Book Review: Hyperbole And A Half by Allie Brosh

About the book:

Title: Hyperbole and a half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

Published: October 29th 2013 by Touchstone

Pages:  Paperback, 369 pages

Genre: Humor/Non-fiction/Graphic Novel/Comic/Memoir

Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
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!

About the author

Allie Brosh has enjoyed writing ever since her mom tricked her into writing a story to distract her from her immediate goal of wrapping the cat in duct-tape. She started her award-winning blog in 2009. Brosh lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband Duncan, her two dogs, and six pet rats.

Find the author here: 

My Review:

Brosh has reproduced some of the most endearing stories from the blog in this book, and the result is nothing short of hilarious.
There are a lot of things that this book is. A LOT.
It is a comic/graphic novel. Because the visual part is a huge chunk of it. It is also a memoir of sorts, because in a very simple narrative loaded with visuals, she recounts how her life has come to be. There are anecdotes hinting at the the innocence of childhood, but also at the silliness of it. And to add to the amusement, all these anecdotes are real. Even the one where a goose is an unwelcome guest in the house. (There's proof in the book, I am not biased)

The graphics are interspersed with short descriptions of what she calls 'Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened', and as if the illustrations weren't tickling enough, the words reek of sarcasm, wit and the kind of wry humor that makes you giggle until you start crying.
Crying, because if you have been in the situations that she describes, you know that the humorous take is a huge favor she is doing to the world.
Take the comics about depression, for example. I have never seen anything put into words that could accurately hit the right spots when describing what it feels like to lose drive when depressed.
Her take on it, through this enviable combination of words and illustrations is the most raw, accurate and authentic rendition of this condition. The way she puts them, makes you laugh and cry, inexplicably at the same time, and I, for one, didn't know that that was possible. Her razor wit makes the reading and all the time spent around the book so much worthwhile.
The endearing part is that her take on every anecdote is infused with a kind of subtle humor in most cases, and explicit humor in othesr, that you cannot overlook the fact that the book is called 'Hyperbole and a Half' (and so is her blog)
If you think, crying with laughter isn't a thing, read this book, for it can make you smirk, chuckle, grin, laugh, sneer, chuckle, chortle, guffaw, and laugh all the varieties of laughter there are. And of course, it is a huge plus if you have been in situations similar to those described. (Which, frankly is unlikely)

No doubt then, that this book was also the winner of the Goodread's Readers' Choice Awards.
A HUGE recommendation from me. So glad I read this book!

Links to buy the book: 

Quotes from the book:

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