Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate situations, flawed coping mechanisms, mayhem and other things that happened By Allie Brosh

Release Date: October 29, 2013
Publisher: Touchstone

The Rating:

The Summary This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it; but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:

Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!

I loved this. It’s a quick, entertaining read from the mind of Allie Brosh. I love her blog, Hyperbole and a Half, and when I found out she was coming out with a book I might have stalked my bookstore a little too enthusiastically. I sat down and read it this morning before heading out for an event, and I just–if you like the blog, you’ll love this. It’s a blend of old stories, including two of my favorite stories (God of Cake and Dog’s Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving), and brand new ones. If you’ve been on Tumblr/facebook within the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen the Motivation one. The illustrations are on par with the ones on her blog, and her unique story telling voice really shines in this book.

Frankly, if you like reading stories that will either move you to laughter, or make you uncomfortable with how closely you can relate to them, you’d enjoy this. I’m in love with the blog, and to be honest, I’m really happy that I got the book. It’s got a nice home on my bookshelf and I can read it whenever I want.