You're Never Weird on the Internet

I really don't know how to review this without sounding cliche. Well first I loved it. I laughed, out loud, especially during the first chapters. I nodded along at some of the growing up moments and read in awe in others. I cried in some of the later chapters, for her honest and the personal realisations they helped me with in my life. This is a memoir I think I will be still learning from in years to come.
Let's get some of the great motto coffee cups out there!

This was an example of reading the right book at the right time for me. It was funny, and frequently self-deprecating, as well as honest about big life changes, mental health, and growing up strangely. The advice never felt heavy-handed or self indulgent which was really nice after reading two or three other memoirs this year that were. Andddd it almost goes without saying that I admire Felicia a LOT for making female-driven content about gaming. I wish it had existed when I was younger and felt pretty lonely being the only female I knew who played. The Guild and Geek and Sundry were super comforting after I discovered them coming out of 6 months of unemployment filled with depression and playing 8+ hours of Guild Wars a day. My husband would come home and all I had to talk about was my day of mining and how my Guild leader Fang took his kids trick or treating without his wife (who he only referred to as “the dragon”). I have a better relationship with games now that I'm busy (i.e. Avoid MMO's and sell your soul/time to a university), but I still love playing and want to see women represented. I haven't decided if I want to go into the game industry when I finish my CS degree, but I'd be lying if I said GamerGate didn't make me second guess the industry. Felicia does a great job describing her hesitation in dealing with them though, and by the end of the book I felt pretty heart-warmed about life in general.

This was an entertaining book and I enjoyed hearing the story of Felicia's life. While I did roll my eyes at some of her retellings because of the style at which she addressed areas of her life, overall it was really enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed hearing more about the making of The Guild and it was fun to go back and rewatch some of The Guild after reading it.

I've been a fan of Felicia Day for an embarrassingly long time. Buffy, The Guild, Geek & Sundry, Dollhouse, Eureka – and of course Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Her memoir increased my respect for her even more. She majored in math and violin? That's crazy dedication right there. Hearing her stories of meeting people from the online world mirrored some of my experiences at the time. The build up to starting The Guild was enlightening to hear about as well. It's easy to see something that's created and assume the path was easy. Knowing just how uphill and scrappy a battle it was is inspiring for me in my own creative endeavors.

Executive Summary: A fascinating and interesting read that had me laughing so hard in places that I had to set the book down. It's not all laughs however, and Ms. Day opens up a lot of personal details about her life that I would have never guessed. If you're a fan of Ms. Day's work, or just interested in the internet and the evolution of online video entertainment, I highly recommend this book. 4.5 Stars.

Full Review
Felicia Day changed my life. I never realized that until I started reading this book. That's impressive for someone I've never met before, but I suspect I'm not the only one whose life has been changed for the better thanks to Ms. Day.

I discovered the Guild closer to the end than the beginning of its run. As a longtime World of Warcraft junkie I found the show spoke to me personally. I knew people like all the characters, and saw parts of myself in some of them as well.

When I heard about Geek & Sundry, I was eager to see what Felicia Day had in store for us next. It was through Geek & Sundry that I discovered Sword & Laser and Goodreads itself. Goodreads and many of its members have now become a large part of my daily life, and it's the one social network I use with any regularity.

I also rekindled my love of tabletop gaming. Thanks to Wil Wheaton, I found myself amassing a large stockpile of games that I never played. So I started a monthly game night that's now nearing it's 3rd year. So while I doubt Ms. Day will ever read this review, I wish to express my thanks at her for the many friends I've made and all the fun I've had as a result.

My initial thought when I heard about this book was to wonder just how much of a book there was for someone so young. Ms. Day and I are only a few years apart in age, but it's apparent she's accomplished a lot more of note than I have in that time. That's OK though, since I don't think I have anywhere close to the drive she has to make my mark on the world.

What was more surprising to me was how much we have in common. I had a similar experience finding an online community of people who shared my passions in the early days of the internet. Additionally the height of my WoW addiction apparently coincided with hers (and likely many many others). Apart from that however, we've led very different lives.

That said, I still feel like if I could get over my awkwardness and not just be a giant fanboy around her, we could be friends. I think that quality is what endears her so much to her fans. Her authenticity and genuine passion for the things she does comes through as she describes her journey.

