Down the Drain
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4.6 • 16 Ratings
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The hotly anticipated book from “one of the all-time pop-culture greats” (New York magazine) that chronicles her shocking life and unyielding determination to not only survive but achieve her dreams.
Julia Fox is famous for many things: her captivating acting, such as her breakout role in the film Uncut Gems; her trendsetting style, including bleached eyebrows, exaggerated eyeshadow, and cutout dresses; her mastery of social media, where she entertains and educates her millions of followers. But all these share the trait for which she is most famous: unabashedly and unapologetically being herself.
This commitment to authenticity has never been more on display than in Down the Drain. With writing that is both eloquent and accessible, Fox recounts her turbulent path to cultural supremacy: her parents’ volatile relationship that divided her childhood between Italy and New York City and left her largely raising herself; a possessive and abusive drug-dealing boyfriend whose torment continued even from within Rikers Island; her own trips to jail as well as to a psychiatric hospital; her work as a dominatrix that led to a complicated entanglement with a sugar daddy; a heroin habit that led to New Orleans trap houses and that she would kick only after the fatal overdose of her best friend; her own near-lethal overdoses and the deaths of still more friends from drugs and suicide; an emotionally explosive, tabloid-dominating romance with a figure she dubs “The Artist”; a whirlwind, short-lived marriage and her trials as a single parent striving to support her young son. Yet as extraordinary as her story is, its universality is what makes it so powerful. Fox doesn’t just capture her improbable evolution from grade-school outcast to fashion-world icon, she captures her transition from girlhood to womanhood to motherhood. Family and friendship, sex and death, violence and love, money and power, innocence and experience—it’s all here, in raw, remarkable, and riveting detail.
More than a year before the book’s publication, Fox’s description of it as “a masterpiece” in a red carpet interview went viral. As always, she was just being honest. Down the Drain is a true literary achievement, as one-of-a-kind as its author.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Get an inside look at the tumultuous life of It girl actress and social media influencer Julia Fox in this stunning memoir. Long before her critically acclaimed breakout performance in the Safdie brothers’ famously taut indie Uncut Gems, Julia Fox was just a lonely girl splitting time between Italy and New York with her neglectful and often abusive parents. Fox’s search for her place in the world led to early experimentation with drugs, sex, and a desperate cry for help in the form of a suicide attempt. Fox holds nothing back as she writes about everything from shoplifting clothes from New York boutiques to working as a professional dominatrix. She describes each self-destructive decision, abusive boyfriend, and bitter betrayal that set her on an eventual path toward healing—and success. If all you know about Fox is her Insta feed, don’t miss this chance to get to know a truly fascinating woman.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Actor and model Fox debuts with an unvarnished account of her tumultuous childhood, struggles with drug use, complicated friendships, and volatile romances. Beginning with her move, at age six, from Italy to New York City—where she and her family had been homeless for a brief period when Fox was a toddler—Fox chronicles her rise, fall, and resurgence in Manhattan's downtown milieu. Along the way, she recounts relationships with a series of violent men and the scars she weathered from a procession of best friends with whom she fell out. Key episodes include a torrid affair with a young drug dealer from the Bronx, a hot-and-cold romance with a softhearted sugar daddy, a cleansing stint in Louisiana, and the birth of Fox's son in 2021. Throughout, Fox discusses heavy subject matter, including her early experiences with heroin and her teenage stint as a dominatrix, in blunt terms ("As I stand there, completely naked with my legs apart and wrists tied up and hooked to the ceiling, I can't escape my reflection. I can see myself from every angle... Then the most forbidden thought of all crosses my mind: What if my parents saw me like this? Cringe"), which works both to the book's advantage and to its detriment: it lends the proceedings an air of intimacy, but prevents Fox from varying her emotional register. Her present-tense narration can feel like a shortcut to immediacy, though it's an effective one. Less effective is her reliance on clichés ("My hero turned out to be nothing more than just another flawed human being"). Though Fox's recollections feel somewhat undigested, their gossipy appeal is difficult to deny.
