rahthesungod's review

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hopeful informative lighthearted medium-paced

2.0

For novice writers who don’t recommend outdated language regarding marginalized people and strange racism. 

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likeagilmoregirl's review against another edition

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informative fast-paced

1.5

Several people had recommended this to me to help with my writing journey as it had helped them with theirs. I’m really glad this book was useful for them, but it was definitely not for me. Unfortunately, reading through this was a miserable experience for me. Overall, I felt like I got maybe two good pointers from this book.

I think that the points the author was trying to make would have come across just as well, if not better, had they been listed out in a small blog post. It felt that a majority of the book was filler; nonsensical and sometimes borderline cringey or distasteful jokes that the author threw in to be “funny”. It was full of self-depreciation and unnecessary analogies that really distracted from the overall point of the writing.

I hope others will give this book a chance and possibly find it useful for them. Sadly. It was not a match for me.

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confused_lemon's review

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funny reflective medium-paced

3.0


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apollos_books's review

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slow-paced

2.5

revisited this book after reading it in high school and enjoying it. sadly i really did not like it very much this time around. this book is heavier on the memoir than the reference side of things, which is fine but i was searching for more guidance on writing. i took notes on everything directly related to how to write, including inspiring quotes, and in total it fit about 3 pages of a word doc. 

also...this book aged very poorly. lamott makes several extremely sus, lazy comments about race throughout the book, which significantly reduced her credibility for me. there are also a number of references in this book that i did not understand at all. at least the writing advice, when included, is timeless. 

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rebeccajlachance's review

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The language in this book is so ableist I could not bear to continue. I can see why people fall for Lamott’s quirky self-effacing “humor” but for me, the fact that by page 53 I’ve already been put off many more times than I’ve been inspired is a no-go. 

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avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

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Sadly, upon trying to reread this book, I find that it feels quite dated. In particular she often uses mental health-related terminology in her "funny" stories that just don't sound so funny to me anymore. (I really liked the book when I first read it years ago.)

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ahudd's review against another edition

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informative lighthearted medium-paced

3.0


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clg2022's review

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informative lighthearted fast-paced

3.0


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