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4.26 AVERAGE
4.26 AVERAGE
After suuuuch a long wait, this didn’t quite pick up where HaaH left off. There are strong sections, like the chapter about Richard and a few others, but fewer lols and a little less focus. It’s extremely honest and vulnerable, though, so all the admiration for AB. Also, the chapter on Hans Christian Anderson reminds me a little of Hark! A Vagrant, which is a compliment.
Not sure exactly what made me check this out from the library, but I'm glad I did. Such a true expression of the author and illustrator, unlike anything else, and yet in some ways it's a comic blog from the early 00's in print form.
This book got me through the darkest nights of the pandemic year. Thank god for other weird people. WE CAN'T BE CONTAINED BY THE RULES.
I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything that made me laugh out loud this much and this awkwardly.
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
I had mixed feelings about this book until I read the last chapter on how to be your own friend - that was a great chapter.
So happy this book finally came out! It was worth the wait! Compared to Hyperbole and a Half, this one feels much more cohesive and with a clearer thesis. Where her previous book felt like a collection of hit singles, Solutions and Other Problems feels like well thought out album. Its still hysterically funny and features Brosh's keen observations and offbeat humor, but it's also much more introspective. If you connected with the rawness and vulnerability in her stories on depression, a lot of that is present here. Its a sad, slightly bitter book, but also one of the funniest and most human books I've read this year.
I'm having a hard time rating this book. While reading the book, I kept getting drawn down by Brosh's main point, which is basically that life is meaningless and nothing matters. After what she's gone through, I can't blame Allie Brosh for become a nihilist. But I don't know what the book is trying to say and it came across as disjointed.
The thing about [b:Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened|17571564|Hyperbole and a Half Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened|Allie Brosh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409522492l/17571564._SY75_.jpg|24510592] (the book and the blog, since a bunch of the book was pulled from the site) is that Allie managed to convey what she was going through (in particular in the chapters on depression) in such a way that I could really understand it, despite not having depression (or a similar upbringing, etc.) myself. But in this book, I wasn't there with her--and I've certainly has my moments where I can see where she's coming from. But there's a despair that just permeated my reading experience; I think I spent a lot of the book worried about Allie because it just doesn't seem like she's in a good place, emotionally.
I don't know whether I wanted her to do more with that central "life has no meaning" than simply put it out there, a number of times. Interspersing it with some of the more amusing stories--oddly, looking at the book now, there's a lot more of the lighter pieces than I remember reading--just makes the book seem discordant. Instead of more illustrative stories, like the one about a random fight with her now-ex-husband that manages to balance humor with deeper truths, it's either something like Allie tripping on drugs (which left me confused) or a story about animals (which I liked, but was left wondering how they fit into the bigger picture). Maybe I just wanted her to spend more time dealing more with the actual events that happened to her, and less to just an overall darkness. If more chapters had been like the "Fairness" chapter, I think I'd have liked the book more.
I do think it's a book I'll turn to in the future. Not to read cover to cover, but to dip into and out of.
The thing about [b:Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened|17571564|Hyperbole and a Half Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened|Allie Brosh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409522492l/17571564._SY75_.jpg|24510592] (the book and the blog, since a bunch of the book was pulled from the site) is that Allie managed to convey what she was going through (in particular in the chapters on depression) in such a way that I could really understand it, despite not having depression (or a similar upbringing, etc.) myself. But in this book, I wasn't there with her--and I've certainly has my moments where I can see where she's coming from. But there's a despair that just permeated my reading experience; I think I spent a lot of the book worried about Allie because it just doesn't seem like she's in a good place, emotionally.
I don't know whether I wanted her to do more with that central "life has no meaning" than simply put it out there, a number of times. Interspersing it with some of the more amusing stories--oddly, looking at the book now, there's a lot more of the lighter pieces than I remember reading--just makes the book seem discordant. Instead of more illustrative stories, like the one about a random fight with her now-ex-husband that manages to balance humor with deeper truths, it's either something like Allie tripping on drugs (which left me confused) or a story about animals (which I liked, but was left wondering how they fit into the bigger picture). Maybe I just wanted her to spend more time dealing more with the actual events that happened to her, and less to just an overall darkness. If more chapters had been like the "Fairness" chapter, I think I'd have liked the book more.
I do think it's a book I'll turn to in the future. Not to read cover to cover, but to dip into and out of.
Deeply funny and heartbreaking. It's like the bat symbol for chronically lonely people. 10/10