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Crybaby: Diary Of a Girlhood Interrupted
Apple Kinney is a model student, a girl who is promised a great future. But then she meets a man named Josiah, and he changes her life forever.
She falls in with Dahlia and Starr, teenage girls who live in late nights, cheap motels, strip clubs, and whatever comes next. There are drugs, fights, and older men who think they’re in control. The girls let them believe it.
Apple follows. She wants to belong. She wants to feel chosen. And she has her own dark desires that she attempts to control but cannot.
And then there’s Dahlia, the girl she can’t stop wanting, can’t stop chasing, even as everything starts to slip.
Crybaby is a dreamy, wrecked story about girlhood, desire, and going too far to come back—Spring Breakers meets Thirteen.
She falls in with Dahlia and Starr, teenage girls who live in late nights, cheap motels, strip clubs, and whatever comes next. There are drugs, fights, and older men who think they’re in control. The girls let them believe it.
Apple follows. She wants to belong. She wants to feel chosen. And she has her own dark desires that she attempts to control but cannot.
And then there’s Dahlia, the girl she can’t stop wanting, can’t stop chasing, even as everything starts to slip.
Crybaby is a dreamy, wrecked story about girlhood, desire, and going too far to come back—Spring Breakers meets Thirteen.
269 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 2, 2026
4.5 ⭐️!!
Pub date - 6/1/2026 - available now!!
Apple is a young, smart, bored with life and curious girl. This is a story of coming of age and the dangers that come with falling into the wrong crowd. She starts to talk to a man that she runs into one day. Through him, she meets her two new best friends who she quickly realizes she cannot live without. Since Apple is so young, she doesn’t quite understand what’s really going on between the man and her two new best friends. All Apple knows, is that she’s becoming more and more daring, reckless and curious about this whole new world that she is discovering with her new friends. A world where young girls, grow up over night and people take advantage of them. As Apple experiences trauma in her life, she clings onto her new friends like they’re her family, they’re all she has. And they are all she wants despite the abuse, trauma and scars that they come with.
This was giving, “The Florida Project”, vibes! If you liked the movie, you’ll like this book!
I LOVED this story so much! I loved the nostalgia references! I loved Apple, Dahlia and Starr. The characters were great and easy to follow and understand. I thought this book was extremely fast paced and I could NOT put this down! I stayed up until 2:30 am finishing this one! I think there is a lot of great details which always made visuals come easy.
My only “critique” would be, there were a lot of typos such as the format of the entire book, mis spelled words, run on paragraphs, etc. which obviously could be just because it was an ARC!
And there were certain scenes or parts of the book that felt a little rushed to me.
BUT!!!!! With that being said, those things did not bother me as a reader at all!!! & it did not take away from the story at all in my opinion!! They were super minor things and despite those things, it was such a great read, I truly loved reading this regardless!!!
Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours !! :)
Pub date - 6/1/2026 - available now!!
Apple is a young, smart, bored with life and curious girl. This is a story of coming of age and the dangers that come with falling into the wrong crowd. She starts to talk to a man that she runs into one day. Through him, she meets her two new best friends who she quickly realizes she cannot live without. Since Apple is so young, she doesn’t quite understand what’s really going on between the man and her two new best friends. All Apple knows, is that she’s becoming more and more daring, reckless and curious about this whole new world that she is discovering with her new friends. A world where young girls, grow up over night and people take advantage of them. As Apple experiences trauma in her life, she clings onto her new friends like they’re her family, they’re all she has. And they are all she wants despite the abuse, trauma and scars that they come with.
This was giving, “The Florida Project”, vibes! If you liked the movie, you’ll like this book!
I LOVED this story so much! I loved the nostalgia references! I loved Apple, Dahlia and Starr. The characters were great and easy to follow and understand. I thought this book was extremely fast paced and I could NOT put this down! I stayed up until 2:30 am finishing this one! I think there is a lot of great details which always made visuals come easy.
My only “critique” would be, there were a lot of typos such as the format of the entire book, mis spelled words, run on paragraphs, etc. which obviously could be just because it was an ARC!
And there were certain scenes or parts of the book that felt a little rushed to me.
BUT!!!!! With that being said, those things did not bother me as a reader at all!!! & it did not take away from the story at all in my opinion!! They were super minor things and despite those things, it was such a great read, I truly loved reading this regardless!!!
Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours !! :)
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
✦•┈๑⋅⋯ Crybaby by Sierra Frank ⋯⋅๑┈•✦
➝ • 5/5 ☆ •
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
This one gutted me in that personal way where you don't realize how deep it's cutting until you're already bleeding. It's raw without being performative, emotional without being melodramatic, and written with this soft honesty that feels like someone opening their ribcage and letting you look inside. This book feels like getting dragged through someone else’s coming of age in the worst, most intoxicating way. It’s not a diary. But it reads like someone trying to make sense of their own thoughts, feelings, and wreckage in real time.
