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Crushmore: Essays on Love, Loss, and Coming-of-Age

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Known for spotlighting your favorite artists' tween stories of self-discovery on their podcast, Penn, Sophie, and Nava turn inward to share their own experiences for the first time. Penn, a twelve-year-old, Discman-toting introvert, starts in the solitude of his only-child household, where he danced like no one was watching (because no one was watching) before embarking on a neon-lit journey to Hollywood. Sophie takes us to her middle school
in Beijing, where she had to ward off rumors of a boob job, and to the moment loosening her choke hold on love brought her husband straight into her living room. Nava traces the emotional aftershocks of losing her mother and guides us through the whimsical world of an imaginationship, where nothing is ever as it seems.

With compassion, humor, and insight, Crushmore charts the often cringey, sometimes luminous path from adolescence to adulthood. Together, these essays remind us that we can find healing-and even inspiration-from our awkward adolescent selves long after we thought we left them behind.

267 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2025

57 people are currently reading
954 people want to read

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Penn Badgley

3 books15 followers

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5 stars
83 (37%)
4 stars
86 (38%)
3 stars
44 (19%)
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6 (2%)
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2 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
Profile Image for Caitlin Lee.
123 reviews
October 27, 2025
I have actually never listened to Podcrushed but I love Penn Badgley so I gave the Crushmore audiobook a listen. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this essay collection. And was even more surprised that my favorite essays were the ones not by Penn (though his are really great too!). The stand-outs for me were:
- Where Did My Family Go? by Sophie
- In Her Orbit by Sophie
- After The World Stopped Spinning by Nava

All of these essays made me straight up cry and feel all the feels. I really appreciated the raw emotions and vulnerability expressed. My only wish would be for maybe one more Penn essay but that is such a minor thing. I definitely have to give the podcast a listen now!
Profile Image for Chels ❀.
191 reviews2 followers
November 3, 2025
I’ve not listened to a Podcrushed episode yet, but if this is what I can expect, I most definitely will now. I really enjoyed the audiobook of Crushmore, particularly the varying perspectives, experiences, and reflections of the three authors. Some made me nostalgic for a simpler time (i.e. my youth when Sisqo’s “Thong Song” was, too, my jam) while others made me quite emotional.

This book contained stories that explored identity, relationships with peers, parents, siblings, and oneself, belief systems and differences among your surroundings, first crushes and loves (and the angst, depth of feeling, and self-centeredness that comes from the raging hormones swirling throughout adolescence alongside that), loss in several forms, grief, and growing up and out of spaces and the emotional impact of that. I found the authors’ insights and self-reflection to be thought provoking, causing me to go back and look at both seemingly mundane and core moments in my own life.

I took some notes as I listened, but a few elements that resonated with me were:
- The discussion of being young and longing for acceptance, and then being supposedly older and wiser yet still battling those insecurities born from your adolescent experiences
- Track 14 and the conversation around sibling connection (and the ebbs and flows of that), gaining a better understanding of one another as you age, and then becoming parents and confiding in each other
- How soundtracks have the power to elicit memories (just the mention of Jimmy Eat World brought me back in a rush)
Profile Image for Janelle.
156 reviews10 followers
October 20, 2025
4.5⭐️

Excellent storytelling from all three essayists. I admittedly have not listened to a single episode of Podcrushed, but have been keenly aware of its existence mostly due to social media, which is actually discussed in the first essay. I’m looking forward to starting the podcast now since the book has made me a big fan of Sophie, Nava, and Penn.

The subhead “essays on love, loss, and coming-of-age” is the perfect descriptor, especially when you consider the fact that we are all still actively coming of age. Sophie and Nava have such interesting backgrounds and I am honestly jealous that Penn gets to be their best friend.

I listened to this book on audio and the authors all narrate their pieces brilliantly. It did take me a second to shake the Joe Goldberg of it all out of my head though haha.

A great heartfelt read!
Profile Image for Patty (IheartYA311).
1,272 reviews
November 9, 2025
Very relatable. Very emotional. Very vulnerable. It's a relief to know you're not alone in you're feelings, that you are in fact human. I'm not a podcast listener, but I'll give this one a shot.

