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jessthanthree's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, and Grief
Moderate: Drug use
nmcannon's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Drug use, Mental illness, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, and Stalking
Moderate: Death, Violence, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Car accident
The level and description of triggering content in Solutions and Other Problems is either similar or one notch above the previous memoir, Hyperbole and a Half.for_esme_with_love's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicide, Medical content, and Grief
Moderate: Death and Car accident
Brosh talks about their grief processing the death of their sisterratxheart's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Excrement, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Alcohol
Moderate: Body horror and Cursing
laur_o's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death and Grief
galexy_brain's review against another edition
4.5
Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Excrement, and Grief
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Medical content, and Car accident
djinnandtea's review against another edition
4.0
I don’t know if I can say the wait was worth it. I think it was, but I also almost wish it’d never come out. I’m not sure of how to express my feelings here, so bear with me. Hyperbole and a Half was such a ride back in the day. I don’t know that any book or blog has given me the same amount of serotonin for such an extended period of time before, and her first book just continued the experience. Following Allie’s struggles with depression also felt very special and relatable, like we readers were growing alongside her. The first book felt like a culmination of that relationship, like the ultimate success after everything else we’d collectively been through, and as her blog was seemingly defunct, like a nice high to end on. That’s how it felt to me, at least. No new posts, but this great book with the classic comics and some new stories. She’d laughed at corn under the fridge and so had I, life was gonna be okay.
During the eight year wait for the follow up, Allie Brosh kind of disappeared from my thoughts. I wondered about her every now and then (hard not too—the memes she left in her wake are still kicking) but I figured we were never really going to get Solutions and Other Problems, and that was okay for me because Hyperbole and a Half was so satisfying. Then, suddenly, the release. Then suddenly, it was in my hands. Another set of stories by Allie Brosh; I never thought I’d see this day.
Reading the stories certainly had a familiar feel, I’ll start there. But it also became clear very quickly this was not the same Allie Brosh telling the stories. The art’s a little different. Duncan’s largely MIA. The dogs we used to love are almost entirely absent. This doesn’t mean the book is bad. This doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. Of course things are going to be different—Allie Brosh has lived her life in the eight years since we last saw her, and so have I. We’re both different people now. But reading a new work from an author I have such a nostalgic love for meant I couldn’t stop missing what used to be, even as I appreciated what she was giving to me now.
Trust, I still laughed a lot. I still cried harder than I have in a while. She’s still a very good story teller. But Solutions and Other Problems is so much sadder than I thought it would be. It’s real. I admit it’s been a long time since I read Hyperbole and a Half (the book or the blog), so maybe I’m misremembering the tone. But there’s a lot less lightheartedness in this book. I didn’t inhale it like I expected I would. I spaced it out, read it only when I knew I wouldn’t need to be functional right after. Never before work, never before bed. Because there’s an existential reality in the pages I couldn’t always handle in the dark, or before I had to log on Zoom to teach second graders.
I said earlier I sort of wish it’d never come out, and I mean that for very selfish reasons. I sort of wish I still had the sweet nostalgia of her earlier works as the last taste in my mouth, rather than the bittersweet truths of this one. On the other hand, I am immensely grateful Allie Brosh is still here. That she’s still creating. That’s she’s still storytelling. I’ll buy anything she publishes, even if it hurts, because the journey with her has been a special one. I really don’t know how this book will read for people just coming to Allie Brosh’s work. I don’t know if it’ll feel stilted and underdeveloped. I certainly think readers familiar with her style will benefit the most. There are stories in the book that feel particularly abrupt and out of order, and I haven’t decided if that fits the structure or is just a poor editing choice yet.
As with DuMaurier's Rebecca, it’s evident I don’t know how to talk about this book without talking about my emotional attachment to it. Allie’s comics have been part of my life for a decade. At the end of the day, I think it’s a worthwhile read. But beware: it’s not always the easy read you might be looking for.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicide, Grief, and Medical trauma
Minor: Animal death
honeycuttsp's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Suicide, Medical content, and Car accident
carol_ann's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Mental illness, and Grief
menomica's review against another edition
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Grief
Moderate: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Dysphoria
Minor: Animal death and Medical content