Hyperbole and a Half
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Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened Paperback – October 29, 2013
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, November 2013: Who among us has not, in moments that sometimes bleed through years, even decades, felt weird, desperate, and absurd--wishing we could turn all the lamest, most shameful episodes in our lives into hilarious illustrated anecdotes? If you’re one of the millions hanging on Allie Brosh’s every blog post, you already know you’ll love Hyperbole and a Half in book form, especially since half its hyperboles are new. If you’re suspicious of books because you live in a world of the INTERNET FOREVER, this is where you make an exception. If you just stumbled across Brosh and can’t yet grasp the allure of a Web comic illustrated by rudimentary MS Paint figures, believe the hype. Brosh has a genius for allowing us to channel her weird childhood and the fits and starts of her adulthood through the manic eyes, gaping mouths, and stick-like arms in the panels that masterfully advance her stories, and she delivers her relentless commentary with deadpan hilarity. Neurosis has rarely been so relatable and entertaining. --Mari Malcolm 
Guest Review of Hyperbole and a Half
By Jenny Lawson
Jenny Lawson, is a very strange girl who has friends in spite of herself. She is perpetually one cat away from being a crazy cat lady. Lawson is the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Let’s Pretend This Never Happened.
Allie Brosh is an internet legend and you've probably accidentally stolen stuff from her at some point in time, but she's so awesome that she didn't even sue you for it. Why? Mostly because she didn't notice. Also, because she's generous and she knew that you'd pay her back for using her hilarious images by buying the book she'd write one day. Today is that day. The good thing is that you will feel much better for having paid her back for accidentally facebooking something she wrote without crediting her AND you will get her fantastically perfect book which is filled with even more amazing stuff to steal. EVERYONE WINS.
When Allie first told me she was finished with her book I called her a liar, mostly because it would force her to send me a copy of the book for free. It was so good though that I would have paid for it, and that's saying a lot because I shoplift most books, including my own. Frankly, when I read it I found myself repeatedly screaming "OH MY GOD, YES. THIS. FREAKING EXACTLY" until I eventually got kicked off the bus for disturbing the peace. I prefer to think I was disturbing the peace with truth. The people on the bus disagreed. Regardless, when Allie asked if I'd write a blurb for her I said "No, I will write you five." And I did.
"BUY THIS BOOK. STOP READING THIS. MAKE THE BOOKSTORE PEOPLE TAKE YOUR MONEY. PS. You owe me a taco."
"I laughed so hard that stomach juice shot out of the hole they just pulled my gallbladder out of. It might not be the best book to read right after surgery. Except that the pain pills make you forget that you hurt and also later you can read the book again when you're sober and enjoy it all over again for the first time."
"I wish I would have written this book. I plan on changing my name to Allie Brosh just to take credit for it." ~ Allie Brosh (Formerly Jenny Lawson)
"This is the book you will give to your friends in order to make sure they are worthy of your love. If they don't get it you should probably just set them on fire."
"This book made me laugh, cry and leak. It was honest, poignant and ridiculously silly in all the best ways and I'm better for having read it. Plus, doggies!"
(TL;DR ~ Buy this book.)
Review
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Humor Book of the Year
A NPR Best Book of the Year
A Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Memoirs
"Imagine if David Sedaris could draw . . . Enchanting." (People (4 stars, People Pick))
"My wife, who rarely reads a book published after 1910 and who is difficult to make laugh, wept with pleasure while reading these comic illustrated essays from Ms. Brosh, who runs a popular web comic and blog. I had to find out what the fuss was about. The subjects run from light (cakes, dogs) to dark (the author’s own severe depression), and they foreground offbeat feeling and real intellect. Ms. Brosh’s inquisitive mind won me over, too.” (Dwight Garner New York Times)
"Now that the phrase 'LOL' has gotten so overused, it’s hard to imagine that anything really makes people laugh out loud anymore. But the crudely drawn cartoons in Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half, culled from her popular blog and reprinted alongside never-before-seen materials, will make you laugh until you sob, even when Brosh describes her struggle with depression." (Entertainment Weekly)
"Brosh is unlike anyone else in the field today, an Internet-era treasure, an unexpected wonder of the 21st century." (Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.com)
"This is the BOOK OF THE YEAR." (Elizabeth Gilbert)
"Allie Brosh's artwork may look deceptively simple, but her comics are anything but. She is gut-bustingly hilarious, especially when she talks about her ridiculous dogs, but also insightful and phenomenally articulate; her treatise on what it feels like to suffer from depression remains, in all honesty, one of the best things ever produced on the internet (and it's still somehow massively entertaining, too). Get this for the smart people who appreciate humor in your life, and they won't be disappointed." (io9.com)
