Book Review of
Destroy This House

Lynn's Review

Destroy This House by Amanda Uhle is a memoir published in 2025.

I love a good memoir, especially dysfunctional family memoirs. I enjoy reading complex stories. Not because I love to read about horrible things, but because reading them helps me to learn about and understand the world around me better. 

Destroy This House is a bizarre story of a family where it was hard to tell what was true, what was partially true, and what was an entirely made-up story. 

It is a memoir of a mother who was a hoarder. It is also the story of having to take care of aging parents and deal with their messes once they are gone. 

When I saw that this memoir was about hoarding and dysfunctional relationships with parents, I knew it was one that I wanted to read. 

I have read a lot of memoirs about abuse, but I have not read one where part of the abuse was the issues that came out of growing up in a family where your parents were hoarders. 

Amanda Uhle discusses having rooms that are overflowing with clothes, fabric, and numerous other items. She talks about the amount of food her mom would buy and the fact that their kitchen, fridge, and pantry were so full that her parents had to store food outside. 

She tells story after story of not wanting to eat spoiled food, which her parents thought was fine. 

And she tells the pain and scars of always wanting to clean up the mess, but never fully being able to. 

If you enjoy memoirs and are looking for something a little different, I think you might enjoy this one. 

I will admit that reading about the hoarding part and Amanda having to clean up her parents’ mess when they died has me rethinking some of the things I am hanging on to. I am not a hoarder, but I could definitely stand to get rid of a few things.