A review by laurenash
I'm Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves by Ryan O'Connell
3.0
"College kids aren't tired from staying up all night studying or partying. They're tired from not having the slightest idea who they are."
I used to read Thought Catalog alllllll the time when I was at the peak of my quarter-life crisis, so I knew of Ryan O'Connell/his writing style/and the way he jokes. I was surprised to see that he had written a book and even more surprised that we had it at the library. I didn't know that he has cerebral palsy. Actually, I don't know anyone in real life who has it--except for me. Yep. He described more problems/effects of the CP than I have experienced, but it's a similar feeling of "do I tell people or...?" Mine's not as "bad" as it could be and otherwise not really obvious, I suppose, because no one's ever asked me about it. One kid in high school told me that I ran weird. WHO DOESN'T? Anyway, all of that side information is to say this: I have a really hard time with him dropping the word "retard" so often and so flippantly. A lot of what he said was funny and/or elicited a light laugh, but things like that left a bad taste in my mouth.
I used to read Thought Catalog alllllll the time when I was at the peak of my quarter-life crisis, so I knew of Ryan O'Connell/his writing style/and the way he jokes. I was surprised to see that he had written a book and even more surprised that we had it at the library. I didn't know that he has cerebral palsy. Actually, I don't know anyone in real life who has it--except for me. Yep. He described more problems/effects of the CP than I have experienced, but it's a similar feeling of "do I tell people or...?" Mine's not as "bad" as it could be and otherwise not really obvious, I suppose, because no one's ever asked me about it. One kid in high school told me that I ran weird. WHO DOESN'T? Anyway, all of that side information is to say this: I have a really hard time with him dropping the word "retard" so often and so flippantly. A lot of what he said was funny and/or elicited a light laugh, but things like that left a bad taste in my mouth.