I was sad to read about some of the struggles she's had at a time where her work was vastly improving my own life. I'm happy to see things seem to have improved for her. I hope she continues to forge her own path, and is able to focus on all the great things she's given the world and just ignore all the idiots and haters out there.

I for one look forward to seeing what Ms. Day has in store for all of us next. Even if she never matches her past successes, I hope she can take pride in all the lives she's improved, like my own.

Reading this book did nothing to dissuade my conviction that Felicia Day and I should really be best friends. We could eat snacks and talk about Prodigy and introduce ourselves by GPA to people! It'd be magical!

I fell in love with Felicia Day sometime during the course of The Guild largely because I identified so strongly with Codex who Felicia admits is more than a little autobiographical. Since then her career as an actress, writer, producer, and all around stuff-tryer has been something of an inspiration in my life. I tried to tell her that at a convention once and we ended up apologizing to each other about fourteen times. It was magical, but not as magical as if I'd known to bring up childhood obsessions with Prodigy at the time.

This book is an extremely honest and open portrait of an oddball. It has light-hearted chapters about silly and serious things in her early life parts of which did literally make me laugh out loud, no internet acronym overuse intended. It also has starkly emotional accounts of her battles with anxiety, depression, and harassment which, again literally, made me tear up. It's pretty rare that books do either of those things to me, let alone what I at first assumed would most likely be a collection of her funniest tweets (I would have bought that too, mind you). In any medium Felicia has presented herself, I get the impression of a nervous but extremely genuine woman, and this book highlights that genuineness beautifully in both her strengths and weaknesses.

I don't read celebrity biographies terribly often, but the ones that I do seem to feature anxiety, depression, and the the feeling of being a fraud very prominently in their themes. They are always sad themes, but I find them extremely reassuring. I think a lot of people, myself included, cope with success by going “Oh God! I tricked everyone into thinking I'm good at this! One day they'll figure out their wrong and I will be crushed under the weight of my lies!!!” However, I think we all think we are the only ones who feel that, and all the supportive friends in the world can't truly crush that thought. Felicia's book reminded me that even my heroes feel that way, that it's okay to feel that way, and also that you can feel that way and still make good art.

On the off chance that Felicia is scrolling through Goodreads comments and finds this review (which from the content of the book is maybe not such an offchance but I would be doing the same thing), thank you for being brave enough to put this out in the world, Felicia.

I absolutely loved this book. Felicia is so brave putting this out. Telling her story about her unusual upbringing and search for perfection just to find out that it doesn't make you happy. I feel proud to be a reader of this book and fan of hers even more than before. She lives life to the beat of her own drum and that is a very good sound.

There is, a certain degree of difficulty in evaluating a memoir or autobiography, you can't really critique the plot – “I just didn't find the protagonist all that believable here,” “sure, things like that just happen...” You're limited to writing ability/style and what's contained in the volume (or what's left out).

So let me start with my minor gripe: I'd have liked a little more information on The Guild – what we got was great, but we barely got any information/impressions on her castmates, the stories, anything beyond the process of getting the first episodes made and then securing the means to make the rest. Even more, I'd have loved more about her work on Buffy, Dr. Horrible, Eureka, and Supernatural which barely got a mention. I get that the book isn't about that kind of thing – and I can appreciate that. But, I'd have liked to see that kind of thing (and I expect I'm not alone).

So what is the book about? It's about Felicia Day – how the things in her life made her who she is. So yes, there's a lot about The Guild, and what the process of making it did to her. Not too much about the other projects, sadly. But while reading it, I didn't give it much thought beyond muttering to myself, “Oh, come on, we're just skipping __?”

Weighed against all the things about this book that really work, that's really minor (but apparently takes me two paragraphs to explain). If you're a fan of Felicia Day's, you know that persona she's established (I'm not saying it's not primarily genuine, but she's careful to keep it consistent). That persona shines forth in every sentence in this book. It's hard, really hard not to hear Day's voice in your head as you read this – at a certain point, I stopped trying because why should I? It's fun hearing things in her voice – most of her readers are reading the book because they enjoy her – that's why they got the book.

She talks about her mother's unique approach to homeschooling (“for hippie reasons, not God reasons”), the various and sundry artistic endeavors she tried as a kid/teen – singing, dancing, acting, violin, and more, her college experience, her early acting days, discovering her writing/producing/creative mojo – and most importantly, discovering video games and the Internet.

