A review by yoteach8724
This Will Be Funny Someday by Katie Henry

3.0

If I could, I would rate this 3.75ish - it's not your typical 3 stars ("it was okay") but not quite a 4 star ("it was great"). At times it was great, other times it was okay.

As with the last book I read (which also was a Young Adult fiction about a high school girl wanting to become a stand-up comic), this book is woke - but significantly less so. I felt like all the characters were much more realistic and down to earth, but the jokes fell flat for me. If I was in the audience and listening to Izzy V do standup I'd yawn a time or two and wonder when the next comic is coming up. Comparing her to CRYING LAUGHING's Winnie, I'd take Winnie as the funnier of the two.

That said, the arc between Izzy and her boyfriend Alex was riveting - and ironically, the book shines best when not focusing on stand-up or the jokes. Author Katie Henry had opportunities to take cliche shortcuts and chose not to, instead of focusing on the weight and reality of poor decisions. The authenticity of the relationships is the book's strongest trait.

Now I think I've cleaned out the YA high-schoolers-wanting-to-do-standup books.