Holding: A Memoir About Mothers, Drugs, and Other Comforts

by Karleigh Frisbie Brogan

A stunning debut memoir about addiction, self-discovery, and the relationships between mothers and daughters, from an exciting new literary talent

Brogan “[spins] the world’s harshest truths into golden, beautiful sentences” reminiscent of the powerful writing in Wild and In the Dream House (Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman)

Featuring electric, immersive prose and universal insights about human relationships—especially between adult daughters and mothers—this unflinching and deeply moving excavation of her own history and addiction recovery is equally revealing about the American experience in our time.

At age 20, Karleigh Brogan and her boyfriend, Dale, moved into his parents' home. The young couple hid their heroin addiction and promised they would only be there temporarily. What started as a two-week stopgap became two years of habitation. Karleigh and Dale's mother, Glorianne, developed a complex relationship that was both toxic and tender. Glorianne became a stand-in for Karleigh's mother, whose affection and trust Karleigh had always longed for. Simultaneously, Glorianne, an adoptee, searched for the birth mother she never knew.

In Holding, Karleigh Brogan brings the reader into her life before, during, and after her time with Dale and his parents, following the road that led from her endless lies to her family and herself, along the long, crooked, path to breaking the chains of her addiction so she could dream again of achieving the life—and the relationship with her own mother—she longed for.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Audiobook

294 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 26, 2025

Reviews

[Shiny's wondrous library · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars, no notes
I will say that this was a difficult & heavy, but simultaneously hopeful & healing read exploring the author's complicated relationship with her mother, her mixed identity, her addiction & recovery journey.
She has such a way with words, she writes beautifully, capturing her story in a real, raw, hard-hitting manner, I was sobbing by the end of the book.

[akacya ❦]

2025 reads: 280/300

i received a complimentary audio copy as part of libro.fm’s influencer program. i am leaving this review voluntarily.

in this memoir, the author explores interpersonal relationships, especially mother-daughter ones, and how her drug addiction impacted these. i’ve read some memoirs about mommy issues, and some about addiction, but i think this was the first one i’ve read that put both front and center. the author describes how she developed a relationship with her boyfriend’s mother, who also had issues with her own mom. luckily, she finds the help and healing she needs. i highly recommend the audiobook, narrated by margie valine.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary. Beautifully written, but also this is such an effective depiction of the “surrogate mothers” that daughters adopt — or cajole to adopt us — especially in young adulthood. The contours of those relationships and their limits. The final pages had me in tears. I hope she writes another one! She clearly has more stories to tell.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this memoir! What a fascinating and thoughtful exploration of a deeply troubled period of the author’s life. So much vulnerability and humanity is on display, with beautiful writing to boot. I learned and empathized in surprising and unexpected ways. Would definitely recommend!

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karleigh Frisbie Brogan’s memoir “Holding: A Memoir about Mothers, Drugs, and Other Comforts,” was so compelling, I devoured it in only a day. Brogan plums the depths and intensity of her heroin addiction, alongside complex relationships with family members, especially her mother. Readers who have a history of addiction will deeply relate and see themselves and their experiences reflected in these pages: Of heroin, she writes, “it made my chest feel light and hopeful and expansive” and of withdrawal, “It’s an absence that feels like there’s nothing left to feel, an inky sadness that smears the sunniest day.” The intensity and vivid details were at times triggering, but for me, this was balanced by her dazzling, gorgeous prose and craft. I appreciated Brogan’s skillful braiding reflections about her childhood, complexity of navigating her white and Latina identity, Jungian analysis, literary and cultural criticism, fairy tales, and the central theme of mothers.

Brogan writes, “Mother’ is supreme comfort’ she’s primary pain… She simultaneously delivers and devours. Induces fear and provides solace.” These additional threads add depth to this already brilliant memoir, the fragmentary parts mirroring the experiences of addiction and trauma and nonlinear path to healing. I was rooting for Brogan and inspired to read about her healing journey toward the end of the book, especially the epilogue, “Regrowth.” I highly recommend it!

