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daniellecowles's review against another edition
5.0
I'd rate it 10 out of 5 stars. Absolutely fantastic. Even better as audiobook. Laughter out loud funny, seriously don't read/listen someplace where you can't laugh out loud.
jaclyncrupi's review against another edition
4.0
I quite specifically recommend the audio edition of this book as there is a performative element to it that Lawson truly nails narrating it. This is almost the perfect balance of pathos, humour and sincerity. Lawson‘s memoir in essays looks deeply at her depression, anxiety and chronic illnesses and combined with stories of her long-suffering husband Victor and the many animals in their lives you’ll be laughing and weeping in no time. Tonally there is quite a variation between the essays and sometimes the sincerity was pushed a little too far for my cold-hearted tastes but overall I had such fun listening to it. If you’ve read any of Lawson’s other books you’ll know what you’re in for. I will never be able to scrub the image of her dog wearing condoms on its paws as shoes from my mind.
careycarpenter's review against another edition
3.0
This author is hilarious - LOL kind of funny. I listened to the audiobook and loved her reading of it. Her stories are crazy! I played a couple chapters for my husband but I especially liked the one about marriage. The depression she describes is so raw and real and intense. I’m glad she’s sharing her story for others to know that she would never “seem” like someone with that severe of depression but clearly she struggles constantly, reminding us that we never really know what’s going on in someone else’s head. I didn’t love the preacher part of the ending.
emmabeckman's review against another edition
3.0
This one was interesting, but I had the same complaints as I did with Furiously Happy, and that one was just generally overall better. This one felt a bit too scattered for me. And it didn't feel like this one did anything that different from Furiously Happy other than being sort of an update on treatments she has had since then, and that made up only about three chapters of the whole book. I think I'm also personally just a bit over this ~*RaNdOm*~ humor style. I found almost nothing in this book laugh-out-loud funny. I wish it had been more focused. Anyway, I get that a lot of people struggling with mental health, especially depression and anxiety (hi), would find this book really relatable and uplifting. I just found it alright.
Also, related to it not feeling particularly new, this book really cannot stand by itself. You pretty much have to have read Furiously Happy AND follow Jenny Lawson (via social media) to ~get~ what's happening in here. Not a problem in and of itself, but it makes it so that this book really doesn't feel like it's creating something new.
Oh ALSO: it felt weird to me that this book didn't address the pandemic at all. So far in literature I've read, I haven't liked how the pandemic has been discussed, or I just really haven't cared to read about something I'm currently living in. But for some reason in this book, it felt conspicuously absent. I realize that a lot of this was probably written pre-pandemic, but then the way it was written, with references to "this year" that then showed her doing things that were sort of the antithesis of pandemic behavior made me feel especially confused about where in time we were. Plus, I feel like a book that is so focused on mental health from an author known for writing about mental health published as we entered year 2 of a global pandemic where so many people were struggling with their mental health... shouldn't it have addressed the pandemic? I don't know. Maybe other readers liked it so much specifically because it did NOT mention the pandemic. Personally, I wish it had.
Also, related to it not feeling particularly new, this book really cannot stand by itself. You pretty much have to have read Furiously Happy AND follow Jenny Lawson (via social media) to ~get~ what's happening in here. Not a problem in and of itself, but it makes it so that this book really doesn't feel like it's creating something new.
Oh ALSO: it felt weird to me that this book didn't address the pandemic at all. So far in literature I've read, I haven't liked how the pandemic has been discussed, or I just really haven't cared to read about something I'm currently living in. But for some reason in this book, it felt conspicuously absent. I realize that a lot of this was probably written pre-pandemic, but then the way it was written, with references to "this year" that then showed her doing things that were sort of the antithesis of pandemic behavior made me feel especially confused about where in time we were. Plus, I feel like a book that is so focused on mental health from an author known for writing about mental health published as we entered year 2 of a global pandemic where so many people were struggling with their mental health... shouldn't it have addressed the pandemic? I don't know. Maybe other readers liked it so much specifically because it did NOT mention the pandemic. Personally, I wish it had.
janellisabookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
novella42's review against another edition
I adored her essay / letter to the health insurance system. This is such a good book, and I think it's sadly beyond my capacity to handle. There's just a lot of things in it that hit my personal traumas. I tried skipping chapters, tried powering through, and finally accepted that it would be kinder to my mental health to not read this particular book on mental health. I lau hed aloud at many points, though, and I can think of half a dozen people who would love this and not have the same issues with it that I did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail