Reviews with content warning for Pandemic/Epidemic - Quietly Hostile: Essays

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Quietly Hostile: Essays by Samantha Irby

12 reviews

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

funny lighthearted fast-paced

5.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I was hilarious and highly relatable. If you are a woman who is perimenopausal or older, especially if you have had mental health struggles, I think you’ll love this book. Even if you aren’t you will probably find it an enjoyable read.

The author is so honest about everything she’s struggled with that it’s raw but not sloppy. Also, her imposter syndrome is highly relatable to most people. Though I could have done without some of the “Sex and the City” recaps of changes the author would make it was still funny.

Narrator Rating: 4.5 stars

The author’s voice takes a little while to get used to, at least it did for me. But in the end, the author did an amazing job narrating this book. Having the author narrate a memoir helps you understand more how they felt at the time they wrote the book and when they were experiencing the events.

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skyturtles's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted sad slow-paced

2.0

Not my favorite work of Irby's. I would recommend her other 2 recent essay compilations over this one. It just had a lot of TV stuff that I didn't find interesting, and there was a lot of... excrement?

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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While I find Samantha Irby's delivery and comedic style to be endearing, the topics in this book weren't very interesting to me and seemed too much like Wow, No Thank You. At a certain point I was like, yeah yeah, I get the picture

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kylieqrada's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

4.5

Anything that can make me laugh so hard I wake my baby up is worthy of a high rating.

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leweylibrary's review against another edition

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dark funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.75

I went back and forth on the number of stars to give this one, but I'm settling on this because:

Yes, it was absolutely hilarious. That chapter about the allergic reaction was probably the funniest thing I have EVER read.

I actually identified with a lot of the feelings, situations, etc. that Irby explored which is fun because we come from such very different backgrounds. A lot of the stuff we share in common revolves around anxiety so 😂

The Chicago rep obvi 🙌

I really could've done without the Sex in the City chapter. I know basically nothing about the show and truly do not care about it. Some parts were funny or relatable when she'd go off on a related but not SITC integral tangent, but I almost DNF'd at this point. I'm so glad I didn't, but still!

Early on in the book there is some like really graphic talk about sex and my asexual ass was so fucking uncomfortable lol. I'm sure others won't mind, but it was just too much for me.

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jdamae11's review against another edition

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funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.0

Samantha Irby has done it again! This collection had me ugly laughing in public and turning back just to laugh at the same lines again. But it also made me pause and reflect for a while on some tough stuff. Every time I finish anything by this author I feel just way less alone in this chaotic human experience, and I can only hope that I’ve somehow gotten funnier from being exposed to her brilliant wit too. This book was perfect to end 2023, the year that has humbled me more than any other LOL. *Fitting that I read the “Body Horror” essay after just turning 27 this month, because I too as a teen thought that 27 was “the definitive full stop age I needed to have my shit together by” and now that I’m here I could not laugh any harder at that concept. And this book helped me laugh even harder at it!

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