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    Her
    Her
    Her
    Audiobook9 hours

    Her

    Written by Christa Parravani

    Narrated by Christa Parravani

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Raised up from poverty by a determined single mother, gifted and beautiful twin sisters Christa and Cara Parravani were able to create a private haven of splendor and amusement that they shared between themselves. They earned their way into a prestigious college, established careers as artists (a photographer and a writer, respectively), and entered young marriages. But plagued by their father#8217;s early rejection of them and further damaged by being raped as a young woman, Cara veered into depression, drugs, and a shocking early death.Some time after Cara was gone, Christa read that when an identical twin dies, regardless of the cause, fifty percent of the time the surviving twin dies within two years. By then, that shocking statistic rang all too true. #8220;Flip a coin,#8221; she had come to think. #8220;Those are my chances of survival.#8221; While at first Christa had fought to stop Cara#8217;s downward spiral, after her sister#8217;s death she suddenly found herself struggling to survive her own.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9781622311750
    Her
    Author

    Christa Parravani

    Christa Parravani is the bestselling author of Her: A Memoir. She has taught at Dartmouth College, UMass Amherst, SUNY Purchase, and West Virginia University, where she served as an Assistant Professor of Creative Nonfiction. She earned her MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University and her MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers-Newark.

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    Reviews for Her

    4/5

    84 ratings15 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This book was wonderful; I read it to my husband and we both really loved it. Finally we get insight into a world that not many people know much about...the world of twins. This story was heartbreaking but it also showed courage for the surviving twin too. I had always wondered how twins felt when one of them dies and how they have the strength to go on and by reading this I now know. It may not be the same for all twins that suffer a loss like this, but now those who read this story will have more insight into a twins world. I really loved this book!!
    • 3/5
      Christa Parravani's twin sister Cara died after an accidental drug overdose, a battle with mental illness, and surviving a brutal rape. This is Christa's story of life, loss, and survival. It's honest, at times brutally so. Lots of tough stuff is given in detail. It's a challenging read, but I was glad to persevere through it. A minor quibble - the book's cover image is fantastic and well composed - I wish there were a note somewhere in the book that told me for certain if this is the winter in Massachucetts photo described in the narrative, and not some posed and polished book cover art.
    • 5/5
      Christa writes about growing up as an identical twin, and her special bond to her twin sister. But then, also, about her sister's rape, and descent into drug abuse and death. As she struggles to come to terms with Cara's death, she finds herself lost in a desire to become her deceased sister, and struggles with her own demons and drug use. It is easy, perhaps for the reader to ask, why does she do this?, or why is she making these mistakes? But perhaps we can never know what it is like unless we are a twin, or lose a sibling, especially an identical twin. Christa does eventually come out on the other side, but the story of her journey is a compelling one.
    • 5/5
      I’m not fond of depressing memoirs, but I will make an exception to this story of identical twins. One never recovers from a brutal rape and finds solace in drugs and eventually dies. The struggle the remaining twin has is so saddening. For those of us who lack someone as close as a twin, this story is a fascinating look with no rose-colored glasses used for the telling of the story.
    • 2/5
      Her life story is compelling. The pain a woman goes through once raped. The pain a woman goes through after an indentical twin kills herself. However, the writing style was difficult for me to get through. I felt like large parts of the story was omitted. Also there was a new age feeling to the book.
    • 2/5
      Saw this book in the library after I had just finished The Sisters Antipodes, and thought I'd read something in a similar vein. Maybe it was the comparison that made me dislike this book so much - the raw, ungainly writing that had not the slightest pretext of being transmuted into art. I just got so sick of Cara, of all her problems and about all the minute details of her life that had no relevance to the story (like how long a drink of water she took when her twin was in the restroom, etc. etc. I love reading about twins, but this was just a slog. I'm sorry her twin died, but writing is just not her milieu. A book of photographs might have been more artful.
    • 5/5
      A heartbreaking story about twins who both struggle with addiction and life in general. One of the twins experiences a traumatic event and sinks even deeper into her addiction to drugs. Eventually she dies of an overdose. This book was written as an attempt by the surviving twin,Christa Parravani, to make sense of life without her other half.The author is a gifted writer and she will draw you in with her raw honesty and beautiful prose.
    • 5/5
      A very honest memoir about Prravani's life and loss of her identical twin sister. The book takes you through her life growing up with Cara and the bond they had as twins, to Christa's life after Cara's sudden death. I loved how effortlessly Cara's writings were incorporated into the book. This book was sad, loving, and beautiful.
    • 5/5
