In My Skin

October 1, 2006
The elevated, poetic language of Aussie writer Holdens debut memoir vibrates with passion as she tells the story of the small victories and great obstacles she encountered as a heroin addict who turned to prostitution as a way of supporting her habit. The middle-class Holden, a carefree, artistic bohemian who scraped by selling books, is introduced to the drug in her early twenties by her boyfriend in the small Australian town of St. Kilda at a time when the grunge band Nirvana reigned and heroin was at the peak of its glamour. Holden finds the strength to recover through the help of her supportive family and, ironically, through her struggle with the very hardships she finally escapes. Her acutely vivid prose is a revelation, even if the subject matter is not. Recommended for all public libraries. [Holdens draft manuscript of this book won the Judy Duffy Award for literary excellence.Ed.]" Elizabeth Brinkley, Granite Falls, WA"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 1, 2006
In this breathtakingly candid memoir, Holden, a middle-class Australian with an honors degree in classics, recounts her years weathering the emotional storm of heroin addiction. She retraces her fall, from her first hit of the drug (done as a lark with some friends) to months spent so strung out that she stole from her family and the bookstore where she had worked for several years. Heroin, she writes, was "a scaly green lizard wrapped tight around my mind, blinking its cold eyes at me, blinding me." Ever-desperate to finance her next fix, Holden turned tricks on the streets of St. Kilda, Australia, then spent time in a series of high-class brothels, an experience she found alternately harrowing and empowering. Heroin, she says, alters the body and psyche from the moment it bubbles through one's veins. After her first session as a prostitute, she writes: "The thought that I had perhaps just done something momentous slipped off me as smoothly as the needle glided in." What is most unnerving about Holden's account is the way in which she and fellow addicts relapsed after long stretches of being clean. Holden lavishly praises her family, who remained supportive through the most trying of times. Achingly honest but not for the squeamish.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

October 2, 2006
What happens when a bright, well-loved young woman gets hooked on heroin and turns to prostitution to keep up her habit? Hopefully, she eventually shakes free, as Australian Holden does, but most likely a lot goes wrong first. In this vivid and riveting account of her own sudden fall and slow recovery, Holden describes the slow pull toward heroin as her friends and her lover are hooked. Mild, almost bored temptation turns into obsession after she gives it a try. As the drug and the life compromises it encourages take over Holden's universe, she loses her job and rarely sees her family and clean friends. Eventually, desperate for cash for the daily fixes for herself and her inept boyfriend, she starts turning tricks on the street. When, one night, a john turns out to be a scout for temps at a brothel, Holden's story turns. The relative stability of the brothel, and the accompanying relationships with sister prostitutes and even some johns, revives Holden's sense of self and self-worth. Throughout, she tells it like it is. Her depictions of the dark realities she lived through are at times graphic, especially in some of the more difficult scenes with johns, but always clear-eyed. She lets the readers see—and judge—the situation for themselves.