A review by wanderaven
Broken (in the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson
5.0
Honestly, I'm not sure I would've ever believed that Lawson could get even better.
I've followed and adored The Bloggess for so long now, and have thoroughly enjoyed and loved her previous works. It was without any hesitation that I requested this ARC from Henry Holt & Co the moment I had the opportunity.
I don't recall, from her previous books, quite the amount of depth and focus on the darker stretches of her mental illness. Don't get me wrong - her dark stretches have certainly been expressed and discussed before, but never with quite the illumination here. It can be difficult reading; she is eloquent but also realistic and brutal. So often, Lawson expresses her frustrations with a deft entwining of humor and weightiness but there are chapters/segments in Broken that are just the weight, just the dark, just the seriousness, however well written and brilliant her turns of phrase.
These chapters are skillfully balanced with the dark humor, cleverness, and wittiness we've come to expect from Lawson, and, though it can be a high tightrope, I never despaired that she would keep me safe with the balancing act.
And, once again, every single time I was reading, my partner kept saying, "Okay, tell me already, what is so damn funny?" It's always a long path Lawson guides us down; already so many pages to get to the full on uncontrollable laughter that I always shake my head and say, "You just have to read it."
There's a chapter, towards the end, where she proposes (horrible) ideas for Shark Tank that was a huge miss for me; it felt like someone else trying to write like Lawson but really missing the mark. She does explain that these ideas were generated by herself in collaboration with some friends, so perhaps that's why. I definitely could've done without this bit - it felt like a genuine outlier to the rest of the book, though, and since it was the only one, it wasn't enough to ding my rating.
Only my second or third five star for this year, so far!
I've followed and adored The Bloggess for so long now, and have thoroughly enjoyed and loved her previous works. It was without any hesitation that I requested this ARC from Henry Holt & Co the moment I had the opportunity.
I don't recall, from her previous books, quite the amount of depth and focus on the darker stretches of her mental illness. Don't get me wrong - her dark stretches have certainly been expressed and discussed before, but never with quite the illumination here. It can be difficult reading; she is eloquent but also realistic and brutal. So often, Lawson expresses her frustrations with a deft entwining of humor and weightiness but there are chapters/segments in Broken that are just the weight, just the dark, just the seriousness, however well written and brilliant her turns of phrase.
These chapters are skillfully balanced with the dark humor, cleverness, and wittiness we've come to expect from Lawson, and, though it can be a high tightrope, I never despaired that she would keep me safe with the balancing act.
And, once again, every single time I was reading, my partner kept saying, "Okay, tell me already, what is so damn funny?" It's always a long path Lawson guides us down; already so many pages to get to the full on uncontrollable laughter that I always shake my head and say, "You just have to read it."
There's a chapter, towards the end, where she proposes (horrible) ideas for Shark Tank that was a huge miss for me; it felt like someone else trying to write like Lawson but really missing the mark. She does explain that these ideas were generated by herself in collaboration with some friends, so perhaps that's why. I definitely could've done without this bit - it felt like a genuine outlier to the rest of the book, though, and since it was the only one, it wasn't enough to ding my rating.
Only my second or third five star for this year, so far!