No Lost Causes Club: An Honest Guide to Recovery, and How to Find Your Way Through It 

by Lauren McQuistin

Overview

Brutally honest, darkly funny, and deeply empathetic, No Lost Causes Club is a guide to the process of sobering up when it feels like the party’s just getting started, from the voice of the popular Instagram @brutalrecovery.

When she was told that her life expectancy could be as low as twenty-five if she did not stop drinking, Lauren McQuistin felt absolutely nothing—then despair and disbelief. How was she here? Surely, sobriety was for middle-aged divorcées who’d lost everything, not young, struggling singers who didn’t have anything to lose in the first place? Besides, when alcohol is the only medicine that makes the world feel bearable, how can you possibly stop taking it?

Six years later, Lauren has found her way to an intricate answer. Entwining practical, empathetic suggestions with intimate memoir, No Lost Causes Club is an intrinsically vulnerable and brutally honest exploration of what it looks like to live a full life after getting clean. From delving into the social complexities that often leave people hopelessly dependent on alcohol to centering the struggles of those newly navigating sobriety, this book is a soothing balm for anyone wondering how to carve out a beautiful life in a world that never made sense before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798874706432
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	09/13/2025
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lauren McQuistin is a London-based Scottish musician and writer. No Lost Causes Club is based on her multiple years of sobriety and her Instagram account @brutalrecovery. There she creates content for recovering humans looking for identification, and a message with equal parts humor and hope. Lauren was a professional opera singer, winning the district round of the Metropolitan National Opera Competition three times. She uses her experience as a musician to teach trauma-informed musicianship and has been featured in the Journal of Singing for her research on trauma’s impact on the voice.

Table of Contents

Title Info. Introduction. Pt I. Nothing changes if nothing changes—how to make a start. Chapter 1. Rock Bottom Chapter 2. Fear Chapter 3. Early Days Pt II. Looking inwards—how to experience yourself when you’ve spent most of your life trying to escape yourself. Chapter 4. Senses Chapter 5. Emotions Chapter 6. Escapism Pt III. Looking outwards—approaching your life from a more stable base. Chapter 7. Getting Into the World Chapter 8. The Internet Chapter 9. When Things Get Hard Pt IV. The final frontiers are often said to be romance and finance. I have nothing to offer on the latter, but I have some experience of the former—how to navigate sex, love, and dating with all the wounds that they aggravate. Chapter 10. Sex and Love Chapter 11. Dating Pt V. Looking back, with the intention of moving forward— how to live with the past and feel hopeful about the future. Chapter 12. Regret Chapter 13. Repair and Restoration Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

Frank and encouraging.”

Library Journal

Lauren McQuistin’s work is irreverent, provocative, delightful, and very funny…She’s an important voice and a rare talent. I’d read anything she writes.”

New York Times bestselling author of How To Murder Cat Marnell

There [is] something so special about the work of this young woman, churning out electric and potent content from a bedroom in East London. Lauren McQuistin’s work is irreverent, provocative, delightful, and very funny. It captures the bizarre, delightful highs and lows experienced by the alcoholic or addict in recovery: acknowledging the dumpster fire of a life one leaves behind, restoring oneself to sanity, the struggle for intimacy, and so on…I truly believe in McQuistin’s potential…She’s an important voice and a rare talent. I’d read anything she writes.”

New York Times bestselling author of How to Murder Cat Marnell

I love this book so much. Lauren McQuistin is just the friend you would want to meet on the road to addiction recovery—funny, smart, relatable, realistic, humane, encouraging, and best of all, unrelentingly honest. I’m so glad that she exists, that she found her way to sobriety, and that she has generously and unflinchingly shared her story for others. I hope this book finds its way into many, many shaky and deserving hands.”

internationally bestselling author of Eat Pray Lov Elizabeth Gilbert

Opera singer McQuistin debuts with a perceptive and self-aware guide to recovering from alcoholism…The author’s appealingly diaristic tone and nonjudgmental advice will help those hoping to break their addictions feel seen.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

I believe that No Lost Causes Club will be a beacon for a generation of readers who have come to the false conclusion that they are broken beyond repair. With the warmth, clarity, and humor of a friend, Lauren McQuistin generously shares her own story and the insights she has gained to show us how an inconceivably better life becomes possible. This book is not just about sobriety or just about recovery; it is an invitation to hope.”

author of Love in Exile and The Transgender Issue Shon Faye

Lauren McQuistin deftly shepherds us from the shadows of addiction into the glimmer of recovery, illuminating our path with curiosity, humor, and wisdom. Through in-depth research and skillful storytelling, McQuistin’s solution appears subtly as a key change in a song, rewarding and awe-inspiring. I wish I had No Lost Causes Club when I got sober nine years ago; I could have really used it. I’m so glad it exists now.”

Jessica Hoppe

In a singular voice that captures both the absurdity and vulnerability of being a young woman in recovery, Lauren McQuistin’s No Lost Causes Club chronicles the messy, nonlinear path of healing with dark humor, unflinching honesty, razor-sharp insight, and deep empathy. This is a book for anyone who has ever fallen apart—and dared to believe they could put themselves back together.”

author of Strung Out Erin Khar

A stunning, seriously sick, and profoundly well work. I love the intricacies of sanity, and how it can look so crazy. This book had me laughing and crying. Truly brilliant.”

Margaret Cho

Lauren McQuistin’s high-warmth, low-nonsense approach to the adventure of recovery is unique and invaluable. This book has it all—actionable strategies, devastating memoir, a delightful sense of humor, and unflagging hope. McQuistin reminds us that we get to change at any time, and that we don’t have to abandon the fun or the jokes or even the darkness to do it. Whether your path is complete abstinence or an honest reassessment of your relationship to drugs and alcohol—this is recovery for the rest of us.”

Tara McGowan-Ross