Allie Brosh

This is a heavy book, literally and figuratively. Shortly after Hyperbole and a Half was released, Allie Brosh had a major medical issue that required surgery. Then her sister died by suicide. Major physical and psychological challenges for Brosh to work through. This book is therefore much more serious than its predecessor, although Brosh does leaven the seriousness with some stories from her childhood and narrative techniques that avoid saturating the reader too much with emotional show more devastation. I admired how Brosh wrote about grief and depression—her writing is raw and real and acknowledges the messiness of one’s feelings in a way that I haven’t seen very often, if at all. For this reason, this gets the full five stars. show less

You know who Allie Brosh is. Allie Brosh single-handedly gave birth to a good number of memes in the late 2000s that you have definitely seen. Brosh ran a blog that has been (sadly) inactive since 2013. She is also one of the funniest story tellers I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

While on holiday in London one summer, I found a novel of hers. It contained stories from her blog, as well as posts that had never been published before. I had only read a few of her blog posts, so buying show more this book for me would not have been too boring – most of the stuff in it I had never read. Buying this book not only gave me the opportunity to read one of the funniest books I’ve ever bought, but also introduced me to my love of reading things aloud.

This is going to sound like a really weird thing to write a review about, but you guys have no idea how well this book lends itself to being read aloud. Brosh writes in a way that makes it seem as if she’s speaking to you, not just writing. Her analogies are hilarious, her stories include just the right amount of exaggeration to make it even funnier than it already was, and her drawings are insanely good for being made in MS Paint. This book allowed me to explore the fun of reading aloud, because it allowed me to experiment with my own tonality, pace, and also playing with voices. Since I’ve read this book, I’ve tried to do it with various different novels since, so on a personal note I love this book for introducing to me a skill that I have since worked to develop (because, trust me guys, reading aloud is a skill you need to work at).

But from the perspective of a reviewer, this book is so good because Brosh knows how to make her writing feel as if she’s having a conversation with you, and not like she’s trying to be something she’s not. Brosh isn’t afraid of talking about the person stuff – the time she got lost in the woods for almost 24 hours with her mother and little sister, the time she went to a birthday party while very heavily sedated, her battle with depression and a lack of motivation. All the stories she discusses in her book are things that have happened to her, aided with illustrations to make the story that much more pleasurable. But what’s great about this sort-of-memoir is that Brosh mixes in the funny with the serious. She talks about depression in one story, and then about the time her and her boyfriend were attacked by a goose in their home. She’ll speak about her problems with her own identity, and the problems she’s had with dealing with things like ADHD, and then quickly switch to a funny anecdote about her dogs, or the time she had a toy parrot that you could record messages into.

The book doesn’t take long to read – 5 hours, maximum. But it’s definitely something that everybody should try at least once. That, or convince a friend who owns this book to read you stories from it. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it just as much. My personal favourite to read out to people is ‘The Party’.

Final rating: 4/5 show less

YOU NEED THIS BOOK.

I kind of feel like a d-bag using the term “laugh out loud funny” in a review – or any kind of everyday conversation, for that matter – but Hyperbole and a Half is just that. Several times I got to laughing so hard that one or more of my dogs fled the room in fear and confusion. Whether reliving especially bizarre and embarrassing childhood memories (my mother will be relieved to know that I was not the only ten-year-old to run around on all fours, lapping water show more from bowls, pretending to be a leopard or a horse or a slobbering German Shepherd), or trying to reassure her neurotic rescue dog (see: the previous sentence), Brosh’s stories are consistently hilarious, not a little heartbreaking, and totally relatable. In an interview I caught online, Brosh said that she draws herself as a lumpy, weird-looking little creature because that’s how she sees herself. I know the feels.

Fans of the web comic may wonder whether they really need to buy this book. Rest assured: YOU NEED THIS BOOK. If you don’t buy it, at least borrow it from the library (have fun waiting out the queue!). With a mix of previously published (“The Party,” “The God of Cake,” “Depression” Parts One and Two) and new material (“The Hot Sauce Debacle,” “Lost in the Woods,” “Identity” Parts One and Two), you don’t want to miss out. Plus, you kind of have to love a book whose dedication page reads “For Scott. What now, fucker?” And the chapters are even color-coded, yo! This is easily one of the soundest buying decisions I made in 2013.

Not sure what to get your potty-mouthed introvert of a cousin this holiday season? Unlike the writhing mass of anxiety and self-loathing that forms the heart of this book, Hyperbole and a Half will easily fit inside an x-mas stocking. Bonus points if it’s paw-shaped.

As much as I adore it, I’m giving Hyperbole and a Half four stars instead of the full five because the author uses the r-word to refer to “the simple dog.” Not cool.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2013/12/16/hyperbole-and-a-half-by-allie-brosh/ show less

This collection is a great encapsulation of Allie Brosh's talent for humor. I read her blog back in the day, and the chaotic goofiness that was diarized was both relatable and heartwarming.

I was really depressed back then, and her little doodles were an occasional bright spot, and almost by accident, also a learning opportunity; I learned to recognize the signs of depression in myself and others, partly thanks to the shared experiences from the community that grew in the comments of those show more comics and in Allie's journey to recognizing it for herself. The internet is a wild place. show less