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A review by katieinca
You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day
4.0
3.5-4 for superfans. 3 stars for regular fans. Um. Etc.
(Critiquing memoirs feels too personal, so just to be clear, Felicia Day as a person, as described in this book? 5 stars. In case she ever (please god no) reads this.)
Me, superfan. Devoured it in less than a day. Learned fascinating things. She’s great with words and hilarious and I really hope that “inner dik-dik” makes it into common parlance.
But the galloping pace (well, I did read it in 24 hrs) and breeziness that’s so charming and relatable on video and, I suspect, in person gets exhausting. Even when writing about depression and anxiety and other horrible things we get this “Insert Joke Here, Much Better Now, Thanks, Moving Right Along” tone. Which I totally get because MAYBE POSSIBLY I do that. But in a memoir it makes things hard on the resonance/catharsis/connection thing that you need for a good memoir, even an often ridiculous funny one like [b:Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir|12868761|Let's Pretend This Never Happened A Mostly True Memoir|Jenny Lawson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361283827s/12868761.jpg|17995392] or [b:Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography|20170296|Neil Patrick Harris Choose Your Own Autobiography|Neil Patrick Harris|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400599072s/20170296.jpg|28028860]. Maybe it would have benefited from more chronological distance from the dark times, I don’t know.
But I’m glad I read it because (among other things) now if I ever meet her I can go ahead and be the starstruck flake I would be and I know she’ll understand.
(Critiquing memoirs feels too personal, so just to be clear, Felicia Day as a person, as described in this book? 5 stars. In case she ever (please god no) reads this.)
Me, superfan. Devoured it in less than a day. Learned fascinating things. She’s great with words and hilarious and I really hope that “inner dik-dik” makes it into common parlance.
But the galloping pace (well, I did read it in 24 hrs) and breeziness that’s so charming and relatable on video and, I suspect, in person gets exhausting. Even when writing about depression and anxiety and other horrible things we get this “Insert Joke Here, Much Better Now, Thanks, Moving Right Along” tone. Which I totally get because MAYBE POSSIBLY I do that. But in a memoir it makes things hard on the resonance/catharsis/connection thing that you need for a good memoir, even an often ridiculous funny one like [b:Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir|12868761|Let's Pretend This Never Happened A Mostly True Memoir|Jenny Lawson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361283827s/12868761.jpg|17995392] or [b:Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography|20170296|Neil Patrick Harris Choose Your Own Autobiography|Neil Patrick Harris|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400599072s/20170296.jpg|28028860]. Maybe it would have benefited from more chronological distance from the dark times, I don’t know.
But I’m glad I read it because (among other things) now if I ever meet her I can go ahead and be the starstruck flake I would be and I know she’ll understand.