Review: Hyperbole and a Half

Author: Allie Brosh
Date of Publication: October 29, 2013
Pages: 371
Source: P.E. Epic Recs

This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative--like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it--but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:

Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!

AMAZON / GOODREADS

Review:

I distantly remember P.E. shoving her phone in my face and telling me to read a blog post she read that really changed her outlook on things. I was curious but I was also lazy and in the end laziness won out. Who would have known that the same blog post that I had initially ignored would be published in a book and I would have another change to read it. And yes P.E., it was fantastic.

Hyperbole and a Half is quite different from my normal reads, not only is it non-fiction (gasp!) but it also has art; amazing art. I'm not a big non-fiction fan because I find that it's harder to connect with the characters, which I guess in non-fiction is usually the author. This outlook was quickly changed by Allie Brosh's witty stories and great writing style. I was quickly pulled into the colourful pages of Hyperbole and found myself laughing my guts out.

Hyperbole is quite different from other books, in that Allie has managed to weave in her own life along with comedy to keep the reader entertained. Reading about her reminded me of some of the crazy things I did as a kid and that made the experience even more special.

My favourite character award goes straight to Allie's dogs: the helper dog and the simple dog. They were hilarious and fantastic. I literally skipped pages to see how much further I had to read until it was another dog story.

While a lot of Hyperbole and Half was a compilation of hilarious moments in Allie's life there was also more connections to reality and I found that in the chapters about depression. It really brought me back to earth and taught me about something that I didn't know much about. Depression is quite horrifying especially if it can happen to such a seemingly happy person like Allie Brosh.

Hyperbole and a Half is not something I would've picked up on my own and so I'm very happy that P.E. introduced me to it. It's funny, witty, scary, realistic and yet unrealistic all at the same time. I read it more like an anthology and there were some stories that weren't as enjoyable so I can't give it the full 5 stars. But it was definitely a fun, quick read with great graphics!

-MARI