with confidence and girl power, because they believe they can match boys everywhere, including the bar." In her own experience, the author says, she and her female friends drank largely because it was an expression of their unhappiness and lack of confidence. It occurred to Zailckas, then 23, that she could offer a younger perspective. Smashed was Zailckas' first attempt at writing prose. Before that, she had been a poet exclusively. Her poetic style was noted by New York Times critic Dwight Garner who called it "so elegiac that [Zailckas] comes off as the Norah Jones of her plastered generation." Alcoholism Zailckas has been challenged by some readers who want to dispute her assertion that she is "not an alcoholic." In interviews, Zailckas maintains: "I’ve talked to a lot of addiction counselors who say alcoholism is made up of two things: abuse and addiction. God knows I had that abuse down pat. But I don’t know that I necessarily felt (or feel) that addiction. And so no, I don’t identify myself as an alcoholic. That identity didn’t feel true to me, so I didn’t write it. I also think the brand 'alcoholic' prevents a lot of people, especially young people, from seeking help or even reevaluating their relationship with alcohol. In my mind, the whole point of Smashed is to say, you don’t have to be a quote-unquote alcoholic in order to examine the underlying reasons why you're drinking." PTSD Since writing Smashed, Zailckas has said she did not realize that she had spent decades living with complex PTSD, brought about by her abusive childhood. She now identifies PTSD as one of the driving forces behind her college drinking. "I was drinking to dissociate: unwittingly or unconsciously putting myself in situations exactly like the one with my alcoholic father." Fury In February 2010, Zailckas announced a sequel to Smashed on her Facebook page. Her follow-up, Fury: a Memoir was published on September 7, 2010. It was published by Viking Penguin, who described it as relating her exploration with her feelings of anger, the effects of that anger and the psychological aspects of repression and the turmoil of her own life which caused it. The book combines psychological research with her personal story. Mother, Mother In 2014, Zailckas published her first debut novel Mother, Mother. The book was heavily inspired by her experience growing up with a Borderline mother. The book