“Brosh is a connoisseur of the human condition. In her typical self-deprecating and dramatic manner (hence the hyperbole reference), she tells personal stories that name things we can all relate to, including fear, love, depression and hope. Perhaps the most endearing thing about her writing is that she approaches her subject matter from a vulnerable, childlike place, complete with Paintbrush caricatures that have arguably already earned iconic status. . . . Part graphic novel, part confessional, overall delightful.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“Brosh’s specificity is what gives her observations universality, and in her inimitable, hilarious style, she arrives at some real truths about human nature, including the inclination to share our lives with dogs in this way. Brosh is an evocative writer who bares her foibles and shortcomings, from childhood to her present life, with a lack of vanity and a sense of catharsis that is palpable. When words are insufficient, her deceptively simple line drawings add additional depth on almost every page, to create a reading experience that adds up to even more than the sum of the parts.” (Publishers Weekly)
"This book made me laugh, cry, and leak. It was honest, poignant, and ridiculously silly in all the best ways and I'm better for having read it. Plus, doggies!" (Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess and author of Let's Pretend This Never Happened)
“The whole blog is inspired.” (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish (The Atlantic))
A NPR Best Book of the Year
A Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Memoirs
"Imagine if David Sedaris could draw . . . Enchanting." (People (4 stars, People Pick))
"My wife, who rarely reads a book published after 1910 and who is difficult to make laugh, wept with pleasure while reading these comic illustrated essays from Ms. Brosh, who runs a popular web comic and blog. I had to find out what the fuss was about. The subjects run from light (cakes, dogs) to dark (the author’s own severe depression), and they foreground offbeat feeling and real intellect. Ms. Brosh’s inquisitive mind won me over, too.” (Dwight Garner New York Times)
"Now that the phrase 'LOL' has gotten so overused, it’s hard to imagine that anything really makes people laugh out loud anymore. But the crudely drawn cartoons in Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half, culled from her popular blog and reprinted alongside never-before-seen materials, will make you laugh until you sob, even when Brosh describes her struggle with depression." (Entertainment Weekly)
"Brosh is unlike anyone else in the field today, an Internet-era treasure, an unexpected wonder of the 21st century." (Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.com)
"This is the BOOK OF THE YEAR." (Elizabeth Gilbert)
"Allie Brosh's artwork may look deceptively simple, but her comics are anything but. She is gut-bustingly hilarious, especially when she talks about her ridiculous dogs, but also insightful and phenomenally articulate; her treatise on what it feels like to suffer from depression remains, in all honesty, one of the best things ever produced on the internet (and it's still somehow massively entertaining, too). Get this for the smart people who appreciate humor in your life, and they won't be disappointed." (io9.com)
“Brosh is a connoisseur of the human condition. In her typical self-deprecating and dramatic manner (hence the hyperbole reference), she tells personal stories that name things we can all relate to, including fear, love, depression and hope. Perhaps the most endearing thing about her writing is that she approaches her subject matter from a vulnerable, childlike place, complete with Paintbrush caricatures that have arguably already earned iconic status. . . . Part graphic novel, part confessional, overall delightful.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“Brosh’s specificity is what gives her observations universality, and in her inimitable, hilarious style, she arrives at some real truths about human nature, including the inclination to share our lives with dogs in this way. Brosh is an evocative writer who bares her foibles and shortcomings, from childhood to her present life, with a lack of vanity and a sense of catharsis that is palpable. When words are insufficient, her deceptively simple line drawings add additional depth on almost every page, to create a reading experience that adds up to even more than the sum of the parts.” (Publishers Weekly)
"This book made me laugh, cry, and leak. It was honest, poignant, and ridiculously silly in all the best ways and I'm better for having read it. Plus, doggies!" (Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess and author of Let's Pretend This Never Happened)
“The whole blog is inspired.” (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish (The Atlantic))
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
665 of 703 people found the following review helpful
By
E. Collins
on October 29, 2013
Format: Paperback
Verified Purchase
17 Comments
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1. People who own dogs.
2. People who suffer from or who have loved ones who suffer from depression.
3. People who want to know what it feels like to have beverages snarfed through their nose(s?).
4. People with a sense of humor.
5. People who know how to order things on amazon.
6. People who are familiar with Allie's site and thus already know some of the content and are ok with that because it still makes them snarf beverages through their nose(s?)
