Self-Tanner for the Soul

How I Ran Away to Europe and Found My Inner Glow (When Life Got Dark)

By: Cat Marnell

Narrated by: Cat Marnell

From Cat Marnell, author of the New York Times best-selling memoir How to Murder Your Life, an irresistibly candid and magical travelogue of soul-seeking and self-healing

The spring of 2017 should have been the greatest time of Cat Marnell’s life. She was 34 and living the New York glamour life downtown, with a thriving career and a best-selling memoir. Instead, it was one of the worst. She’d gone through a protracted and traumatic breakup, nearly run out of money, and, during a month-long binge, "done something horrible" to herself that she couldn’t undo.

Her troubles mounting, Marnell makes a radically simple choice: She decides to leave her problems behind. She puts her belongings into storage and uses the last of her book advance to buy a one-way plane ticket to Europe. For the next four months, Marnell is a woman on the move. With nothing but a suitcase (Sammy) and a bag of wigs to her name, and no agenda other than to follow her heart (and maybe the Libertines' Pete Doherty), Marnell embarks on a profound personal journey, from late-night "Wizard Walks" in mysterious cities to almost drowning in a river - all while learning to face down her demons.

Whimsical, infectious, and utterly life-affirming, Self-Tanner for the Soul reminds us all of the life-changing magic of running away.

©2019 Cat Marnell (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC.

So obsessed with Cat Marnell

When I heard that Cat’s newest “book” was only available in audio form, I was a little annoyed. But there is literally no other way to tell this story! Cat reading her journal entries is absolutely perfect. She is so fascinating, charming, and brilliant-I felt like I was listening to a friend tell me about her adventures. I cannot wait to see or hear what she does next.

She did it again!

Loved this- really inspired me to start taking adventure by myself. Keep the stories coming, Cat!

honest, real and entertaining

loved listening to cat marnells journey throughout Europe. makes me want to plan a trip! the honesty and vulnerability was admirable.

Cat Marnell is back and charming as ever!

When I saw that Cat Marnell had come out with a travel memoir, I was over the moon! I find her bubbly stream-of-consciousness writing style to be delightful, and Self-Tanner For the Soul was no exception. However, I felt this book lacked any sort of direction or insight, a departure from How To Murder Your Life. Definitely still worth a listen if you’re looking for something light and simple!

Does she know a word other than dope

I want my money back. Your average good writer could write better than this without adderall. She’s cooked her brain and spoiled her soul, and the worst choice of this audiobook was for her to read it. She sounds even more valley girl-sequelesque than in HTMYL, which she also ruined with her poor narration and kill-me-now vocal frye
I used to be a big Cat Marnell fan. She was important to me. But she’s really nothing but an aging party girl; who can’t stop talking about it.

Brilliant

It’s so wonderful to travel with Cat, even just for a few hours! She’s completely fearless and always knows about the best places to go, & things to see and do. I’m so glad she shared her adventures!

Just No

Sorry this is terrible, slow, monotonous and a huge disappointment to me personally. That said her first book was a true work of Art. So obviously she is a major talent. This one she phoned in.

Simplistic travel log, opposite her last 5star book

An audio travel diary of beauty guru Cat Marnell’s escape to visit Europe after a drain-circler relationship and death spiral of pill addiction. The physical and mental stress is so bad it’s leaving legions on her skin and shedding her hair like a straight razor—never mind the success and spunky interviews for her NY Times bestseller, How to Murder Your Life.

Though that memoir was one of my all time favorites, this one is a severe letdown, more of a conversational list/snapshot of days she spent in each country than an actual book. There’s maybe ONE page dedicated to each city. No real prose, story, characters, or even much detail. Super simplistic summary rather than scenes. We maybe get 40 words about her addiction or breakup or those concerning rashes with Lupus-like symptoms that never get addressed.

Instead of interesting stories of days past when she’d smoke PCP with cabbies and collage her rat-ridden East Coast apartments, here she gets wine-wasted every night, misses planes and trains between shady hostels, and occasionally eats cake at 3AM with JJ Brine—the artist who introduced Amanda Bynes to Satanism. Too bad you’ll never hear a single conversation or much of anything besides bouts of casual bulimia, lots of leering and groping by men no matter their ethnic background, and constant anti-American glaring and shortchanging, shoddy transportation and lack of nightlife that makes me want to skip that continent entirely.

Keeping up with cat

Reading anything by Cat makes me feel at home. Her writing is my comfort zone and my happy place, from the “coke sex for teen sluts” article I stumbled upon as a lost 23 year old, to How to Murder Your Life as a (still lost) 27 year old, to the ramblings of her travels as a 29 year old, her voice and anecdotes help me through all phases in my life, from the happy times to the struggles. Her travel writings feels quirky and haphazard but also intellectual and informative, and she dgaf about fitting into a categorical norm. Read it!

Love her voice and storytelling!

great storytelling from Cat Marnell. Listened to this on my walks and at the gym.