SSDGM

I don’t remember if someone recommended it, or if I was looking up more content about murder but in early 2017 I found the My Favorite Murder podcast. I very quickly felt like hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark were my friends and in a time where I could barely get out of bed every day, where not even Schitt$ Creek could make me laugh, they cracked me up.

(Don’t worry, I’ve gone back and fallen in love with Schitt$ Creek since)

I listen to them every time I’m in the car (they are the reason I don’t mind my 40 minute commute), anytime I have to do chores, if I have time to do my make up, I’ve connected with fellow murderinos, I’ve seen them live and I own merchandise.

And yet, when Karen and Georgia announced the release of their dual memoir, I was skeptical.

The book, Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide, is a collection of stories that have been touched on on the podcast with nuggets of wisdom the women have learned the hard way. It’s billed as a dual memoir but I feel like it’s more essays that include personal stories. Georgia’s story about letting a photographer take pictures of her alone in a remote location has a lot of value for those of us who still feel uncomfortable being ‘rude’ and Karen’s chapter on her mother’s Alzheimer’s and what it was like for her family to spend years saying goodbye had me in tears. As an aforementioned long time fan, I enjoyed this book. It provided context on stories that I’d only ever heard the broad strokes of before.

But I’m not convinced that this will be a book that works for those who have no idea what My Favorite Murder is or why anyone would think of a title like that. The expands on the podcast’s themes (F*ck Politeness, Stay out of the forest, Buy your own sh*t) in ways that I found illuminating but my relationship to these women and their work is longstanding. On the podcast and in the book, both women are huge proponents of going to therapy and mention it frequently. On the podcast this seems like a reasonable thing to reiterate as required but in print, it’s repetitive (without the recognition that it’s not possible for all).

Still, if you are a fan or you’ve just dipped your toe into the wonderful world of MFM, you’ll probably like this one.

SSDGM.