Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - My Mess Is a Bit of a Life

The premise of this book is "short anecdotes evacuating anxiety out of the body, as prescribed by a therapist." From the darkly humorous writer of The Thick of It, Veep, Succession, etc, that's a pretty interesting premise! I was pretty excited for this memoir based on excerpts. Parts of it REALLY delivered, offering tender and humorous anecdotes. Other parts... less so.

Approached as a series of short stories (which is more how it reads), they're thematically connected, but on average pretty unremarkable. Approached as a narrative string of vignettes, it's better -- particularly in the last 1/3 when the author stops recounting childhood & early career struggles, and transitions to talking about mid/late-career issues as a woman in a male-dominated field + the experience of raising non-neurotypical children as a non-neurotypical adult. But viewing the memoir this way requires generally forgetting about the childhood anecdotes. Overall, the book contains mostly punchy dismal bits that don't build to anything, with a few fantastically insightful moments interspersed.

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karina_dreamsinwords's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

Told through anecdotes chronicling various events from a young girl well into adulthood, Georgia Pritchett weaves together her experiences with anxiety. At times heartbreaking but mostly funny, Pritchett's humor and wit shine through.

I appreciate the honesty and raw human experience Pritchett shares in this book. I laughed a whole bunch, shed some tears, and smiled at how it all came together in the end.

Her talent with words is prevalent & I look forward to checking out her work in television.

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purplepenning's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective fast-paced

3.5

Interesting and funny. I just didn't expect each vignette to be so short and that's not a style that works particularly well for me whether I'm reading or listening (and I was doing both here, switching between audio and print editions).

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onewoman_bookclub's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

5.0

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cupofbooksreviews's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

3.0

I received a copy from Faber and Faber and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I have given My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety by Georgia Pritchett three out of five stars

This was an interesting, witty and insightful memoir written by Georgia Pritchett who is an award winning writer for TV & film. This book is focuses solely around her struggles with anxiety (as the title of the book suggests) as well as a mix of happy, joyful and strange memories.

I enjoyed the fast paced stories and anecdotes Georgia blesses us with in this book however, I didn’t really mesh with it as well as I was hoping to. It was funny and snappy, but I think the way the humour was written wasn’t really my cup of tea and I found myself becoming confused after reading several anecdotes due to the scattered order the stories were written in. I think mainly because Georgia focuses on some very difficult topics such as relationships and miscarriages, I found it hard to look at this book in a light-hearted humorous way and felt that the humour was forced every-so-often.

I have seen a lot of 3+ star reviews and know this book is a definite hit so I would recommend for new adults and upwards to check this memoir out as the humour might be up your street.

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