Autobiography

Under Construction: Because Living My Best Life Took a Little Work

Author: Chrishell Stause 

Average Rating:   2 / 5

Trigger Warnings:

In this heartfelt and humorous memoir, celebrity realtor Chrishell Stause takes us behind the scenes of her life.  Opening up about her unorthodox childhood, she explains what it was like to deal with family addiction problems and bouts of homelessness at a young age, all the while dreaming of making it big as a daytime soap actress.  She’ll tell us how she went from managing a local Dairy Queen to being a celebrated luxury realtor in LA and on the small screen. 

Nothing is off limits as Stause shares her origins in small-town Kentucky and how she broke through every obstacle in her past.  She’ll tell us what it’s really like to film her reality show, Selling Sunset, divulge previously untold stories from her time acting in soaps, and will even reveal details about her highly scrutinized and publicized love life.  Leaning on her signature honesty and wit, Stause will pull from the lessons life has taught her and offer applicable insight to her readers on how to remain resilient and positive no matter what life throws at you.  Under Construction is for anyone who needs a reminder that even when you get knocked down, it’s possible to get up and walk back in, stronger and brighter than ever before.

Lydia: 2/5

The synopsis of this book claims it to be witty, inspirational and engaging. Descriptions that I personally did not experience when reading. I thought it was boring and the ‘advice’ that Strause gives are things you could literally Google. 

I thought learning about her past life experiences was interesting, like the moments she explains her experiences with homelessness and the addictions in her family – those were the only times that I really found myself hopeful that this book could be more than your typical celebrity autobiography. 

Unfortunately it just didn’t speak to me at all. While I typically love Chrishell on the show, she should definitely stick with real estate / reality TV and stray away from writing books. 

If you love the show (which I do) then I do recommend you pick up this book, but don’t expect it to be life changing or riveting. The best parts were learning about her history and how that affected her actions in the future. 

Megan: 2/5 

I love Selling Sunset. I binged it because I couldn’t get enough of the glamour, the homes, and the drama. When I heard that Chrishell wrote a book, I couldn’t wait to pick it up. I normally don’t read non-fiction, but figured why not? Thankfully the book was short, but it still took me longer than necessary to finish. Maybe I went in with too high of expectations, but this was not my favourite book. 

I was hoping this book would be a biography, talking about her life growing up, especially since Stause has mentioned a few times on Selling Sunset that her family experienced times of homelessness. On the flip side, I would not have complained if it delved into more behind-the-scenes of the show. However, Stause tried to combine both and ended up missing the mark altogether. The book felt like it was all over the place. It was constantly switching back and forth between her past (growing up) and present (Hollywood and Selling Sunset) and the transitions weren’t always very smooth. The book itself could have used some more editing. There were many run-on sentences and the tenses weren’t consistent, sometimes changing needlessly within a single sentence. 

Stause has done well for herself, and she tried to use her experiences to motivate her readers to achieve their dreams. She had some good points, but others felt superficial or a downright humble brag. I wish this book gave me more instead of staying on the surface level for everything. Stause is my favourite agent on the show; she seems to be very genuine and down-to-earth. Unfortunately, that was not what came across in her writing. I would still recommend reading it if you love the show, but don’t go into it expecting it to be life changing. 

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