Allie Brosh

Collects autobiographical, illustrated essays and cartoons from the author's popular blog and related new material that humorously and candidly deals with her own idiosyncrasies and battles with depression.

Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

Hyperbole and a Half

Hilarious stories about life's mishaps from the creator of the immensely popular blog 'Hyperbole and a Half'. Fully illustrated with over 50% new material. Hyperbole and A Half is a blog written by a 20-something American girl called Allie Brosh. She tells fantastically funny, wise stories about the mishaps of her everyday life, with titles like 'Why Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving' and 'The God of Cake'. She accompanies these with naive drawings using Paint on her PC. Brosh's website receives millions of visitors a month and hundreds of thousands of per day. Now her full-colour debut book chronicles the many "learning experiences" Brosh has endured as a result of her own character flaws. It includes stories about her rambunctious childhood; the highs and mostly lows of owning a mentally challenged dog; and a moving and darkly comic account of her struggles with depression. Poignant and uproarious - think Cyanide and Happiness but with story-lines, cake and dogs.

SJ Rowley

It would be like having a bunch of dead fish, but no one around you will acknowledge that the fish are dead. Instead, they offer to help you look for the fish or try to help you figure out why they disappeared.

Sarah Sammis

Anoop

This has to be one of my favourite books ever!
It's such a hilarious and profound take on this sh*tty thing called Life.
Special shoutout to the chapters on Depression & Motivation.

Oh and as a bonus, it has these cute stories about dogs.

Kritika Narula

Originally reviewed at  So Many Books, So Little Time
Brosh has reproduced some of the most hilarious of her 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, make 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.

This has probably been remarked on before, but the reason this book is so funny is because it's relatable. It's okay to eat sand when you're three. Not so okay to eat sand when youre thirteen, but luckily as Allie Brosh has admitted to doing it I'll come clean: my diet until the age of about 12 was about 75% Pritt Stick and tracing paper for some unknown reason. I am also a weird, ineffectual human who runs purely on instinct; the bit about tricking yourself into doing stuff was my whole life. I am also terrified that someone will ask me to give them a kidney, and without any escape routes available, I'll have to go through with it. 

Helper dog reminds me strongly of my cat Pablo, who when seeing another cat outside our house starts trembling and snarling with rage, something I've never seen another cat do. Simple dog just reminds me of me. 

Memo to 2013 me: This book is hilarious. Why didnt you read this instead of doing shit tweets?

Laura Mauler

The parts about when she was a kid are hilarious, and the parts about her adult life are sort of funny but mostly forgettable. Worth it for the kid stories. Also, she has a section that talks about depression and suicidal thoughts that made sense to me in a way that no other description of suicidal feelings has ever done. It clicked, and I hope that I can be a better support because of it.

Melissa Palmer

Book #80 Read in 2015
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

This book is extremely funny. It is based on Brosh's blog and talks about such important things about the intelligence of her dogs, how to escape an angry goose in your house as well as actual serious issues such as depression. These short chapters are entertaining and fun. A fun summer read, I borrowed this book from the public library.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

Lara Engle

This book is fun and serious and funny and sad, all at once. Lots of you would probably like it.

#1 New York Times Bestseller “Funny and smart as hell” (Bill Gates), Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations. FROM THE PUBLISHER: Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices. This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written. Brosh’s debut marks the launch of a major new American humorist who will surely make even the biggest scrooge or snob laugh. We dare you not to. FROM THE AUTHOR: 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!

Love this book. One of my all-time favourite graphic novels on the subject of mental health

Lenka B

I don´t usually laugh on books. I never do. I´ve read many books supposedly so funny, your stomach will hurt from laughing, people around you will give you strange looks etc. Thanks, back cover with recommendations from people who are somebodies, you decieve me every time.

Not this time, my dear. This book made me laugh already, when I´ve read the back cover. And then again and again. Maybe this is just exactly my type of humor, author making a fool of herself, with beautiful illustrations, writing about her inner faults, how "shitty person" she is... Honestly, I could relate to at least hyperbole and a half of things, which I do the same (f.e. I don´t like doing things. I hate THE THINGS.). She made me feel better about myself (ok, maybe this wasn´t her intention at all), but most importantly - made me laugh aloud and I´ll recommend this book to all my friends who can speak english well. (Maybe it´s been translated too, but it would totally destroy the soul of the book.)
I could worship it for the whole day, but why? Just go and read it.

Now my goal is to read all the articles on author´s blog.

