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Reviewed by Jessica Barbosa for Readers' Favorite
I'll Try Anything Twice: Misadventures of a Self-Medicated Life follows author Carly Schwartz as she feels disconnected from her life, career, and relationships, despite outward success. In her efforts to find answers to the discontent she was experiencing in life, she embarked on a quest of self-discovery, opting to change environments and communities and adopting different approaches to cope with what was happening within her. A significant point of redirection was when she relocated to an alternative community in the Panamanian jungle, an environment focused on nature, where she hoped a radical change would fix what felt broken inside her.
I’ll Try Anything Twice by Carly Schwartz is unafraid to delve deeper into the psyche of a deeply depressed person, and this unflinching storytelling made the memoir feel more relatable. This book’s biggest strength is that it refuses easy narratives. The author doesn’t frame herself as reckless for fun or broken dramatically; she frames her behavior as problem-solving that didn’t work. The author's unflinching self-awareness made this book stand out from others in the genre. The tone balances dark humor with accountability, which is hard to pull off but powerful when done well. It signals that the book doesn’t glamorize chaos, even when it’s funny. This concise account gave the memoir structure. I found the memoir to be raw, thoughtful, and real. Schwartz’s journey showed me that growth can be slow, uncomfortable, and imperfect, and that made it meaningful.