7. People who did not preorder this book and so are not now reading it like I am.
8. People who are unfamiliar with the behaivior of geese and/or enjoy cake.
9. People who like books that are color coded instead of numbered to delineate beginnings and endings.
10. People who are not dead.
2. People who suffer from or who have loved ones who suffer from depression.
3. People who want to know what it feels like to have beverages snarfed through their nose(s?).
4. People with a sense of humor.
5. People who know how to order things on amazon.
6. People who are familiar with Allie's site and thus already know some of the content and are ok with that because it still makes them snarf beverages through their nose(s?)
7. People who did not preorder this book and so are not now reading it like I am.
8. People who are unfamiliar with the behaivior of geese and/or enjoy cake.
9. People who like books that are color coded instead of numbered to delineate beginnings and endings.
10. People who are not dead.
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268 of 286 people found the following review helpful
By
Lac
on October 29, 2013
Format: Paperback
Verified Purchase
2 Comments
Sending feedback...
I got the book this morning, and as I was hobbled by pain from an ACL surgery and unable to take painkillers because they would make me loopy at work, instead I read this all day. (Shhhhh. It is okay. I also helped customers.)
There are a million things I love about this book, but I can start with the fact that each chapter is printed on different-colored pages than the ones on either side of it, which makes the book look like a rainbow when it is closed. A RAINBOW, GUYS.
The Depression chapters (previously published on her blog) are revelations to those who have experienced depression and touchstones of understanding for those who have not. The Dog chapters are hilarious to both dog-lovers and cat-lovers (AKA dog haters). The chapters that peek into her childhood make me wish I remembered anything about my life before I was twelve. But you know what? I'm going to take a page from this book, and just imagine that my childhood was just as fantastical, wild, revelatory, unintentionally hilarious, and unique.
Yes, there are a few chapters that are repeats from the blog. Sadly, the fish incident did not make it... that one is still my favorite. But the ones that did make it are definitely worth the re-read. Also, the majority of the book is new material, including some introspective chapters ("Thoughts and Feelings" and the two-part "Identity" chapters). Those, to me, were the best ones of the whole book. I love that the author is so freaking honest (can you swear on Amazon? Imma go with no) about EVERYTHING. She holds this mirror up to her guiding principles and then picks everything apart until she's left with this uncivilized and selfish husk, which she then covers up in a sparkly jumpsuit to make it all better. WHICH IS SOMETHING WE ALL DO.Read more ›
There are a million things I love about this book, but I can start with the fact that each chapter is printed on different-colored pages than the ones on either side of it, which makes the book look like a rainbow when it is closed. A RAINBOW, GUYS.
The Depression chapters (previously published on her blog) are revelations to those who have experienced depression and touchstones of understanding for those who have not. The Dog chapters are hilarious to both dog-lovers and cat-lovers (AKA dog haters). The chapters that peek into her childhood make me wish I remembered anything about my life before I was twelve. But you know what? I'm going to take a page from this book, and just imagine that my childhood was just as fantastical, wild, revelatory, unintentionally hilarious, and unique.
Yes, there are a few chapters that are repeats from the blog. Sadly, the fish incident did not make it... that one is still my favorite. But the ones that did make it are definitely worth the re-read. Also, the majority of the book is new material, including some introspective chapters ("Thoughts and Feelings" and the two-part "Identity" chapters). Those, to me, were the best ones of the whole book. I love that the author is so freaking honest (can you swear on Amazon? Imma go with no) about EVERYTHING. She holds this mirror up to her guiding principles and then picks everything apart until she's left with this uncivilized and selfish husk, which she then covers up in a sparkly jumpsuit to make it all better. WHICH IS SOMETHING WE ALL DO.Read more ›
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143 of 156 people found the following review helpful
By
J. Garner
on October 29, 2013
Format: Hardcover
Verified Purchase
2 Comments
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I've been a fan of Allie Brosh's (Allie? Can I call her Allie? Is that weird?) blog for years now, so I was never not buying her book. Her blog is less a series of wordy posts about what happened that day and more comic strip about fish murders, spiders, spaghatta nadles, and the single strangest childhood since Drew Barrymore's.
Her book? It's an offline edition of her blog. So in other words, it's just about perfect. Some new...chapters? Posts? What do you even call these? Anyway, parts of the book are new, others are from the blog, all put together in something approaching a coherent narrative. I'm not terribly upset about blog posts being included in the book. It wouldn't make sense without some of them, and some others are just so good and so well-known that to leave them out would make the book incomplete.
It's much bigger than I had expected, containing a good eighteen chapterposts from 10 to 50 pages long each, but that doesn't matter because you'll read the whole thing in one sitting if you're not a communist. The first chapter alone has swearing at a two-year-old, time travel, and nudity of the most gratuitous sort. In that order.
