Three star review, originally posted here on May 21, 2018.
People who are familiar with Alexandra Petri from her scathing political satire in The Washington Post and approach this book expecting more political satire will be disappointed. People who are expecting a hilarious collection of short stories and essays about life as a dorky awkward young woman, on the other hand, will love the crap out of this. Think dorkier, non-illustrated Hyperbole and a Half. It’s not for everyone, but if it hits for you at all, then it will hit hard. I feel like I’m looking in a mirror when I read Petri’s stories (er, a magical mirror that turns images into words), so for me, this hit hard. I wouldn’t recommend reading it all the way through in one go, though. Better to space out the chapters for when you need a nice chuckle, otherwise it tends to drag. It’s tough for me to tell if the later chapters felt disjointed and unfocused because I had just been reading too long and hit my own attention span limit, or if Petri’s editors just shoved her weaker material at the end where people were less likely to stumble upon it.
Helga without the H 