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shmadsie's reviews
3218 reviews
You'll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein
1.0
I received an ARC of this through a Goodreads Giveaway.
Admittedly, there were a few genuinely laugh out loud moments in this book, but they were quickly swallowed by the supreme disconnect that I felt between this woman and myself. Generally, I feel a great connection to comedians - especially female comedians, as I'm also often slovenly, self-deprecating and awkward but I can be all those things and happily comment on them because I am very much okay with my slovenly, self-deprecating, awkward self. And, despite the delusions the author appears to be under at times, at no point in time did I see even a glimpse that this was a self-possessed woman. The word 'alone' was instantly equated with 'lonely,' (there's an offhanded comment about realizing OH MY GOD, SHE DIDN'T HAVE A SINGLE PLAN FOR THE WEEKEND, I HAVE TO GO HARASS FRIENDS UNTIL I DO BECAUSE BEING BY MYSELF? HOW, WHY? EVERYONE WILL THINK--and that is the key to this whole book, 'everyone will think'), being single was immediately followed by the thought: 'what can I do to attract a man?' and almost the entirety of the book was focused around what she should do (to be feminine, to land the guy, to fit in) rather than what she wanted to do. Having to read about someone with such low self-esteem was hard and, frankly, depressing. She's a comedian, it's okay (even encouraged) for her to be weird, instead of being someone who calls herself a tomboy but goes out of her way to try to be uncomfortable in her own skin in order to meet some standard of beauty that in every real way does not matter, who wants to be married more than she seems to want a marriage, who is so concerned with what everyone will think she almost never asks herself, 'what do I think?' Also, the super stereotypical gender divisions got real hard to swallow after a while.
It's entirely my own personal feelings that have to do with how much I dislike this book, because the writing was funny (though I lost any humor in it as time went on as I just got more and more depressed over how this woman interacted with the world) but she's not a girl I would ever want to know in real life, a girl who can't seem to be on her own for five minutes without assuming there's something wrong with her, so of course I wouldn't want to read a book about her either.
Admittedly, there were a few genuinely laugh out loud moments in this book, but they were quickly swallowed by the supreme disconnect that I felt between this woman and myself. Generally, I feel a great connection to comedians - especially female comedians, as I'm also often slovenly, self-deprecating and awkward but I can be all those things and happily comment on them because I am very much okay with my slovenly, self-deprecating, awkward self. And, despite the delusions the author appears to be under at times, at no point in time did I see even a glimpse that this was a self-possessed woman. The word 'alone' was instantly equated with 'lonely,' (there's an offhanded comment about realizing OH MY GOD, SHE DIDN'T HAVE A SINGLE PLAN FOR THE WEEKEND, I HAVE TO GO HARASS FRIENDS UNTIL I DO BECAUSE BEING BY MYSELF? HOW, WHY? EVERYONE WILL THINK--and that is the key to this whole book, 'everyone will think'), being single was immediately followed by the thought: 'what can I do to attract a man?' and almost the entirety of the book was focused around what she should do (to be feminine, to land the guy, to fit in) rather than what she wanted to do. Having to read about someone with such low self-esteem was hard and, frankly, depressing. She's a comedian, it's okay (even encouraged) for her to be weird, instead of being someone who calls herself a tomboy but goes out of her way to try to be uncomfortable in her own skin in order to meet some standard of beauty that in every real way does not matter, who wants to be married more than she seems to want a marriage, who is so concerned with what everyone will think she almost never asks herself, 'what do I think?' Also, the super stereotypical gender divisions got real hard to swallow after a while.
It's entirely my own personal feelings that have to do with how much I dislike this book, because the writing was funny (though I lost any humor in it as time went on as I just got more and more depressed over how this woman interacted with the world) but she's not a girl I would ever want to know in real life, a girl who can't seem to be on her own for five minutes without assuming there's something wrong with her, so of course I wouldn't want to read a book about her either.