This, and more, told in her indelible, inimitable, charming style, makes this book a winner – and a real laugh-out-loud read. Also, this book is noteworthy for the most mentions of Ross Perot in any book I've read this century. That really has nothing to do with anything, but it's such strange distinguishing mark, I felt it had to be mentioned.

I've always liked Felicia Day. This book felt slightly dated—but that's more on me waiting too long to read it than any authorship. I liked hearing more of Day's personality, loved her comments on WoW (“it's so we could get cooler outfits to dance on mailboxes in game.”) and appreciated hearing more about the birth of The Guild.

Felicia Day is an amazing and inspiring woman. I read this book because I'm a fellow female gamer/geek who enjoyed The Guild and cherished her character Charlie on Supernatural. By writing about her life's journey Felicia exposed herself to the world and allowed us to see how she came to be the woman she is now. She shares with us both hilarious stories and terrifying moments. She explains how it was hard to connect to other people as a geek and I agree. It's hard to find people to connect with sometimes, ecspecially when they don't have a clue what you mean when you start chatting about weapons, armor, leveling up, fantasy books etc. My heart reached out to her as I read about her gaming addiction and slow spiral with anxiety and depression. That was my existence for almost five years and it takes a lot of will power and help from others to surface from it. Felicia shows us that we're all human with insecurities and worries. I think she was extremely brave to let us know how far she fell and how she came back and continues to manage her busy life.

This book is a mixture of autobiography and self-help. It may seem odd to have an autobiography about such a young person, but she's amazing. I don't want to spoil your journey through this book by revealing any of the details of her life, but if you've ever felt like you don't quite fit in, (and who really does, anyway?), you may enjoy some of the life lessons that Felicia shares. . . . I've probably said too much already, but read the book anyway. Or, better yet, get the audio book.

Day's bubbly personality really carries this book at a great pace. Between all the fan stories and creative struggles, it's refreshing to learn how she overcame her own mental health challenges in such a tough entertainment industry and continued to encourage positivity and champion mental health. Love Felicia Day, love this book.

A funny, interesting, engaging and brave book. Ultimately it's also heartbreaking.

It was great to read how her early internet experiences gave her the same sort of feelings that mine did, even though our entry points were different.

The crap she went through with the gamergate assholes is shared in detail and made me sick to my stomach.

I've been a fan of Felicia Day for an embarrassingly long time. Buffy, The Guild, Geek & Sundry, Dollhouse, Eureka – and of course Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Her memoir increased my respect for her even more. She majored in math and violin? That's crazy dedication right there. Hearing her stories of meeting people from the online world mirrored some of my experiences at the time. The build up to starting The Guild was enlightening to hear about as well. It's easy to see something that's created and assume the path was easy. Knowing just how uphill and scrappy a battle it was is inspiring for me in my own creative endeavors.

A lot of celebrities books I've read (or rather listened to) have all been a collection of different experiences and essays and what they've learned from them. This one might be the first that put more focus on how the person broke through and what they've learned from that.

I've always liked Felicia Day, and this made me like her even more. My favorite chapters were definitely the one criticising how gamer culture has evolved over recent years and how much effort they put into making The Guild, from when YouTube was just a relatively new website. There's a lot of references here and there that made me feel totally nostalgic.

The audiobook also has an added chapter that comments on the reception on the book, and experiences she's had during the book tour(s). I always would recommend the audiobook version of a biography, if the person narrating is also the author, since they usually come with a few extra stuff, and this one is no exception. Very much recommended.

Ok, I might be a bit biased, since I'm a big fan of Felicia Day, but this book is simply awesome!
Funny, honest and awkward at times, but always inspiring. It almost makes me wish I had a less “normal” childhood.
But in the end, we are all weird in our own special ways, I guess.

Plus, it's a really fast read, so no excuse not to put it on your To-Read-List right now.
Can't wait to listen to the audiobook!

Felicia Day is as charming and self-deprecating on paper as she appears in her videos. She also has a wide-eyed sense of wonder and optimism that's contagious. The book is definitely a tale of “follow your bliss” but also peppered with enough self-doubt and personal hurdles to feel real. Day didn't face a lot of the problems that folks who venture to Hollywood do: drugs, alcohol, sex but she did skirt her own addiction and mental health issues.

If you ever doubted that you can be successful doing what you love and being a nice person, then Day will restore your faith in the possibility. If you're a bitter cynic, she might be too full of quirky charm to pierce your armor.