who wanted to share their experiences with the author. The premise is so unique—sometimes what we really want is someone who will just listen to us.

Many of these stories absolutely broke my heart. There were a few I really related to, especially the story about prenatal and postpartum anxiety (if you ever have questions about it or want to chat, I’m always happy to share my experiences and/or just listen!!).

I will note that there are A LOT on content warnings for this book. I have many listed below, but I probably missed some. Again, there are a lot. If you have questions about the CW, send me a message!

Overall, I think Craigslist Confessional was a really powerful collection of stories that others should read.

CW: illness, death, infant loss, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, war, abuse (verbal, sexual, emotional, physical), anxiety, infidelity, pedophilia, homophobia, transphobia, rape, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, incarceration, drug/alcohol addiction

I enjoyed every bit of this 5/5, no notes.

Craigslist Confessionals tells multiple short stories in the point of view from each person. I picked up this book as I thought it would be an interesting read and love reading about secrets. I found half the stories very interesting and captured my attention, while some of the other stories fell short for me.

It was a hit or miss for me on the stories. Some of the stories were so raw and real that I had to struggle not to cry and felt so much emotion with them, while some of the stories that I didn't enjoy were due to the way the story was told. It either felt dry or some lacked emotion for me. Other stories, I simply didn't enjoy due to the fact that I felt no sympathy for them as most people get to where they are based on their own choices in life.

There are maybe two stories that stuck out to me that will stick with me for a long time, whether it was due to the strong emotions or the way that I felt I could in some way relate to their hardships. Overall, was a good short read that kept me interested. Would especially recommend to a friend who has a hard time being empathetic to others so they can get other points of view on loss, struggle, addiction and more.

i thought this book would be hella interesting but maybe i just hate people. i literally did not care about so many of these stories. some of them were even annoying as hell. also why are we still publishing books without trigger warnings. it’s literally not hard at all to add warning at the beginning of each story but apparently the author/editor/publisher/whoever didn’t think that necessary. lastly, it was exhausting reading these stories grouped by subject. all the love stories together, all the loss, etc etc. i feel i would have been less drained if it had jumped around between subjects but i’m not writer/editor/publisher so what do i know.

3.5 stars

Dea Bala placed an ad on Craigslist asking people to tell her about themselves. A surprising number responded. She would meet them in a public place and listen and then go home and write about their stories. At the beginning of each story readers are told the person’s name and their age range. The stories were written well enough but I found them all to be sad and depressing so I could only read a few at a time. The stories did make me reflect on how fortunate I’ve been even as they made me sad for the people who were telling them.