Sucker Punch: Essays By Scaachi Khoul Source Received from the publisher
Published by St. Martin's Press on March 4, 2025
Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Rating:
Scaachi Koul’s first book was a collection of raw, perceptive, and hilarious essays reckoning with the issues of race, body image, love, friendship, and growing up the daughter of immigrants. When the time came to start writing her next book, Scaachi assumed she’d be updating her story with essays about her elaborate four-day wedding, settling down to domestic bliss, and continuing her never-ending arguments with her parents. Instead, the Covid pandemic hit, the world went into lockdown, Scaachi’s marriage fell apart, she lost her job, and her mother was diagnosed with cancer.
Sucker Punch is about what happens when the life you thought you’d be living radically changes course, everything you thought you knew about the world and yourself has tilted on its axis, and you have to start forging a new path forward. Scaachi employs her signature humor and fierce intelligence to interrogate her previous belief that fighting is the most effective tool for progress. She examines the fights she’s had—with her parents, her ex-husband, her friends, online strangers, and herself—all in an attempt to understand when a fight is worth having, and when it's better to walk away.
I subscribe to Scaachi Koul’s newsletter and love to read her work. I really enjoyed her last essay collection and was so excited to read this!
As expected, the writing in this collection was sharp, so funny, insightful, and felt really honest. This is one I will be purchasing for my bookshelf.
