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joyfulfoodie's review against another edition
funny
slow-paced
2.25
I did not really enjoy most of this book. There was a lot of eye rolling. The author is an anxious person and listening to her self deprecating rambles and whining about how much she hates parties really gets old. Especially tedious was the chapter “sure sex is great but” which featured that phrase a million times each followed by things she compared to sex that implied they were supposed to be better… but about half of which were neutral at best and many of those seemed downright unpleasant. By the end I was mostly finishing it because a) I was on a long road trip and it beat staticky radio and b) I wanted an “I” author for my reading challenge.
Also possible this isn’t my top genre… I also struggled to finish “I was told there would be cake” by Sloane Crosley.
Also possible this isn’t my top genre… I also struggled to finish “I was told there would be cake” by Sloane Crosley.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
kelly_e's review
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.5
Title: Wow, No Thank You: Essays
Author: Samantha Irby
Genre: Non Fiction Essays
Rating: 3.5
Pub Date: March 31, 2020
T H R E E • W O R D S
relatable • comical • conversational
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Wow, No Thank You is the latest collection of essays from American comedian, Samantha Irby, exploring middle age, marriage, and her new bourgeois life.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Samantha Irby's self-deprecating humour is to the point, laugh-out-loud funny, honest, and relatable. This collection was a quick, easy read, yet I enjoyed some of the essays more than others. In fact, some of the essays were boring, repetitive, and at times felt like long-winded tangents unrelated to the actual story. in fact, it read a bit too much like a stream of consciousness than a cohesive set of essays.
I'm glad I picked this one up, but it likely won't stick with me down the road. If vulgar humour is not your thing, I would recommend skipping this one. And if you're planning to give it a shot, I'd recommend the audio which is read by the author.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• audiobook lovers
• fans of self-deprecating humour
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Sadly, life is not a movie. Life is an impossibly long and unyielding march to the grave, peppered along the way with myriad disappointments and misfortunes."
Author: Samantha Irby
Genre: Non Fiction Essays
Rating: 3.5
Pub Date: March 31, 2020
T H R E E • W O R D S
relatable • comical • conversational
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Wow, No Thank You is the latest collection of essays from American comedian, Samantha Irby, exploring middle age, marriage, and her new bourgeois life.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Samantha Irby's self-deprecating humour is to the point, laugh-out-loud funny, honest, and relatable. This collection was a quick, easy read, yet I enjoyed some of the essays more than others. In fact, some of the essays were boring, repetitive, and at times felt like long-winded tangents unrelated to the actual story. in fact, it read a bit too much like a stream of consciousness than a cohesive set of essays.
I'm glad I picked this one up, but it likely won't stick with me down the road. If vulgar humour is not your thing, I would recommend skipping this one. And if you're planning to give it a shot, I'd recommend the audio which is read by the author.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• audiobook lovers
• fans of self-deprecating humour
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Sadly, life is not a movie. Life is an impossibly long and unyielding march to the grave, peppered along the way with myriad disappointments and misfortunes."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Excrement, and Medical content
Moderate: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, and Mental illness
Minor: Death, Racism, and Death of parent
bexi's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood, Excrement, and Medical content
Minor: Animal death, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Death of parent, and Alcohol
ksuazo94's review
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Cursing, Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Death of parent
ladythana's review
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Excrement, and Death of parent
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, and Medical content
Minor: Animal death
lexa's review against another edition
funny
medium-paced
5.0
Great audiobook. Especially enjoyed Girls Gone Mild, Hung Up!, Are You Familiar With My Work, and My Hollywood Summer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness and Cursing
Moderate: Excrement
Minor: Drug use, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Alcohol
just_one_more_paige's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
5.0
Y'all - I love Samantha Irby. I read we are never meeting in real life last year, my first of her collections, and it was just...so good! Wonderfully hilarious with that tempering mix of some more serious (though still delivered with Irby's perfect comedic tone) topics. But yea, it was great. So I knew I'd be reading more from her as soon as as possible and a six hour drive for work was the perfect moment to dive into this one. I am a huge fan of author narrated memoirs/essays on long solo car trips - it makes me feel like someone is there with me, keeping me company. Plus, the humor in this collection was spot on, keeping me awake and invested!
This is Irby's most recent publication, so she's a little older now, around 40 at the time of the writing (as per her essays), and the topics she speaks to are accordingly more "mature." And by mature, I definitely mean the types of things that happen and matter and you have to deal with as you get to that middle age, not necessarily (in most cases) that her handling of said situations was more mature. Which is good, becasue that combination of "adult" situations with "non-adult" responses is, in fact, incredibly relatable and very much a signature trait (which I feel comfortable saying, now that I've read a second of her collections).
In these essays, Irby covers topics from home repairs (where/how do people learn that?) to making friends as an adult (it's basically impossible) to step-parenting (not a thing I've experienced, but as a person, like herself, who doesn't want to have kids, her reactions seem reasonable and understandable) to being totally connected to her phone in a way she won't apologize for (yup, I feel that). There was also a smattering of other things, just some generally funny essays about ridiculous things that are better than sex or worth calling 911 for, some of the wierdest things she's done as a result of financial issues (as in, lack of them), the story of how she was basically dragged into being published for the first (and second) time, relationship insight/advice (ish), and some actually really interesting essays about being optionjed for tv and staff-writing for a short-run tv series. This collection felt a little all over, but Irby's writing style and humor are so approachable and comical that I didn't really mind the lack of greater cohesion or arc. I honestly was all-in for the high level entertainment value...and was not disappointed on that front.
If I'm honest, I think I liked wow, no thank you ever more than we are never meeting in real life. Maybe it's because it spoke deeply to my getting-older soul. Maybe it's because I listened to this one (and Irby's narration is fucking spectacular) instead of traditional reading a physical copy. Maybe Irby is just aging into/with her writing like a fine wine. Regardless, this was laugh out loud funny (for real), incredibly relatable, chock full of lovely casual bisexual and disability rep, and basically everything I was looking forward to it being.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, and Excrement
rbacon's review
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
This is such a relatable and funny book - it really shows the parts of life we want to hide from others and perhaps suggests they don't have to be as embarrassing as we think they are, but also they are pretty embarrassing. Includes a playlist from Samantha Irby to the reader, as well as a list of things better than sex, which I largely agree with and definitely laughed my way through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Minor: Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent
kylieqrada's review against another edition
dark
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Welp, I've fallen in love with another essayist and will be obsessively consuming all of their content and then descend into a depressive state when I run out of new stuff by them and stalk their Instagram until I die. This was HILARIOUS and RELATABLE and HEART-WARMING and SAD and DID NOT HOLD BACK and I LOVED IT. I listened to it on audio, which is narrated by the author, and I would highly, HIGHLY recommend that experience.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug use, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent