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4.26 AVERAGE
4.26 AVERAGE
This book was sent to me by the publisher.
If you read Allie Brosh’s first book “Hyperbole and a Half”, you may think you know what to expect. This is an entirely different book. I’m glad I got to read it.
This book is heavy. Heavy and weird. It gave me a lot to think about. What are dogs really thinking? What’s the best way to face your weaknesses? The meaning of family. How would I deal with a child like Allie describes herself to have been? How come Allie draws such wonderful fancy horses but represents herself as a rectangle with stick arms and legs?
There’s a lot to take in: 1,678 pictures and many, many more words.
Give it a try, it’s totally worth it.
If you read Allie Brosh’s first book “Hyperbole and a Half”, you may think you know what to expect. This is an entirely different book. I’m glad I got to read it.
This book is heavy. Heavy and weird. It gave me a lot to think about. What are dogs really thinking? What’s the best way to face your weaknesses? The meaning of family. How would I deal with a child like Allie describes herself to have been? How come Allie draws such wonderful fancy horses but represents herself as a rectangle with stick arms and legs?
There’s a lot to take in: 1,678 pictures and many, many more words.
Give it a try, it’s totally worth it.
Hilarious and heartbreaking
Allie Brosh’s second book has sent me into coughing fits of laughter, and tears of sympathy. I wasn’t prepared for the emotional rollercoaster it ended up being, but I’m glad I rode this ride.
And honestly… I just want to give her a hug.
Allie Brosh’s second book has sent me into coughing fits of laughter, and tears of sympathy. I wasn’t prepared for the emotional rollercoaster it ended up being, but I’m glad I rode this ride.
And honestly… I just want to give her a hug.
Funny and thoughtful- it got just a little too existential at the end there for my taste, but it was a nice change of pace to read a nonfiction memoir done in the style of a series of comics. Was a little depressed after reading it, which is why I can’t give it full marks. I will say, the whole chapter on pets had me genuinely howling with laughter, which doesn’t usually happen when I read.
I loved Hyperbole and a Half, and while I didn’t laugh-until-I-cried while reading this book, I loved it. The weirdness is not only real, but enchanting.
I really appreciated this book. It felt like Allie Brosch offered a piece of herself in the pages, and whether or not she would say she actually did, it was a gift to have that experience while reading. It's a series of illustrated personal essays. The rhythm of word and image varies so that sometimes it felt more like the experience of reading text, while other times it felt more like a comic, and occasionally you're just looking at a page of visual art. The book is told in a series of small stories that become one big story through poetic association, clever transition pages, recurring vignettes, and above all due to the unifying factor that they're all about Allie's life. There are a few moments that break the fourth wall in delicious and satisfying ways, yum yum. I laughed a ton, but also could taste the sweet and sour, the bitterness and tang rolled into the tales. Sometimes the stories are big - about death, and depression, and major events that are hard to grapple with. Other times, the stories are small - like about watching your pet do stupid shit all day and...yeah, just really about watching them do that. In both cases, it felt like Allie Bosch was presenting a thing - be it weird, or profound, or mundane - and saying, 'okay, well, let's all look together (but I'll take the lead) and see if we can make any meaning of that'. And I feel like trying to make some kind of meaning of things is one of the most important gifts that art can give.
I really, really wanted to like this. I tried very hard. I’m deeply disappointed that unacceptable slurs like “tard” and “gimp” made it into print in 2020. I thought better of the author than that.
Maybe I’m missing the point. I’m sure I am. But it felt disjointed, unorganized, and lacking in the witty sharpness that I’d remembered from Hyperbole & a Half. I want Allie Brosh to be successful. I want only good things for her because she deserves so, so much credit for making the internet a better place. I completely understand the need to take all her work offline in order to protect her intellectual property. At the same time, I think that picking the best posts from a blog would be a better way of choosing good anecdotes to include in a book, because her editors did her an enormous injustice by letting this go to publication the way it’s written.
Maybe I’m missing the point. I’m sure I am. But it felt disjointed, unorganized, and lacking in the witty sharpness that I’d remembered from Hyperbole & a Half. I want Allie Brosh to be successful. I want only good things for her because she deserves so, so much credit for making the internet a better place. I completely understand the need to take all her work offline in order to protect her intellectual property. At the same time, I think that picking the best posts from a blog would be a better way of choosing good anecdotes to include in a book, because her editors did her an enormous injustice by letting this go to publication the way it’s written.
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
I laughed and cried while reading this. Allie Brosh shares an intimate look on her life and mental health.
This book made me laugh out loud while making me feel very emphatically sad for the author. A very poignant memoir told in a memorable way. I really recommend this to almost everyone with different reasons while it would resonate differently for different people. I think the author needs a hug, though that would probably not be her ideal interaction.
It was fun catching up with Allie after so many years. Some parts of this were funny and some parts were sad, because it is a story about life (since it is her life). It's also framed more around grief, so it was interesting to see all of the stories connect together.