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book going inside the mind of heroin addict. Instead of being riddled with the ugliness of the outward symptoms, the dangerous situations and people, this author goes inside her own my and family structure to try to root out what unmet needs and fears and subsequent shame she lived with a child of an absent mother and various "dads" that enabled her to turn to heroin for relief.

She documents her young life, her constant need to be loved and recognized yet feeling invisible. Feeling like she was never anyone's priority. She goes through boyfriends and during the worst of her addiction sells her body for drugs and tolerates abuse from the men she seeks love from. We see her try to quit many times but the pain of being alive and having nobody to depend on psychologically as well as no skills for meaningful work bring her back to the drug.

When, eventually, be completes a methadone maintenance program she finds her life very slowly improving. The last third of the book details her move from the area where all her relatives, friends, drug abuse has taken place to a different part of country. It is there she creates a new life for herself. Although this is sometimes called "pulling a geographic", it seems the move benefits her in ways to discover her independence.

Very well written, thought out, and enlightening.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

[JessQueen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holding by Karleigh by Frisbie Brogan

Thanks to the ALC program by @librofm I had the opportunity to connect with this heartfelt and inspiring memoir. Raw. Deep. Though provoking.

This is not only a memoir but a testament. Every word and every experience shared is sacred. It comes from the depths of a soul who has been there a thousand times in this lifetime.

As I kept on this journey, I must say that chapter 13 broke my heart, and I had a hard time to process the depth of the situations explored.

Holding is so much more than a memoir. Take your time to process it with a non judgement mind. It’s a raw view of a world that for some is fortunately alien, but that for many… has been the only place they knew as home.

💡Favorite Quotes💡
💔An ocean of feelings over an absent father…
“But what if he still comes?” I protested. I was afraid he’d still show and, seeing I was gone, would feel both rejected and remorseful. The twisting together of his actions and mine.”

💔Alienation in beautiful words…
“I cast assumptions and formed generalizations about every member of society, a group I felt I was no longer part of. A group I believed I’d been exiled from.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

[Violet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holding is an intense and compelling read, and an impressive book in so many ways. Frisbie Brogan bravely bares her soul while using beautiful and poetic language to depict brutal and heartbreaking events. That might seem incongruous, but with such assured storytelling, I couldn't put this book down, even as parts were painful to read. I was fascinated by the insights she revealed about her psychology, stemming from her early family life and from her feelings of alienation due to race/ethnicity and class. She doesn't shy away from her flaws and yet reflects on her life and the lives of people who hurt her with grace. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand addiction and for anyone interested in stories of resilience and personal transformation.

[Adam Strong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karleigh Frisbie Brogan's debut, "Holding..." takes the reader on a journey through addiction, an inconsistent childhood, abuse and trauma and ties it all together in a search for the comofrts for which she seeks. This is the story Brogan has carried and lived with for decades, and as someone who had a chance to read earlier versions of this manuscript, I can say that Brogan has arrived at a book that both chronicles all that she went through, but also Holding becomes Brogan's reclamation of her life, and what a thing to behold.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunningly written, deeply felt, and structurally sound, this memoir is a poignant account of recovery, motherhood, family, and love. At times repetitious, but the repetition sounded like the refrain of a song when it worked and discordant like singing off-key when it didn't. Overall, a delightfully profound reading experience. I had the pleasure of meeting the author at a book signing and asking her questions as well.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Wow. Wow. This book is, above all, balanced. Let me say “delicately balanced.” There’s the author’s story of drug addiction that aligns with her need to metaphorically “be held.” There’s no rancor, victim-hood, grudges: it’s a story about being human. The writing is killer; read it with a pen in hand because you’ll find yourself saying, “Yes. That.” And want to revisit it.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

incredibly well written, moving & inspirational

[Dawn T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would call this trauma porn, except it’s too well written to fall into that category. Excellent debut though very hard to read at times.

[Susan Finck · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* I felt relieved when it was over.