Trying to write anything funny or cute about this book without reading and digesting every page of it would be a mistake. I can say this: Dear Diary is a totally unique, totally addictive (n.p.i.) little book from Vice contributor Lesley Arfin. If you're not a regular Vice reader, Dear Diary is where Lesley publishes excerpts from her 13 years of meticulously kept diaries (ages 12 to 25), then responds to each entry with the benefit of hindsight, even interviewing the people she loved / hated / talked shit about in the entries. There are innocent chapters, less innocent chapters, totally fucked up chapters and then some - but Lesley pulls them all off with a tone that's just right, not too serious, not too light. I tried to just do the cursory review-skim of this book but got sucked in and ended up reading half of it at my desk. This hardcover first printing comes with a neat magnetic snap "padlock" on the front, with a cool cover shot from Richard Kern. It's also got pictures throughout (B&W sketches and color photographs) and a foreword from Chloe Sevigny. 288 pages. Recommended.

reviewed by Chris Lemon-Red