Ill Look So Hot in a Coffin, Carla Sosenko
Ill Look So Hot in a Coffin, Carla Sosenko
List: $18.00 | Sale: $12.60
Club: $9.00

I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin
And Other Thoughts I Used to Have About My Body

Author: Carla Sosenko

Narrator: Carla Sosenko

Unabridged: 5 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/06/2025


Synopsis

A “raw, vulnerable, and utterly hilarious” (Harper’s Bazaar) memoir about one woman’s experience living with a deformity, and her quest to find freedom and joy in her body

“Sosenko’s experience with body shame and judgment, from herself and others, is universal. She shows us her journey from self-hatred to joy so that we may follow her lead.”—Jo Piazza, bestselling author of The Sicilian Inheritance, podcast creator, and award-winning journalist

Carla Sosenko was born with Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome, a rare vascular disorder that resulted in legs of different sizes, a mass of flesh on her back, a hunched posture, and other idiosyncrasies big and small. She spent years trying to hide under layers of clothing, and then experimented with the opposite: wearing tiny dresses and short shorts, daring people to stare so she could make them regret it. No matter what she did, she was worried that she didn’t measure up.

In this candid and funny memoir, Sosenko shares what existing in an unconventional body has meant for her self-image, mental health, relationships, and ambitions. She writes of having liposuction when she was eight years old, and an adulthood spent obsessively gaming Weight Watchers points. She wrestles with the rise of Ozempic after working hard to reject diet culture. She tries to parse whether it is in spite of or because of her physical differences that she is a social butterfly who chose a high-profile career in media. Most of all, Sosenko explores the ways in which she’s felt alone and without community: not disabled but different; the recipient of pretty privilege but also fatphobia; too much, but still never enough. We follow along as she learns to claim her body—and mind and spirit and life—for exactly what they are: her own.

A clarion call for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider or believed they should take up less space, I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin offers hope, recognition, and a new way to see ourselves—by celebrating what sets us apart.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Holden on April 12, 2025

Reviewing memoirs can be so difficult because your subjective views on characters are no longer on characters but real people and the choices that they have made in their lives. Why do I get an opinion about this person, their likability, their privilege etc?? But here we are anyway, so let’s dive i......more

Goodreads review by DianaRose on April 09, 2025

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc! i recommend checking trigger warnings as a lot of sensitive topics are discussed, include but are not limited to death/wanting to die, anxiety, abusive relationships, and compulsive behaviors. the title of carla sosenko’s memoir elicited the same feeling......more

Goodreads review by Richard on November 01, 2024

I have to admit that once I saw the title "I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin," I was immediately drawn to this memoirish book of essays by writer/author/editor Carla Sosenko. As a lifelong paraplegic born with spina bifida (think open spine, scoliosis, urostomy and other oddities) who is now also a doubl......more

Goodreads review by Kim on May 06, 2025

Many times when I read a memoir, I feel like a voyeur on the author's psychotherapy session. I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin is no exception in that way. I appreciated Carla's snarky dark humor and ability to reflect and laugh at her younger self. As someone who has been called out on her own self-depr......more

Goodreads review by Kasa on February 20, 2025

Carla Sosenko's memoir via essays makes for entertaining as well as illuminating reading. Born with a rare condition known as Klippel-Trenaunay, she has dealt with the issues that go along with it, one leg larger than the other, a carapace on her back, hunched posture. But she was more fortunate tha......more


Quotes

“Carla Sosenko is raw, vulnerable, and utterly hilarious in I’ll Look So Hot in a Coffin . . . Sosenko isn’t afraid to completely bare herself in this candid and celebratory memoir.”—Harper’s Bazzar “Most Highly-Anticipated Books of 2025”

“Carla Sosenko’s book is, quite simply, wonderful. She deftly deals with the big topics—sexism, disability, dating, love, family—with a light touch, deep insight, and irreverent humor. I plan to recommend it to all my friends.”—New York Times bestselling author and journalist A.J. Jacobs

“Carla Sosenko’s wickedly funny memoir gave me the ultimate gift: It made me feel seen. The writer was born with a rare deformity, but her experience with body shame and judgment, from herself and others, is universal. Sosenko shows us her journey from self-hatred to joy so that we may follow her lead.”—Jo Piazza, bestselling author of The Sicilian Inheritance, podcast creator, and award-winning journalist