Brief synopsis: In this memoir from Augusten Burroughs, he recounts his childhood of fear living among a sociopathic father, a mentally ill mother, and a brother who's described as being "not quite right." This book is described as a prequel memoir to Burroughs' previous novel, Running with Scissors.



So, I remember there being some hoopla surrounding Running with Scissors when I was in high school because a few of my friends had read it and it was being turned into a movie. But I never read the book, or saw the movie. But I did see A Wolf at the Table at a yard sale for 50 cents, so I chose to read it and fulfill a prompt for the 2018 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge (which I'm now four prompts away from finishing!).

So, I wasn't totally sure what to expect getting into the book. I always say I dislike memoirs (and I swear I do, unless they're celebrity essay memoirs), but I tend to read a few each year anyways. And they're not immensely interesting to me, especially when I can't relate. So when a book is about daddy issues, I really struggle, as I did with this other similar memoir earlier this year. That is not to say this isn't good book.

My Goodreads rating is four stars, but honestly this was more of a 3.5. I rounded up because I enjoyed the writing and the imagery. However, there's a big chunk of this book missing (which I presume to be the entirety of Running with Scissors). Suddenly, the book jumps from age 12 to 17 to 30, the latter of which is only two chapters. Burroughs does have plenty of memoirs, though, so I'm assuming I could catch his entire life story if I read all the books, but again, memoirs just aren't my favorite (why do I read them?).

Overall, A Wolf at the Table was interesting and at times very scary (reminiscent of The Shining, at parts, honestly). If you're into memoirs, I'd say you'd probably really like this, and would also probably want to read his many other memoirs, specifically Running with Scissors, to get the full story.