"Truth can be painful or funny. Ms. Tozer entertains with both."
—Henry Winkler
“A hilarious, unique voice [Amber's] struggle with addiction is a story of triumph, told in a wonderfully relatable way”
—Andy Richter
"Amber Tozer is a wise guide through her personal story -- which you might find to be disturbingly close to your own. And there's drawings!"
—Patton Oswalt
“Amber Tozer is the single most ridiculous, honest, and kind person you'll ever find. Any time she writes a word, I read it and I highly recommend you do the same.”
—Tig Notaro
“Amber Tozer’s wonderful, hilarious, gritty, inspirational book is simple, but not simplistic. You’ll get smarter like reading one of those books with the big adjectives. With her exquisite stick figures, she documents her demented, hysterical, inspirational path she took from small town girl wanting to know about the world, to going out there and making a place for herself as a comedian, writer, sober spokesperson, and human being.”
—Fred Stoller
"Amber Tozer pens one of the funniest books on alcoholism you’ll ever read."
—The Seattle Times
"Tozer writes with unguarded honesty about addiction and what it means to be an alcoholic...Sober Stick Figure ends on a promising, if tentative, silver lining that the best is yet to come."
—Shelf Awareness
Her journey reflects the seriousness of her alcoholism with both personal responsibility and a resilient spirit. The urgency and desperation of addiction told through crisp, biting sarcasm and self-deprecating humor.
—Kirkus Reviews
Her amateurish stick-figure drawings add a lot of verve to the book. Readers will identify with Tozer’s original voice—and those drawings! — as she tells a fairly typical addiction and recovery story.
—Library Journal
“One of The 10 Best Addiction & Recovery Memoirs... A stand-up comic and television comedy writer, [Tozer] figured out a way to make talking about alcoholism really funny."
—AfterParty Magazine
“Few people could make sobriety as funny as L.A. writer Amber Tozer."
—Rollingstone.com naming Tozer one of the 25 Funniest People on Twitter
2016-04-07
A stand-up comedian reclaims her life after three decades of alcohol abuse. Though Los Angeles-based comic and animated sketch writer Tozer's wryly dramatic debut memoir is steeped with snarky one-liners, there is also angst, regret, and reflective relief lurking just behind her wisecracking wit. She writes of growing up in Pueblo, Colorado, a place with little to do but "breed and drink, so that's what everyone does." This sense of boredom was only exacerbated by the family-owned barroom business, alcoholic relatives, and a "working warrior" mother who swiftly divorced Tozer's depressive father. Cute, crudely drawn stick-figure illustrations escort readers through the author's life beyond puberty into the summer of 1989, with the edgy temptations of binge drinking and boys and a true scare after her baby sister was almost killed by a drunk driver. Even a college basketball scholarship was an insufficient distraction as Tozer began showing up drunk to night classes. An impulsive, ill-fated move to New York City, followed by dead-end jobs and more drinking and blackouts, only moved her closer to rock bottom, "like one of those steps you take right into a pile of dog shit, but you don't realize it until you get home." The author perused comedy clubs and then dove headlong into the craft with classes and live stand-up attempts, yet her relationships with family, friends, and a dysfunctional love affair continued to suffer. When her calamitous hangover stories translated into effective comedy, a Hollywood producer expressed interest, and the author moved west. Tozer's memoir becomes reflective in the closing chapters as she remarks on her hard-won recovery and how it's changed her life, career, and family relationships. Her journey reflects the seriousness of her alcoholism with both personal responsibility and a resilient spirit. The urgency and desperation of addiction told through crisp, biting sarcasm and self-deprecating humor.
