Julia Fox’s memoir Down the Drain is a work of autobiographical nonfiction. Originally published by Simon & Schuster in 2023, the memoir is written from Fox’s first-person point of view and evidences her characteristically bold and unabashed approach to storytelling. The text is written in the present tense, a formal choice that captures the ongoing nature of Fox’s struggles, challenges, and successes. It uses a linear storytelling model to appeal to a wide range of readers and chronologically presents Fox’s childhood, coming of age, adolescence, and adult experiences.

For clarity, this guide refers to Fox by her first name when referencing sequences from her first-person narrative. In 1996, Julia moves to New York City from Italy, where she was born. She moves in with her father, Tom Fox, and quickly discovers that Tom isn’t the hero she once thought he was. She is forced to care for herself and develops ways of procuring money and securing her necessities. Meanwhile, she makes many friends, all of whom she is forced to part with due to complex life circumstances. Julia eventually becomes dependent on alcohol and drugs to dull her internal unrest and escape her tumultuous home life. The older she gets, the more unsustainable these pastimes prove. Meanwhile, Julia takes a job as a dominatrix, gets involved in multiple abusive relationships, and secures the loyalty of a billionaire who agrees to finance her luxurious lifestyle.

As the years pass, Julia realizes she must change her life and exact her artistic dreams. Her work to get sober and claim her autonomy inspires the memoir’s thematic explorations of Self-Discovery and Empowerment, Resilience and Recovery From Addiction, and the Impact of Personal and Social Challenges.

This guide refers to the 2023 Simon & Schuster hardback edition of the memoir.

Content Warning: The memoir details substance use, heavy alcohol consumption, physical and emotional abuse, domestic and intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and death by suicide.

Summary

In 1996, six-year-old Julia Fox moves from Italy to New York City to live with her dad, Tom Fox. Julia’s mother and her younger brother, Chris, are still living in Italy, and Julia often misses them and her maternal grandfather, who had been raising her. In New York, the city’s sights, smells, and sounds delight Julia. However, her life with Tom is lonely and dangerous. Tom either physically abuses her or leaves her home alone without basic household necessities or food. Throughout her childhood, she steals money from Tom to buy what she needs. Meanwhile, she starts sneaking out of the house and spending time with school friends to avoid Tom. She develops close bonds with friends Mia, Danny, Trisha, Ella, and Rose. The friends venture around the city together, shoplift from expensive stores, play pranks on neighbors, get piercings and tattoos, smoke marijuana, drink alcohol, use drugs, and throw secret parties.

One summer, Julia returns to Italy for vacation. She falls in love with an older boy named Giovanni, with whom she has sex for the first time. Back in New York, she feels like she’s grown up and all her friends have stayed the same. She begs her parents to send her back to Italy. They enroll her in a Catholic school near Como. Back in New York for Christmas break, Julia becomes involved with an abusive drug dealer named Ace. Ace makes her promise she will move back to New York from Italy after finishing the school year. Before the year is done, Julia drops out of school and secretly flies back to New York, where she lives with a series of friends unbeknownst to her parents. Ace is later incarcerated, and Julia does everything in her power to escape the increasingly violent and abusive relationship.

Julia starts working as a dominatrix, a woman who physically or psychologically dominates her partner in a sadomasochistic encounter, at an establishment called the Dungeon. She likes the job because she can finally support herself. She also makes new friends through the Dungeon and discovers how adaptable she is. Then one day, she meets a client named Rohan who soon becomes her “sugar daddy,” a rich older man who lavishes gifts and money on a young woman in exchange for her company or sexual favors. She quits the Dungeon and Rohan pays for all her expenses, including her luxurious apartment, car, schooling, and a new fashion line she runs with her friend Liana.

Meanwhile, Julia’s substance use worsens. She repeatedly tries to get clean but continuously relapses. Then, one day, Julia discovers that someone has publicized photos from her dominatrix work online. In response, Julia self-publishes a book of photography owning her story, and temporarily leaves New York after that. She and her friend Harmony drive across the country, eventually settling in Louisiana with their friends, Eric and Brian. When Julia overdoses, she and Harmony get sober and focus on their art. Harmony moves to California, and Julia returns to New York, where she starts showing her work at exhibits.

Julia secures a role in the movie Uncut Gems, which launches her acting career. Not long after, her friends Katharine, Harmony, and Gianna overdose and die. Gianna’s death devastates Julia. To honor her, she decides to become sober. She also decides not to terminate her pregnancy with her husband Andrew, when she discovers the due date is Gianna’s birthday. Ultimately, Julia and Andrew divorce, and Julia raises her son Valentino primarily on her own. Meanwhile, she remains sober, furthers her artistic and acting careers, and creates a stable life.