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angela_doolin's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
annexelizabeth's review against another edition
funny
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
i'm torn between finding lauren oyler's voice wry and engaging and unbearably smug. she can definitely write an entertaining essay, and there are times when her contrarianism is compelling, but the way she pretty much like. backs away from any sincere or earnest thought she might have is pretty frustrating. she seems much more comfortable tearing into other people's opinions than developing any sharp, unique opinions of her own.
however, despite my reservations, i did find this essay collection to be an enjoyable read. her more Online essays are brisk, funny reads if not exactly enlightening in their observations on internet culture in the 21st century. my favorite essays here were definitely the berlin essay (i will choose to ignore that line that's like "it's striking because, well, lights" out of the kindness of my heart. it was good other than that) and the anxiety essay, probably because they were not so drenched in terminal onlineness.
overall, i did like this essay collection, though it's certainly not perfect. will probably pick up more of oyler's work in the future
however, despite my reservations, i did find this essay collection to be an enjoyable read. her more Online essays are brisk, funny reads if not exactly enlightening in their observations on internet culture in the 21st century. my favorite essays here were definitely the berlin essay (i will choose to ignore that line that's like "it's striking because, well, lights" out of the kindness of my heart. it was good other than that) and the anxiety essay, probably because they were not so drenched in terminal onlineness.
overall, i did like this essay collection, though it's certainly not perfect. will probably pick up more of oyler's work in the future
gorgeousgirlslovebooks's review against another edition
Nothing very profound, somewhat pedantic, and very much a book about Lauren Oyler which is hard to be engaged in if you don’t know who Lauren Oyler is.
kaitlynisliterate's review
4.0
Some of the essays are good, some are tedious. Did finding out that she sourced large portions of the historical background from Wikipedia ruin it? A little.
Some of the best one-liners to be found though.
Some of the best one-liners to be found though.
rachelnevada's review against another edition
No Judgments is an essay collection from sharp literary critic Lauren Oyler, who is apparently online and has written some very popular critical reviews. I had not encountered Oyler before reading this book (other than glancing at Fake Accounts in a used bookstore near me), but read many of her online reviews throughout the course of reading (and attempting to understand) this book, including her thoughts on Trick Mirror and Sally Rooney.
The collection is comprised of six very long essays on gossip, Goodreads, Berlin, autofiction, vulnerability, and anxiety. StoryGraph seems to imply that an alternative title for this collection was My Perfect Opinions and while I can't seem to find anything to corroborate this it does feel apt. In the introduction, Oyler describes the origins of at least two of her essays as "a growing agitation about what I perceived to be misunderstandings and fallacies spreading in cultural criticism and commentary, and a resulting feeling that I must say something to attempt to intervene." All this to say that Oyler has very strong opinions about these somewhat trivial things (her concession, not mine) band we are all along for a long meandering ride to maybe glean the entirety of her thoughts.
Oyler makes it clear in her essays that she sees merit in ambiguities; it is why she seems to enjoy both gossip and autofiction as forms. The same is true for close reading, something that clearly underpins her literary criticism and the way she reads. However, while the ambiguities and the close reading may make for excellent autofiction and literary criticism (respectively), they play out less well in essay form. Each essay is long and meandering and while I found myself highlighting useful bits and pieces, I also found myself writing "why??" over and over again in the (digital) margins of my book. (If interviews with Oyler are any indication, I'm guessing her response would be Who Cares?, another (confirmed) alternative title for her book).
If these essays are meant to be persuade the audience to her opinion (rather than merely to share it in a vaguely entertaining way), they seem to fall short. For example, while her essay on Goodreads touches on the problems of Goodreads being tied to a commercial market completely elides the existence of other book social media platforms. I would be curious what Oyler thinks of the more affect based StoryGraph and it's omission feels particularly stark. I have so! many! thoughts! on the anxiety article (which what take far too much time to articulate in a StoryGraph comment). In short, I am often left unconvinced.
I told a friend of mine that I thought she would find these essays interesting, but maybe not worth her time and that honestly sums up my writing experience. Was I intrigued? Yes. Did I learn something? Maybe. Was my worldview challenged? Not really, which is deeply disappointing.
A good collection for folks who live for literary criticism (and maybe Berlin), otherwise I'd recommend doing something else with your time.
The collection is comprised of six very long essays on gossip, Goodreads, Berlin, autofiction, vulnerability, and anxiety. StoryGraph seems to imply that an alternative title for this collection was My Perfect Opinions and while I can't seem to find anything to corroborate this it does feel apt. In the introduction, Oyler describes the origins of at least two of her essays as "a growing agitation about what I perceived to be misunderstandings and fallacies spreading in cultural criticism and commentary, and a resulting feeling that I must say something to attempt to intervene." All this to say that Oyler has very strong opinions about these somewhat trivial things (her concession, not mine) band we are all along for a long meandering ride to maybe glean the entirety of her thoughts.
