[BOOK REVIEW] Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh

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


Author:  Allie Brosh

Genre: Humor / Biography / Childhood


Year Published: 2013

Number of Pages: 371 pages

Date Read: 7/6/2014

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster


Source:  Library


Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Strong Language and Some Mischievous Behavior)

So, when I was looking through the illustrations of this book, I was thinking to myself:

“Hey, wait a minute... I seen these illustrations before!” 

It was then that I realized that Allie Brosh, the author of the book “Hyperbole and a Half” had actually made a blog called “Hyperbole and a Half” and she had turned the artwork from her blog into a book!  How amazing is that?   “Hyperbole and a Half” is one book that any fan of crazy and creative artwork definitely has to check out!

This book basically details both the adulthood and childhood events of Allie Brosh through comedic artwork (which includes an image of a blond headed stick figured woman with a pink dress running amuck throughout the book). We get to see Allie go through various situations such as eating a whole cake to get back at her mother as a child, dealing with a psychotic goose that sneaked into her and her boyfriend Duncan’s house and raising two dogs who seem to have mental problems.

Wow…

That one word pretty much summed up how I felt about this book!  When I saw the bizarre child-like artwork on the cover of this book, I knew that I was going to get into something crazy and creative!  Allie Brosh had done an excellent job at both illustrating and writing this book as the combined result ended up being something truly amazing!  Allie Brosh’s writing is witty and full of humor as I was seriously rolling on the ground with laughter at every comedic and embarrassing thing that happened in Allie Brosh’s life!  Probably my most favorite part of Allie Brosh’s experiences in this book was the incident where a psychotic goose sneaked into her and Duncan’s house and preceded to terrorize them!  Another experience that I really enjoyed in this book was when Allie’s mother took her and her younger sister out into the woods and they ended up getting lost in the woods!  I really enjoyed these experiences that Allie Brosh wrote about because they hit so close to home for me as I used to travel into the woods with my sisters and my father when I was younger (although we never got lost) and it was great seeing a similar experience pop up in this book.  I also loved the parts where Allie Brosh wrote about her inner insecurities with herself such as exploring about how depression works and finding her own identity.  I really enjoyed these parts of the book because even though as a whole, this book is all for humor, the parts where Allie Brosh explores how she feels about herself really brought so much depth to the stories and I often find myself agreeing with the situations that Allie Brosh had went through throughout the book.  But probably the best part of this book were Allie Brosh’s illustrations as they are drawn in a childlike manner with stick figures littering the pages and having wide grins on their faces whenever they are about to do something sneaky (something I always see appear on the pink dressed Allie Brosh figure throughout the pages)! I also loved the special effect feel of the artwork such as whenever the characters get extremely energetic, you can see the figures blur out whenever they are running around like crazy!

If there is a problem with this book is that there is some strong language littered throughout this book and anyone who does not like reading strong language in a book might want to skip over the words whenever they are reading this book.

Overall, “Hyperbole and a Half” is definitely one book that you must check out at all costs, especially if you are a huge fan of witty humor, crazy situations and cute stick figured drawings!