A former beauty editor at Lucky describes her secret life as a prescription-drug addict and bulimic who manipulated doctors into supporting her destructive lifestyle, recounting the early experiences that shaped her addictions and her struggles to balance her literary ambition with her disease.

"When Lauren Pizza was thirteen, she died. Caught under a small sailboat, she struggled to reach the surface, only to find that what she thought was up was actually down. And that's all she remembers. Ever since being resuscitated by two strangers, Pizza has felt a presence in her life from the spirit world. Is it crazy? Maybe. Her family sure thinks so. Growing up the youngest, and sometimes forgotten, of five in Little Falls, New Jersey, Pizza continues...