The thing about this book (and Allie's blog) is...beyond the laughs, she's actually really good. Her two posts on what depression is like (both included here) are the best explanations I've ever seen. And what look initially like simple stick figure drawings are actually surprisingly detailed illustrations that convey a full range of emotion. The art is good, the stories are fantastic, and her telling of them is what makes it all work. Most importantly of all, the cover is a pleasing shade of yellow.
Buy a copy for yourself. Buy one for the office, one for the house, one to keep in the gentleman's closet, one for your neighbors, one for everyone you know for Christmas. You'll like it, they'll like it, it'll class up both your workplace and your toilet.
Her book? It's an offline edition of her blog. So in other words, it's just about perfect. Some new...chapters? Posts? What do you even call these? Anyway, parts of the book are new, others are from the blog, all put together in something approaching a coherent narrative. I'm not terribly upset about blog posts being included in the book. It wouldn't make sense without some of them, and some others are just so good and so well-known that to leave them out would make the book incomplete.
It's much bigger than I had expected, containing a good eighteen chapterposts from 10 to 50 pages long each, but that doesn't matter because you'll read the whole thing in one sitting if you're not a communist. The first chapter alone has swearing at a two-year-old, time travel, and nudity of the most gratuitous sort. In that order.
The thing about this book (and Allie's blog) is...beyond the laughs, she's actually really good. Her two posts on what depression is like (both included here) are the best explanations I've ever seen. And what look initially like simple stick figure drawings are actually surprisingly detailed illustrations that convey a full range of emotion. The art is good, the stories are fantastic, and her telling of them is what makes it all work. Most importantly of all, the cover is a pleasing shade of yellow.
Buy a copy for yourself. Buy one for the office, one for the house, one to keep in the gentleman's closet, one for your neighbors, one for everyone you know for Christmas. You'll like it, they'll like it, it'll class up both your workplace and your toilet.
Thank you for your feedback.
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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful
By
Karielle @ Books à la Mode
TOP 1000 REVIEWER on December 30, 2013
Format: Paperback
1 Comment
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Allie Brosh's pinpointed humor, childish yet not-quite-childish anecdotes, and incredibly self-realized life stories at her cherished blog, Hyperbole and a Half, are what made her an internet icon. You either have never heard of her, or worship the ground upon she walks. There is no in-between.
For the first time, her illustrated memoir essays are bound, and this print volume features not only eight of her most popular and most affecting blog entries, but also ten brand-new original pieces that will remind you of why you fell in love with her blog in the first place—or if you're unfamiliar with it, just how much you've been missing out.
Hyperbole and a Half is so well known for its bizarrely hilarious cartoons; as exemplified in the infamous "CLEAN ALL THE THINGS!" meme, her essays are accompanied by intentionally rudimentary Paint (et al.) illustrations that bring her personality and wit to life. Some daft early readers commented "I could draw way better than you!" on her posts, and well, that's the point. (Those readers didn't last very long).
Brosh's short memoirs are so special because they are highly conscientious, highly exaggerated (hence the hyperbole part), and perfectly capture the essence of identity and self-acceptance. I find it magical how she manages to be sentimental without being corny, intellectual without being standoffish, and comical without being snarky. She covers nostalgic topics like the mishaps of childhood, edgy topics like chronic depression, and downright entertaining topics like the weird and lovable beasts that are dogs. I swear to you: THERE ARE SO MANY DOGS IN THIS BOOK. If you have dogs, this is a must-read for a good laugh.Read more ›
For the first time, her illustrated memoir essays are bound, and this print volume features not only eight of her most popular and most affecting blog entries, but also ten brand-new original pieces that will remind you of why you fell in love with her blog in the first place—or if you're unfamiliar with it, just how much you've been missing out.
Hyperbole and a Half is so well known for its bizarrely hilarious cartoons; as exemplified in the infamous "CLEAN ALL THE THINGS!" meme, her essays are accompanied by intentionally rudimentary Paint (et al.) illustrations that bring her personality and wit to life. Some daft early readers commented "I could draw way better than you!" on her posts, and well, that's the point. (Those readers didn't last very long).
Brosh's short memoirs are so special because they are highly conscientious, highly exaggerated (hence the hyperbole part), and perfectly capture the essence of identity and self-acceptance. I find it magical how she manages to be sentimental without being corny, intellectual without being standoffish, and comical without being snarky. She covers nostalgic topics like the mishaps of childhood, edgy topics like chronic depression, and downright entertaining topics like the weird and lovable beasts that are dogs. I swear to you: THERE ARE SO MANY DOGS IN THIS BOOK. If you have dogs, this is a must-read for a good laugh.Read more ›
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