If you love active book communities, check out LiterALLy BOOKiSh Book Club (on Facebook)! Games, giveaways, discussions, reviews, bingo, swaps, traveling books, and a lot more!
Profile Image for Kait Benner.
96 reviews
October 21, 2025
I just wish it were longer lol I could have listened to this for another couple hours
Profile Image for Charlott.
437 reviews57 followers
October 27, 2025
2.5*

I understand that these are deeply personal essays and the storytelling is great but it doesn't stand out in comparison to many other memoirs and essay collections. I don't want to criticize their stories and experiences, in fact many were quite relatable. I just struggled to see what this contributes with in the memoir/autobiography/essay space.
Profile Image for Candice.
18 reviews1 follower
October 23, 2025
I was three chapters in when I had to pause the audiobook, text all my book friends & tell them to add this to their list!! I can’t rave enough about the superb storytelling through the essay format. When was the last time you read a good essay? Seriously, such underused and underrated structure! It’s a quick read. Easy to digest but packs a powerful punch that left me contemplating my own adolescence and relationships with ends left untied. The authors all bare their souls while sharing their stories of love, pain, joy and loss with so much heart and vulnerability. Simply beautiful! I laughed, I CRIED, I remembered. I finished the book feeling inspired and was reminded why creating is so important. Therapeutic for the writer and an eternal gift to the reader. Highly recommend the audiobook!
Profile Image for Flopi.
1 review
October 20, 2025
I love this book so much, so refreshing, so funny and I don’t know what to say anymore ok
Profile Image for Alexis.
Author 7 books147 followers
November 28, 2025
I really happen to like Podcrushed, which is a podcast where celebrity guests come on and talk about their middle school lives (about age 12 to whenever), and how their life continued after that. It's kind of a soothing, but interesting.
The podcast is hosted by Penn Badgley (the actor), Nava Kavelin, and Sophie Ansari. They are all Bahai.

This book consists of essays about going up by all three of the podcast hosts. This was a nice read, but nothing really radical here. I did enjoy the essays, even though I sometimes had trouble remembering details about Nava's life and Sophie's life.

Oh, and if you listen to the podcast, you will love Penn Badgley. He is smart, self-aware, very funny and doesn't seem to have much of an ego, and I love that he is hosting a podcast with 2 civilians.
Profile Image for Beth.
1 review
October 24, 2025
I've been a huge fan of Penn for over 18 years now, so I would listen to/watch anything for him.

"Where Did My Family Go?" by Sophie is the one that hit me the hardest & had me in tears.

A very enjoyable listen & while I ordered a hardcopy, I listened on audiobook. Nothing beats listening to Penn, Nava & Sophie's stories straight from the source.

Spoiler alert: Penn dropped the actual name of his son. Likely because he is so tired of it continously getting incorrectly changed to James on Wikipedia.

I've been listening to Podcrushed since the beginning, so not surprised that I enjoyed this as much as I did. I will definitely read again.
Profile Image for Howie.
34 reviews
November 10, 2025
I love coming-of-age stories, and this one is a collection of them!
Profile Image for matt.
4 reviews
December 16, 2025
absolutely lovely collection of essays - i think i felt every possible emotion over the course of this book

“When your memories are played back, tickering past, what do you hope to see?”
Profile Image for Rebecca.
3,070 reviews11 followers
October 4, 2025
Thanks to the publisher, via Edelweiss, for an advance e-galley for honest review.

To be honest, I hadn't even heard of the podcast when I downloaded this e-galley, but the concept was interesting enough that I was excited to read it. This is a really nice collection, and each of the three co-writers had growing up experiences that varied widely, both from each other and were fairly unique compared to the "average" American teenage experience, giving them interesting backgrounds to write from.
Profile Image for TomeStackTom.
8 reviews
November 3, 2025
When I saw on Instagam in one of Penn's stories that he - together with Nava and Sophie - would release a book I was hooked. Crushmore, could be an analogy to his Pod I never listened to but knew the name of. Of course I didn´t knew who either of the two women were, Penn wildly known to me as Joe from YOU, so I couldn`t answer what to expect, but bought into the blue because Love, Loss and Coming-of-Age does it even get more contemporary??