Oyler makes it clear in her essays that she sees merit in ambiguities; it is why she seems to enjoy both gossip and autofiction as forms. The same is true for close reading, something that clearly underpins her literary criticism and the way she reads. However, while the ambiguities and the close reading may make for excellent autofiction and literary criticism (respectively), they play out less well in essay form. Each essay is long and meandering and while I found myself highlighting useful bits and pieces, I also found myself writing "why??" over and over again in the (digital) margins of my book. (If interviews with Oyler are any indication, I'm guessing her response would be Who Cares?, another (confirmed) alternative title for her book).
If these essays are meant to be persuade the audience to her opinion (rather than merely to share it in a vaguely entertaining way), they seem to fall short. For example, while her essay on Goodreads touches on the problems of Goodreads being tied to a commercial market completely elides the existence of other book social media platforms. I would be curious what Oyler thinks of the more affect based StoryGraph and it's omission feels particularly stark. I have so! many! thoughts! on the anxiety article (which what take far too much time to articulate in a StoryGraph comment). In short, I am often left unconvinced.
I told a friend of mine that I thought she would find these essays interesting, but maybe not worth her time and that honestly sums up my writing experience. Was I intrigued? Yes. Did I learn something? Maybe. Was my worldview challenged? Not really, which is deeply disappointing.
A good collection for folks who live for literary criticism (and maybe Berlin), otherwise I'd recommend doing something else with your time.
laynemandros's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Lauren, if you’re reading this, don’t 🫶🏻
“No Judgement” is a collections of essays that is, in fact, filled with judgement. I was completely unaware of Lauren’s background before picking this up (thanks @librofm ) on audio. She’s a literary critic and author of “Fake Accounts,” which I saw floating around when it released.
I think this might be the most pompous and pretentious collection I’ve ever read and part of me really feels like that was Lauren’s intention. She strikes me as too smart to be unaware that her overall tone and style of writing is, at times, a bit insufferable!
Some of the essays seemed tedious to me (her essay an auto fiction) while others were really relatable (her essay on goodreads and keyboard warriors on the internet, cancel culture, etc.) and then there was one where I felt so seen I was like hey girl? are we the same? Re her essay on her almost debilitating anxiety and TMJ.
After reading some reviews about this online I can tell that Lauren is pretty polarizing and I felt the same. Some essays I really enjoyed and others I was like girl simply what the fuck are you talking about. I also fear that I might be ~simply too stupid~ for some of this content. And that’s okay because I don’t want to spend my time parsing through whether or not auto fiction is less valid than a memoir because I ✨don’t care ✨
I will say, as a publicist, I do agree with Lauren’s criticism of perception of writers. I think that in order to publicize books authors have to dole out pieces of personal information and sell them to the public. Oh your main character has debilitating depression, the author must as well, now it’s an interview topic. I agree with her overall assertion that criticism is a behavior that’s yielding to the droves of “chronically online” folks that lack nuance who are driving the cancel culture movement. I think there’s a difference between holding people accountable and the “cancel culture” internet.
“No Judgement” is a collections of essays that is, in fact, filled with judgement. I was completely unaware of Lauren’s background before picking this up (thanks @librofm ) on audio. She’s a literary critic and author of “Fake Accounts,” which I saw floating around when it released.
I think this might be the most pompous and pretentious collection I’ve ever read and part of me really feels like that was Lauren’s intention. She strikes me as too smart to be unaware that her overall tone and style of writing is, at times, a bit insufferable!
Some of the essays seemed tedious to me (her essay an auto fiction) while others were really relatable (her essay on goodreads and keyboard warriors on the internet, cancel culture, etc.) and then there was one where I felt so seen I was like hey girl? are we the same? Re her essay on her almost debilitating anxiety and TMJ.
After reading some reviews about this online I can tell that Lauren is pretty polarizing and I felt the same. Some essays I really enjoyed and others I was like girl simply what the fuck are you talking about. I also fear that I might be ~simply too stupid~ for some of this content. And that’s okay because I don’t want to spend my time parsing through whether or not auto fiction is less valid than a memoir because I ✨don’t care ✨
I will say, as a publicist, I do agree with Lauren’s criticism of perception of writers. I think that in order to publicize books authors have to dole out pieces of personal information and sell them to the public. Oh your main character has debilitating depression, the author must as well, now it’s an interview topic. I agree with her overall assertion that criticism is a behavior that’s yielding to the droves of “chronically online” folks that lack nuance who are driving the cancel culture movement. I think there’s a difference between holding people accountable and the “cancel culture” internet.
sterlingisreading's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.75
Lauren Oyler has always held a unique interest for me. Whether she’s ripping Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror to shreds (a book I love, by a writer I respect) or going on the Goop cruise to write an article about it, her work is always fun to read. As much as I love Tolentino, I read Oyler’s criticism of her book with maniacal glee. She’s an interesting literary critic. She is unapologetic, her words have teeth. This book of essays covers topics that I think about a lot, like gossip, autofiction, spoilers, and the irritating existence of Brené Brown’s “groundbreaking” Ted Talk on vulnerability and the hollow, pseudo-therapeutic proliferation of the term that has followed in the years since. I don’t have any interest in Oyler’s novel, but I’m always excited to read her criticism, essays, and commentary.