Reviews - Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

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12.9k reviews for:

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

Matthew Perry

3.81 AVERAGE

caseyfalkenstein's review against another edition

4.0

reflective sad fast-paced

ezzyt's review against another edition

2.0

I feel bad for giving a story of someone’s life a 2 stars, but I was really disappointed by this book
I guess it is my fault for imagining Matthew as a more mature and humble person, but damn this guy is so arrogant and prideful and blames everything on other people
Copious mentions of how wealthy he is, how famous he is, and how many women he gets. It’s cringe
I do empathise with his struggle with substance, however again, he can’t accept responsibility for anything
Did he have an editor? Didn’t feel like it. Story had no chronological order and we were jumping timelines all the time that it was confusing and also ended up in a lot of repetition
I love Chandler Bing, and grateful for all the joy he has given me on friends, but I am sad to say I wish I hadn’t met Matthew Perry
RIP

beth_books_123's review against another edition

I couldn't possibly rate this.

This book broke my heart. Not only is Matthew Perry dead but it's the hope and heartache in this book. He had dreams that were never reached.

Truly heartbreaking.

nytn's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional sad medium-paced

bagpuss_janet's review against another edition

3.0

I had intended to read this at some stage, and when Matthew Perry sadly died recently I decided to reserve it from the library. It arrived quicker than I expected! I haven't seen all the episodes of the TV show Friends (236, apparently) - maybe 100 or so, because I watched some of the reruns with my daughter when she was a teen. There is so much in popular culture that comes from this show: the Rachel haircut, Joey's "how you doin'?", Ross's "Pivot!"... that I was interested enough to want to read about Perry's time on Friends and the "Big Terrible Thing", which was his drug addiction and alcoholism. I found parts of it good, but there was an awful lot of name-dropping, blaming of other people, and repetition that made it feel like wading through treacle at times, although it's a short book so I was happy to persevere. There isn't an awful lot about Friends in it, which was a shame. I did feel very sorry for Perry. He was clearly facing some terrible demons. There is no conclusive cause of death yet, and I'm not going to speculate, but I do hope that Matty, as his family and friends called him, is now at peace.