Title: Where Am I Now? Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame
Author: Mara Wilson
Genre: Memoir
Date Read: 09/10/2016 – 11/11/2016
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
You may know Mara Wilson from such movies as Matilda and Mrs Doubtfire. She was Hollywood’s darling during the early 1990s, but faded into obscurity when she hit puberty and was no longer “cute enough”. Nowadays, she’s an NYU graduate and writer, with an awesome Twitter account. In this collection of essays, she’s warm and honest and nerdy, and makes you feel like she could be your best friend.
Where Am I Now? covers a variety of topics, from when Mara first learned about sex, to losing her mother to cancer, to being diagnosed with OCD at the age of twelve after struggling with it for four years. There are also more light-hearted topics, like her couple of years spent in show choirs, and how she got up the courage to share a “sexy” story with her writing group, despite fears of anyone seeing a story like that.
A lot of the essays have been honed through her writing groups and the style is so easy to read, I flew through the chapters. I should have been doing uni work but the book kept calling me back. The chapter about Matilda, written in the format of a letter to the character, made me tear up more than once, as did the chapter on her reaction to the death of Robin Williams, whom she describes as one of the few adult actors who never talked down to her on film sets. I related to so much of what Mara wrote about, even if I didn’t have exactly the same experiences.
This review is on the shorter side, but I really feel like I’ve covered everything. It’s well-written, honest, will make you smile and cry in equal measure. Basically, you should read it.
A Keyboard and an Open Mind 
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