ARC Book Review: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

I received this book for free from Publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!! This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
Published by Touchstone on October 29th, 2013
Genres: Humor, Media Tie-In, Non-Fiction
Pages: 369
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Named one of the Funniest Sites on the Web by PC World and winner of the 2011 Bloggies Awards for Most Humorous Weblog and Best Writing, the creator of the immensely popular “Hyperbole and a Half” blog presents an illustrated collection of her hilarious stories with fifty percent new content.

In a four-color, illustrated collection of stories and essays, Allie Brosh’s debut Hyperbole and a Half chronicles the many “learning experiences” Brosh has endured as a result of her own character flaws, and the horrible experiences that other people have had to endure because she was such a terrible child. Possibly the worst child. For example, one time she ate an entire cake just to spite her mother.

Brosh’s website receives millions of unique visitors a month and hundreds of thousands of visitors a day. This amalgamation of new material and reader favorites from Brosh's blog includes stories about her rambunctious childhood; the highs and mostly lows of owning a smart, neurotic dog and a mentally challenged one; and moving, honest, and darkly comic essays tackling her struggles with depression and anxiety, among other anecdotes from Brosh's life. Artful, poignant, and uproarious, Brosh’s self-reflections have already captured the hearts of countless readers and her book is one that fans and newcomers alike will treasure.

Hyperbole and a Half is probably my favorite non-bookish blog out there. Allie Brosh is just a genius in her posts, and many of the feelings she expresses in her stories are very relatable. So when I heard a while back that she was getting a book published, I was all kinds of excited. When I saw it was on NetGalley, my excitement increased tenfold. Then I got approved… oh man, you should have seen the look on my face.

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened has a beautifully creative long title that immediately hints to the kind of whimsical humor you find in this book. Particularly the stories about the simple dog and the helper dog had me giggling madly on the train. That may have generated a few odd looks in my direction, but I was honestly enjoying the book far too much to care, or even notice. Stories of Allie’s childhood (i.e. The God of Cake and The Hot Sauce Debacle) are also brilliant installments and just so enjoyable to read.

But while I love the whimsical, lighter tales that have me giggling, what I love most about Allie’s stories is how honest and real they are. Adventures in Depression Part 1 and Depression Part 2 are two stories that I definitely connect with and think that many others who have ever felt depressed can connect with too. I love those because of the way that Allie can express feelings I’ve had which I thought were indescribable, plain and simple. Honestly, if I ever need to describe those feelings to people again, I’m just going to shove this book in their face and be like, “READ THIS. IT IS A THING. IT DESCRIBES MY LIFE.” Similar praise goes to Identity Part 1 and Identity Part 2. Just brilliant.

If you don’t know, this book is a collection of some of her most popular posts and some new stories. I’m not exactly sure which ones had been on the blog before, as I haven’t read everything, but I was super excited to see my favorite of her posts, This is Why I’ll Never Be an Adult, in the book. The only thing that’s kind of sad is that the stories are not connected in any way, and there’s no kind of timeline either to really be able to place them. But I mean, if you follow the blog, you know that’s how she writes. I still enjoyed it immensely.

Summing Up:

With the awesome full color pages and illustrations we know and love, anyone that has been a fan of the blog must go and buy the book. It was just an absolute joy to read, and with the illustrations it was definitely a quick read as well. But this is just a great book to have on the shelves that you can pull out when you need a few giggles or when you just need to know you’re not alone. And it’s much more fun in book form, I think, than scrolling endlessly through the blog. I dearly hope that there will be more books, to make this a series, because I will definitely go out and buy all of them.

GIF it to me straight!

Read this book instead!

Recommended To:

Anyone in the mood for giggles!