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christiana's review against another edition
2.0
It's a terrible feeling when you realize you might be too old for a book. And that's pretty much how I felt about this one. I was hoping for more Adulting, but this book basically just took me to the pain and struggle of about 22-24. It's bad enough I had to live through that (the struggle, not the time period. I have good memories from the actual time period), it's just asking too much for Alida also to want me to laugh at her foray into it and not be eye rolly about it. Also, if you're going to do early 20s in New York City as your schtick, I feel like you gotta work a little harder for it. "Oh, my apartment is tiny and has no windows and is an 11th floor walkup." Nope. That's all been done before. Try harder.
shanshanshannon's review against another edition
1.0
I don't think this aged well, or maybe I should have read it when I was 23?
katelynwilson's review against another edition
2.0
I’ve been eyeing this book forever and finally took the plunge. It’s chapter after chapter of her drinking escapades, a bit off-putting when it’s several chapters in a row. I love a good drink- but was hoping for a bit more substance. The chapter about New York at the end was the best of the entire book.
meghan111's review against another edition
2.0
Yes, you envision your life so much differently than the reality of spending your evenings watching tv in food-stained pajamas. But this is so obviously a blog turned book - there are many repetitive jokes with the same punchline of drinking too much. It could use some structure and plot - it seemed to me, as a mid-30s-older-than-the-target-demographic reader that it's basically trying to be like the show Girls and describe the life of this freelance writer in New York, but it just didn't seem noteworthy or thoughtful or humorous to me.
kateannarmy's review against another edition
1.0
I started this book when I was 21 and didn’t manage to finish it until I was 26 because it was so bad, but I can’t get rid of a book I didn’t finish. If you are not an alcoholic you will not relate to about 80% of this book. And if you’re able to take accountability for your own life and mistakes, you won’t relate to the other 20%.
dianametzger's review against another edition
4.0
Really more like 3.75 stars. A really quick, enjoyable read with some astute insights and a bunch of literal LOL lines. Something that felt missing was that I couldn't picture any of her friends, family, apartments, etc. sometimes more about being clever than any real description and detail...but I think she considers herself more of a humorist than a memoirist so I give her a pass bc she's quite funny, even though her prose isn't great. I look forward to her work getting more interesting as she gets a bit more life experience, but I think she perfectly captures post college early 20s in this book--a perfect college grad gift.
ashleyholstrom's review against another edition
4.0
A feel-good (ok, feel-bad but then feel-good because of the solidarity) book with tidbits like this one in her imagined speech at her alma mater’s graduation ceremony: “Nobody is telling you what to do anymore — you are your own teacher, your own boss, your own captain. You have to constantly push yourself to get better, or else you will get stuck.”
Part of a review roundup at Crooked Prose.
Part of a review roundup at Crooked Prose.
craftyscene's review against another edition
3.0
More like 3.5 stars. I would have probably said this book was my Bible in my 20s. Amusing short stories about dating, friendships, and trying to figure out adulthood, but her writing is impeccable in the last chapter.
literallykalasin's review against another edition
2.0
When I saw a customer come through my till with this book, I took one look at the cover and said, "At last, a book about the great struggle for millennials to get a toe-hold in this crazy world!" You can even punctuate that previous in-my-head declaration by scrunching my two degrees into some sort of papier mache exclamation mark: after all, I have a masters degree and I work in a bookstore. Moving along.
I really wanted to love this book, and tout it as a great example of what it's like to graduate into this economy and have zero job prospects and basically live like a student as an adult, BUT WORSE, because now you also have debt (so much debt.) However, I found myself quickly losing sympathy for Alida, who has many of the same struggles as me. I can't really fault her for getting a degree in writing, even if it's not a particularly marketable degree at the best of times. I found fault more with her general profligate attitude and seemingly unending drinking, and then blaming her poverty on having to piece together a living out of freelance writing jobs rather than her stated inability to consistently send out billing to her clients. She seems to espouse a certain kind of millennial, which is to say, the kind that everyone likes to rag on and say isn't a hard worker, and can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
In the end of reading this book, I didn't feel how I thought I would feel: like I'm not the only one who has had it tough in this horrible economy! Rather, I felt like maybe I am more fiscally responsible than I thought I was because I don't buy brie and whiskey by the cartful and go out for Thai half the week. Well, at least that's something.
I really wanted to love this book, and tout it as a great example of what it's like to graduate into this economy and have zero job prospects and basically live like a student as an adult, BUT WORSE, because now you also have debt (so much debt.) However, I found myself quickly losing sympathy for Alida, who has many of the same struggles as me. I can't really fault her for getting a degree in writing, even if it's not a particularly marketable degree at the best of times. I found fault more with her general profligate attitude and seemingly unending drinking, and then blaming her poverty on having to piece together a living out of freelance writing jobs rather than her stated inability to consistently send out billing to her clients. She seems to espouse a certain kind of millennial, which is to say, the kind that everyone likes to rag on and say isn't a hard worker, and can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
In the end of reading this book, I didn't feel how I thought I would feel: like I'm not the only one who has had it tough in this horrible economy! Rather, I felt like maybe I am more fiscally responsible than I thought I was because I don't buy brie and whiskey by the cartful and go out for Thai half the week. Well, at least that's something.