      The Urban Dictionary defines a "hot mess" as "When [one's] thoughts or appearance are in a state of disarray but [he or she] they maintain[s] an undeniable attractiveness or beauty." Hot mess is just the term for twins Cara and Christa Parravani. Abandoned by their father as children, the two sisters spent their twenties going from man to man and substance to substance. They had a seriously codependent relationship with each other; Cara begged Christa and her new husband to let her (Cara) join them on their honeymoon. After Cara was the victim of a devastating rape, she fell into a downward spiral that ended in her death. Surviving twin Christa, the author of this affecting memoir, had to learn a new way of living as a "twinless twin". I highly recommend this beautifully written and compelling memoir.
    • 5/5
      This is a raw and devastating memoir about what it means to lose an identical twin. After being raped Cara Parravani fell into deep depression and substance abuse, which culminated in her suicide. Cara's identical twin, Christa, was left to pick up the pieces. for those who are not twins, this is a fascinating read about what it is like to have another person who feels like part of your body. In grief Christa faces her own depression and addiction. This is a deep and emotional memoir. It highlights the prevalence of abuse-- the Parravani girls are abused as children, and Cara is raped as an adult. It shows the dangers and miseries of substance abuse, and the overwhelmingness of grief. This memoir is both elegantly written and affecting.
    • 5/5
      This was a heart-breaking, yet amazing read. I have close friend who is a twin. She lost her sister and this really opened my eyes to the very close bond that twins share. It's such a heart felt story. Anyone who has lost someone will appreciate and identify with the grief process. I highly recommend this book. Just make sure you have some tissues handy.
    • 4/5
      My latest memoir read and early review installment is the captivating tale of Christa Parravani, one half of a set of identical twins. Her book tells the narrative of two girls who go through life together and when one of them dies tragically, the other is left to discover what it means to be alone. I have never understood so thoroughly what being a twin must be like, and I found that the parts of the narrative that discuss the power of identity and the ties of love specifically between twins to be the most interesting part of this memoir. I felt real pain for Christa as she attempted to navigate life without her other half.Reader's should be warned that there is a horrifying rape scene in the early chapters of the book, that was written by the rape survivor, Cara, the twin who died (by drug overdose). The author of this memoir included several excerpts from the deceased twin's journals to illustrate many points of their lives together. Among those excerpts is the description of the rape that led Cara to the circumstances of her eventual death. I loved the extra point of view of the twin's lives together. Cara had a captivating voice as well and it is a tragedy that her life ended early. This story is sad, beautiful and worthwhile reading. The message, corny as it sounds, rang clear and true: love always wins over death.
    • 4/5
      Her is a powerfully written memoir that explores the relationship between identical twin sisters through life and into the death of one of the sisters. The sisters seem to experience an almost gothic series of troubles, from an abusive parent to a harrowingly violent rape to drug abuse, with bouts of depression and anorexia thrown in. Parravani is a compelling narrator, though, and her experiences and emotions are conveyed powerfully without much reliance on melodrama or self-pity. Her is not easy to read but it is compelling and thought provoking.
    • 5/5
      Christa and Cara are identical twins who embody the myth of closeness - two people, one soul. Their bond is not only forged from biology and the womb but strengthened by overcoming a difficult childhood and all adversities that come with poverty and abuse. But, what happens when one twin starts to spiral out of control? Does the other twin remain independently strong or does she get dragged down with her mirror image sibling? When Cara survives a brutal rape the violence never leaves her mind and she embarks on a journey full of drugs and self destruction. The more Cara sinks into depression and recklessness the more Christa struggles to stay above her sister's chaos. Christa wrestles with finding the delicate balance between loving her sister and wanting to save herself. This becomes especially dangerous when she is desperate to save her sister at the risk of losing herself. Finally, when faced with failure Christa has the seemingly insurmountable task of extracting her life from that of her sister's. To look into Cara's coffin was to see herself. Part Two of her is Christa's journey to find herself; to crawl out from under the mountain of grief; to be her own singular person.Postscript ~ Being very familiar with the area where Cara was raped I refrained from looking at Christa's photography until I was finished with the book. I have to be honest, the photographs are so striking I kept returning to them. They add an air of quiet melancholy and bring Cara and Christa's "twinness" into sharper focus. I would say to add more of these photographs to the memoir would make the story even more haunting (if that was even possible).
    • 5/5
      Her is a memoir written by Christa Parravani. Christa's sister Cara died from a drug overdose sending her sister spiraling into grief. This is very well written and quite possibly one of the saddest books I've ever read. After just a few pages in I had to go look for myself of the photographs of Christa and Cara on the website mentioned in the letter that accompanied the book. I think this will be one of those books that I think about long after the last page.