I loved it! (would be 4 1/2 stars in rating here, but I guess that´s not possible) Every author writes seperate essays about their adolescence, particularly in the first third of the book, later telling about their adulthood where the CoA is very much still affecting them. They take turns in telling their stories, the girls write very coherent and strict, need less room than Penn, who ... get´s into it ... sometimes exploiting the available pages, which doesn´t bother. They write as mentioned seperately, never get into exchange between each other. What connects them and their essays is their lifestories of searching for a home and looking for peace in a world which is for them constant turning and never a refuge. Sole experiences - like Sophie´s who never settles at a place in her childhood and youth because of her dad´s Job at Unicefs - and deep-strung motives of one story can easily be found in the other lifes/essays which provides a very fluid read through and interconnection between them, it does not feel apart. On top it is soo humorous and smartly written from everybody, ensuring the deep and emotional parts in this book get equally balanced!

After everbody is introduced the book flattens a little which marks my only criticism. Some topics repeat themselves and few are equally talked about (e.g. every one of the guys had a big heartbreaking first love in puberty they had to overcome) point is, its a little sloppy for a while, but I think that´s on the genre itself - especially love - not the authors. Nevertheless. Towards the end the book comes to an even greater close as the three write deeply about love promoting grief and loss - turning into Coming-of-age (which they say they hadn´t done yet :) - and all the learnings life lessoned them.

What stuck with me most is the story of Sophie, who never admitted her closeness with her sister until they were´nt and she regretted not fully enjoying this time, even beeing annoyed by her sometimes, because she wanted to get along. Even more touching was Nava´s description of her Mothers death as she wanted to call her many times before that day and never did, because she was too busy, or distracted. It´s heartbreaking and everbody knows this feeling of "should I just call" instantly.
In pods, on the street, your nearest people they keep telling "call your loved ones" *sigh keep yapping. yeah of course I would, but this doesn´t happen to me. Nava might have thought the same and after reading this I thought again - damn they are SO right, just make the call and tell´em.

To conclude: This book moved me and I can just invite everyone to read it, mostly every situation described is somehow adaptable to the readers lifeworld making the book a must read. Thank You, Nava, Penn and Sophie!
Profile Image for Ramune.
180 reviews10 followers
October 19, 2025
Perklausiau "Crushmore". ✅

Kai pamačiau, kad ši knyga egzistuoja - iškart susidomėjau ir žinojau, kad klausysiu. Buvo tikrai smalsu sužinoti, kas slepiasi knygoje, kuri gimė iš podcasto. Toks neįprastas dalykas, tiesa? 🤫

Čia radau šių trijų asmenų mini biografijas - na gal labiau jų gyvenimo ištraukas. Iš šios knygos gali su jais šiek tiek susipažinti, tačiau turbūt neįmanoma į vieną knygą sudėti trijų žmonių išsamių gyvenimo istorijų. Ir nereikia manau.

Ši knyga, tai tarsi trijų draugų pasibuvimas, kuriame, jie jaukiai susėdę, dalijasi savo istorijomis: kaip atrodė jų vaikystė, bandymas pritapti, paauglystės nuoskaudos ir džiaugsmai, bandymas laviruoti gyvenime jau suaugus tarp daugybės dalykų.

Tai nėra knyga, kuri liks ilgam atmintyje ar kažkaip šokiruoja, nustebina. Tai labiau lengvas žvilgsnis į kitų gyvenimus.
Susiklausė lengvai ir greitai, labiausiai patiko Penn B. skyriai, bet negaliu pasakyti, kad nebuvo įdomu klausyti ir merginų pasakojimų.

Lengvas skaitinys, kuris šiek tiek privertė susimąstyti apie skirtingus gyvenimo aspektus, visai patiko, bet ryškaus įspūdžio nepaliko.

3.5 ⭐
Profile Image for Sohyun.
25 reviews
November 7, 2025
listened to in audiobook form. it feels so much like their podcast (podcrushed) so it only felt right. plus, I really do love penn's voice.

excellent collection of stories from penn, sophie, and nava. really emotional at parts, too. my favorite parts of each person's stories:
- penn's detail on filming certain erotic scenes for a certain netflix show
- nava's story about trying to cook tajine, then thinking back to the time her mom cooked it for her friends and she got really embarrassed because her friends thought it was weird
- sophie's story about her relationship with her sister and how it changed over time. her voice broke at some parts and it was so heartwrenching

all in all I really loved it. honestly I knew I would like this book because I already am a fan of podcrushed. here's hoping they write many more books and create many more episodes of their podcast.
43 reviews
Read
December 19, 2025
I have not read many if any books that were collections of essays. But, I did enjoy this book as a whole. It is hard to tell if the complaints I have are with specifically this book or this type of book as a whole. All three authors do great job of vividly sharing their life experiences and stories. I felt Penn came across as too sophisticated and verbose at timed. I did struggle to keep the stories of Sophie and Nava separate. But, both showed exquisite vulnerability and made the reader feel like they were living life right by them. I would recommend this book to someone familiar with this style and/or fans of the authors’ podcast. 7.1/10
Profile Image for BookstagramSam.
614 reviews10 followers
December 6, 2025
This was super relatable, vulnerable, well put together. I’ve listened to a few episodes of Podcrushed and really enjoyed them. When I saw this book was coming out, I immediately knew I had to read it. Also, being a big Penn Badgley fan doesn’t hurt.

I really enjoyed each of the essays. There is so emotion packed in these. Honestly I wish this was longer or each wrote their own memoir (hoping that’s in the near future)

Highly recommend the audio. You can hear the emotion in each of them.

Thank you Gallery for the gifted copy to review!
Profile Image for Shine with Shauna.
495 reviews12 followers
December 6, 2025
This was a buddy read selection with a friend abroad, who is a big Penn Badgley fan. I've never heard of the podcast or this book, so I was completely blind going into this one.

These short stories from three different narrators widely covers their experiences during adolescence and into adulthood. It hits on just about anything you can imagine; they are very open (& I feel I should applaud them for that). While I think many out there will connect with some of their stories, I did not. But...I appreciated hearing and learning.
Profile Image for Samantha.
793 reviews2 followers
October 24, 2025
4.25

As a Penn fan, my heart broke for him knowing D’Angelo died on the day of the release of this book. I’ve also been a terrible fan and have never listened to Podcrushed, I’m awful about listening to podcast. Though I know enough from social media and the only way I know Nava and Sophie. I’m glad to have learned more about them through their essays. After the World Stopped Spinning, absolutely crushed me, I sobbed.

Definitely would read a vol.2

Penn has the perfect voice to be an audiobook narrator, I selfishly wish there was a little more from him.

Profile Image for Josie.
245 reviews32 followers
December 4, 2025
If you listen to the podcast, you know what to expect. I don’t know what the experience is with this book without that. I didn’t resonate with all of the essays, but some of them were some of my favorite things I’ve ever read. I absolutely loved essays from each of the authors. They are honest, sweet, embarrassing, heartbreaking, and so real. I want to reread a few of them with my teen. Just an absolutely lovely read.
1 review
October 25, 2025
Everyone should read this beautifully deep, humorous, and evocative collection of thoughtfully crafted essays. I’ve been a long time lover of the podcast (Podcrushed, check it out if you haven’t already) and was able to see a new side to these wonderful human beings. Thank you Penn, Nava, and Sophie for coming together to make such a lovely piece of art I will continue to reread and enjoy!
16 reviews
December 5, 2025
There reached a point where I literally could not put this book down. Penn's essays were so beautifully written and you could just feel how lovely and wonderful Sophie is through her words and Nava had me sobbing. Finishing this book was so bittersweet but I'm ultimately left with feelings of gratitude and hope
Profile Image for Libriar.
2,498 reviews
December 9, 2025
There were some good essays in this book, but it was hard listening to Penn Badgley read his essays. I expect more from an actor when narrating an audiobook. Perhaps he's better on his podcast - I haven't listened to it. The other two authors were much better both in narrating and in their writing.
Profile Image for Dikshya Pattnaik.
1,058 reviews18 followers
October 4, 2025
This books is insightful, funny, & satisfying just like their podcast.

I loved how raw the views & essays are. I hope everyone picks this up!

Thank you publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
1 review
October 23, 2025
such a great book and such great quality! i’m a huge penn badgley / podcrushed fan. absolutely loved this! i got the signed version ;) when i posted it on my story, podcrushed replied and said they hope i love it. that truly made my day! ❤️
1 review
October 24, 2025
I was not expecting this book to hit me in the gut the way it did! Poignant, funny, heart wrenching. I can’t remember the last time I felt so many emotions in one sitting. Grab your kleenex and buckle in. A tremendously worthwhile ride.
Profile Image for Carmen.
25 reviews5 followers
November 7, 2025
I laughed and I cried! Listened to the Audio book as I enjoy Penn's beautiful narration. I'll never listen to The Thong Song in quite the same way again...Ha ha! He really should narrate more books. The girls did a great job too! Such moving stories.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews

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