Shona Tiger

Would need a sensitivity reader today, but fun moments.

Belle

Really easy to read. Made me laugh out loud quite a bit. Highly recommended for beach or plane reading.

Isabela H 

I really liked the way in which this book was written and I LOVED the little mini comics. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very invested in the actual content.

High Fidelity

Dobar primer kada racionalni deo tebe može da ukaze na probleme koje imaš. Neke priče su takve da se možete pronaći u njima,neke ne baš. Ali su i dalje divne.

Sara

absolutely loved it. there were a few... questionable word choices (the use of the r word made me upset) but the writing was really good and the vacant expression on the faces of all the people & animals was hilarious. got this as a bday gift and can’t wait to read the next one.

Manish

This book now has a place in my shelf of favorite books. Many books i read end up there but this book is among the most fav book(which again may not narrow it down but you get my point. Trust me won't lie to you.)

Julia Morrison

One of the funniest books I have ever read. Quite literally awkwardly laughing in public amount of funny. I have read this book many times over the years and every read brings me an insurmountable amount of joy. I have gifted this book to many of my friends and have gotten glowing reviews and praise of great gift giving. The balance between chaotic growing up stories and struggling with mental health creates an amazing space of joy and truth. Probably one of the greatest books I have ever read and highly recommend to anyone and everyone.

Jaclyn

HILARIOUS! I loved the pictures and each and every short story. It's so funny but does also have deep realistic moments which was a nice break from all the humor. It's filled with short stories and pictures, so it goes by very very quickly. Definitely pick this one up if you're in the mood for a funny, quick book!

Morgan Moeller 

Hilarious, I really need some laughs this delivered tons of laughs. The drawings added so much to the stories. So, glad I read this. This is the first book that had me busting out laughing.

Stefanie Sugia

Decided to start this book a while ago as a side read and also to boost up my book count for this year's Goodreads Reading Challenge :D This will be the last book I read in 2015; not sure if I'll review it or not, but will do if I find the urge to do so :D

Sarah Escorsa

It took me six years to rescue this hilariously hilarious book from the unfathomable depths of my TBR. SIX YEARS. Goes to show one can be both nefarious and clueless as fish. Anyhoo and stuff, Brosh's autobiographical graphic novel is exactly what our slightly dystopian world needs right now, methinks. Because her drawings are everything, because she is quirky as shrimp, and because I said so.

Brosh's reflections on her younger self are everything:



So is Young Allie's cake obsession:





Her recollections of family outings are simply heartwarming:




The way she talks about/draws the retarded Simple Dog and the demented Helper Dog is HAHAHAHAHAHAHA:






And then there are the hilarious-yet-touching chapters about her depression issues:





I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and post ALL THE more drawings from the book but I don't want to unleash the publisher's vengeful wrath and risk my exoskeleton being sued for copyright infringement, so I won't 😬.

➽ Nefarious Last Words (NLW™): need a laugh? Read this thing. You're welcome and stuff.

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Flavia Louise

Samantha King

Amazing! A must read!! I laughed out loud the whole time.

Krista M.

I love the book and was obsessed with the web-comic back in the day. Her thoughts on identity and motivation are particularly relatable. I think this was a lot lighter and funnier than the sequel as the author had a lot of difficult things happen in between. While it was heavier, I think the sequel was a really beautiful expression of healing and convincing yourself that you are worth saving. 

mia ¿

** spoiler alert **
           ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

i'm only giving this 3.5 stars cuz it just kinda disappointed me. i was expecting this to be a lot funnier than it was. some parts or stories were really funny tho, but just not as many as i thought would be for such a long "humor" book. it wasn't boring or unfunny, it just was not as fun as i was expecting.

also, i did not like how this book was formatted. i understand not wanting the whole book to be in chronological order because it might not be as funny that way, but it was just kinda confusing to read? characters were introduced randomly without telling the reader who they were, and it would jump back and forth from childhood to adulthood. i get that the book was purposefully divided into different sections so each section could function as its own story, but it was just odd since all of the stories were about the same person. it was a biography, but like a deconstructed one???

maybe the author thought having all of the more introspective stories one after another would be too boring, but i honestly enjoyed them as much as the real life stories. going back and forth between these two types of stories was just kind of jarring and made it hard for me to really take anything away from this book. ultimately, it just felt like the author had thrown a ton of her stories from her website into a book, putting little effort into curating it for a book format.

it was alright, just kinda let me down.

Hyperbole and a Half Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

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