Apple is the kind of girl who wants to belong so badly she would follow anyone into the dark. Dahlia and Starr are both beautiful disasters, and she folds herself into their world like it's the only place she's ever been wanted. The book captures that specific girlhood ache; wanting to be chosen, wanting to be seen, wanting to be loved even if it ruins you.
The writing is dreamy and bruised, drifting between motel rooms, strip clubs, late night drives, and the dangerous men who treat girls like currency. It's messy, impulsive, and painfully believable. You can feel the heat, the exhaustion, the bad decisions stacking up until there is no way out that doesn't hurt.
It's not trying to be inspirational. It's not sanitized. It's just honest, and that's what makes it such a hard read.
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
If you like:
✔️ feral girlhood narratives
✔️ unhealthy attachment
✔️ the movie Thirteen (Evan Rachel Wood is literally my crush)
✔️ messy teens making worse choices
✔️ toxic friendships
✔️ coming of age gone wrong
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
📅 Pub Day: June 1, 2026 📚
💌 ARC gifted via NetGalley from Xpresso Book Tours. All opinions are my own.
➝ • 5/5 ☆ •
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
This one gutted me in that personal way where you don't realize how deep it's cutting until you're already bleeding. It's raw without being performative, emotional without being melodramatic, and written with this soft honesty that feels like someone opening their ribcage and letting you look inside. This book feels like getting dragged through someone else’s coming of age in the worst, most intoxicating way. It’s not a diary. But it reads like someone trying to make sense of their own thoughts, feelings, and wreckage in real time.
Apple is the kind of girl who wants to belong so badly she would follow anyone into the dark. Dahlia and Starr are both beautiful disasters, and she folds herself into their world like it's the only place she's ever been wanted. The book captures that specific girlhood ache; wanting to be chosen, wanting to be seen, wanting to be loved even if it ruins you.
The writing is dreamy and bruised, drifting between motel rooms, strip clubs, late night drives, and the dangerous men who treat girls like currency. It's messy, impulsive, and painfully believable. You can feel the heat, the exhaustion, the bad decisions stacking up until there is no way out that doesn't hurt.
It's not trying to be inspirational. It's not sanitized. It's just honest, and that's what makes it such a hard read.
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
If you like:
✔️ feral girlhood narratives
✔️ unhealthy attachment
✔️ the movie Thirteen (Evan Rachel Wood is literally my crush)
✔️ messy teens making worse choices
✔️ toxic friendships
✔️ coming of age gone wrong
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
📅 Pub Day: June 1, 2026 📚
💌 ARC gifted via NetGalley from Xpresso Book Tours. All opinions are my own.
June 6, 2026
Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for providing me with an eARC!!
Crybaby:Diary of a Girlhood Interrupted follows our young MC: 12 year old Apple Kinney. Soon her world is turned upside down after one day catching the attention of a much older guy named Josiah..thus begins a dangerous turn of events and a truly girlhood interrupted.
This had me by the neck the minute I started reading, I don't even know what to say. I loved this so much, it truly captured the dark side of street life, drugs, sex work, and how quickly things can flip, especially when you come across the wrong people who at first may seem harmless. This might be a work of fiction, but what takes place in it really does happen in real life, and I appreciated the resources provided in the end. The writing was well done and kept simple and raw. I honestly could hear Apple narrating away as I read along. And I absolutely cried as I read the last page. This isn't going to be for everyone, but the girls that get it, get it. Perfect for anyone who loved the movie Thirteen and the novel Half His Age! 100/10 for me
Crybaby:Diary of a Girlhood Interrupted follows our young MC: 12 year old Apple Kinney. Soon her world is turned upside down after one day catching the attention of a much older guy named Josiah..thus begins a dangerous turn of events and a truly girlhood interrupted.
This had me by the neck the minute I started reading, I don't even know what to say. I loved this so much, it truly captured the dark side of street life, drugs, sex work, and how quickly things can flip, especially when you come across the wrong people who at first may seem harmless. This might be a work of fiction, but what takes place in it really does happen in real life, and I appreciated the resources provided in the end. The writing was well done and kept simple and raw. I honestly could hear Apple narrating away as I read along. And I absolutely cried as I read the last page. This isn't going to be for everyone, but the girls that get it, get it. Perfect for anyone who loved the movie Thirteen and the novel Half His Age! 100/10 for me
June 6, 2026
Crybaby: Diary of a Girlhood Interrupted shares the story of Apple and her journey of discovering herself as she grapples with the harsh reality of drugs, trafficking and disgusting men. At first, the subject matter of this book made me rather uncomfortable resulting in my immediate distaste. However, after a particular event, we see Apple change and become a whole different version of herself. The material was still difficult to read, but we see Apple switch from a naive young girl, to a blood thirsty unhinged teenager. I found this subplot of her mission to kill perverted men to be the most fascinating, playing on the challenge of morals by questioning if the killing is worthy if the victims are bad people. There were twists and turns and plenty of moments where my heart rate went up questioning how she would get out of these situations. Overall, the story of Apple was a difficult read, but one unfortunately is probably not too far from the truth for some young women.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews