We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.
Ratings45
Average rating4
Love, love, loved it. Laughed more at the first book I read from Samantha (‘Meaty'). I mean, I laughed a lot with this one too but it also had more relatable moments like:
‘I'm not even sure I had a personality back then; I just tried to haphazardly arrange other people's projections and shit I thought was cool into something captivating.'
Definitely recommend. Next step: I gotta go buy her third book :)
Very fun! Humorous personal essays are almost always a good time for me. Irby's very human perspective makes for an engaging read.
Hilarious and heartfelt at the same time. She has a paragraph in one of her essays about real love being “boring as shit” and it's one of the sweetest and truest things I've ever read.
I read this a few months ago and really thought I already added it on GoodReads but I guess.......I did not do that.
It's really funny, and also moving in places. The cat dies :( But only after a long and spiteful life. It's overall just extremely honest and engaging.
So yeah, Samantha Irby is hella funny and her latest book has some legit bona fides with blurbs from Roxanne Gay and the New York Times Book Review. And I get how this could be the perfect literary diversion, but it reads like the Platonic ideal of a hilarious blogger who writes a book. Each chapter is like a long form blogpost, perfect in it's ability to invoke a wry chuckle, reading it over your morning coffee while avoiding work in the early hours of the day. I can imagine the appropriate gif to append to an appreciative, post-blog comment. And just as quickly it's gone, the browser tab shut down as you return your focus to the work you're supposed to be doing. The book feels like a collection of these posts and are just as forgettable. Wonderful distractions in the moment but ultimately nothing stuck with me a week later.
3.5 stars.
I basically had zero familiarity with Samantha Irby or her blog prior to picking this up, other than I heard part of her first essay, My Bachelorette Application, on a podcast and thought it was funny. I enjoyed this collection of essays a lot, because despite having a rough upbringing and health issues and depression, she has a good sense of humor and, I thought, speaks a lot of truth about the world.
Standout essays:
The Blues for Fred (about relationships and wanting to be loved and how devastating it is when things don't work out)
The Miracle Porker (about acquiring her cat, Helen Keller, who has her own voice and will cut you)
Happy Birthday (about her late, alcoholic father and instability growing up with each of her parents)
Nashville Hot Chicken (about road-tripping to Tennessee with her girlfriend in order to release her father's ashes)
I'm In Love and It's Boring (about being comfortable in unstable, distrustful relationships, and the discomfort in stability, even though you might actually be happy)
A lot of good stuff here, and even the serious, heavy stuff is treated with wry humor. I finished the book hoping good things for Sam moving forward.
But, if you're bothered by a LOT of cussing, rather explicit descriptions of sex (with both men and women), and frequent comments about bodily functions and porn consumption, give this book a pass.