‘I kept going and here I am.’

There are things Chelsea Devantez probably shouldn’t be telling you. Many of them are in this book: Some are embarrassing (like when she tried to break her three-year spell of celibacy using a guide of seduction tips). Some are confessional (getting sentenced to the ‘hell hill’ at Mormon church camp). Some are TMI (a series of outrageous doctor visits that ended with one doctor misdiagnosing her as pregnant — whoopsies!).

Then there are things Chelsea really shouldn’t be telling you: like the time her biggest family secret was publicly outed, or about the drive-by shootings and the precipitating domestic violence she survived. Yet through it all, the women in Chelsea’s life have kept her going — from the lowest points of her childhood when she and her mum had only a hundred dollars left to their names, all the way to her career highs as the Emmy Award-nominated head writer for The Problem with Jon Stewart and the sensational podcaster deemed ‘the celebrity memoir whisperer’ by her fans.

In I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This, Chelsea centers each story around a different woman who shaped her life, taking us on a tour of friends and strangers, fictional characters and celebrities, heroes and villains who will destroy any Netflix algorithm for a ‘strong female lead.’ Reading it will feel kinda like that moment at a party when your friend beckons you close, sloshes her martini around, and covertly whispers, ‘I really shouldn’t say this, but...’