Solutions and Other Problems

An image appears, portraying a lonely country road with signs in the distance. The colours are dusty and muted, and handwritten atop is a simple truth. "The main conflicts in life are: food; power; what to do about the unavoidable realization that nothing is fair or means anything. I don't know what to do about these. I just wanted to tell you." Another image appears. In it, a half-cartoon, half-stick-figure woman hunches over in maniacal fashion, holding a banana with a face drawn on it. In the sky is a handwritten message: "If you can't win, start playing a different game and score just as many points." What do these things have in common? They're examples of how humour and honest exasperation with the world blend to create an entertaining and relatable experience in the form of a book that's half blog and half comic with a bit of novella sprinkled atop. This book is just... it's good. I could come up with a more elaborate term and try to be a pretentious book reviewer for this one, but it's 2020 and I'm exhausted. I don't need to sound pretentious. I just need to say: I absolutely love this book. It's brilliant. It's fun. It's heartbreaking. It's relatable. It made me smile and laugh so hard my ribs hurt... and then it made me want to reach out and hug Allie (the author) because I felt as if I were reading the confessions of an estranged friend. She has been through so much in life, some of which I can relate to and some of which I luckily can't, and reading this book made me feel less alone. For a brief time, I escaped the real world and entered a world populated by delightfully simple drawings which managed to convey paragraphs worth of exposition with things as simple as posture. Even the sad bits weren't overwhelming, as there were still threads of humour in the darkness. I know this isn't a very elaborate review. You'll probably find some better ones elsewhere. And that's okay. Just know that I love this book so much that I'm proud to have pre-ordered it on a friend's recommendation. My literal only complaint is that the kindle edition is somewhat clunky and unattractively laid out, often requiring zooming on images to read them. I think that's a limitation of the format more than an oversight, so I'm not penalizing the rating. If you're looking for a way to escape the world without completely leaving reality behind - a way to find humour in even the darkest of places and feel less alone - then I highly recommend this book.

Allie Brosh is one of my favorite bloggers, her posts always full of humor and emotion. She can have me laughing until I cry one moment, and just plain crying the next. I loved her blog and her first book, both named "Hyperbole and a Half," and was sorely disappointed to learn that her second book had been cancelled by its publisher... so it made my 2020 so much better to learn that her book was finally seeing the light of day. It was worth the wait -- just as funny, and just as deeply emotional, as the first book. Allie's not afraid to speak frankly about her own experiences, both the funny incidents of her childhood and her real-world struggles with depression and just plain trying to be an adult and love herself. Whether she's sharing funny stories about her childhood -- getting stuck in a bucket repeatedly, her weird obsession with their next-door neighbor, her younger sister and her weird relationship with her best friend, etc. -- or stories and experiences from adulthood -- the "pile dog" belonging to one of her roommates, the ridiculous fight she had with her ex-husband over bananas, etc. -- she's able to find humor in the most bizarre circumstances. But she also shares rawer, more serious experiences, such as the death of her sister and her struggles to love herself despite the flaws she sees in herself. The book switched between humor and heartbreak so quickly at one point I got emotional whiplash, but it was still a deeply heartfelt read. Allie's drawings, crude but expressive, add plenty of charm and hilarity to her writing. She draws in a quirky "MS Paint" style, and while some of her drawings are rough and cartoony but quite good, others are hilarious stick-like people who are nonetheless quite expressive and fun to look at. "Solutions and Other Problems" was the perfect read to lift me out of a 2020 funk, and a fantastic follow-up to "Hyperbole and a Half." I wish Allie Brosh all the best, and hope she's able to keep writing... and able to love herself along the way.

I don't know that any person can make me laugh as hard as Allie Brosh and her demented, wonderful stories. This book is just as good as her first, and may even be better, which is saying something. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath in one chapter, only to have the next one hit like a gut punch. She is honest and vulnerable in her storytelling, and completely truthful in her observations, which are always oddly relatable. (I didn't know that others made that "visualization exercise" mistake until I read chapter17, which was almost perversely hilarious.) Fantastic read!

I loved the first one and I wasn't disappointed by the sequel. It made me laugh (and sometimes cry) a lot. Very cathartic ! I don't know how she manages to express so many emotions with such simple drawings.

I'm a big fan of her, her cartoons and overall her humor. I was very excited to read this book, and while there were parts that were okay, overall the book felt short for me. Get the first book though, it's really really good :)

Back of the net! Allie Brosh, bless you, you have scored again! Fans of Hyperbole and a Half will know that this book has been a long time in the making, Allie Brosh has had some truly heartbreaking events in her time away and she touches upon it during the book. The book itself was definitely worth the wait , first of all its massive. Hyperbole was a good size but this is just over 500 pages long. Stupidly as soon as saw it was properly available, (fans will know it’s been on and off Amazon for years so I wasn’t taking any chances), I clicked order not realising I had ordered the hardback which weighs a ton and for some reason came from Germany, I then panicked thinking I’d also ordered the German version, thankfully not! Allie’s signature style still makes me chuckle, her cartoon self with fin ponytail, big eyes and wonderful facial expressions is just pure gold. I especially love her drawings as a child when she is sneaking about. Her animal drawings especially the dogs are fab, these sections had me sniggering away as the mannerisms of the dogs was spot on, it was almost as if she’d used my dog as her model. As I said above she also touches upon her personal life, she is open about her struggles with anxiety and depression and the tragic lost of her sister. It’s heartbreaking but Allie also takes us back to their childhood and it’s lovely to see her reminiscing about the crazy stuff they got up, there is a chapter about her sister and her friend which is incredibly funny. Fans of Hyperbole will love this and I hope she gains some new fans too, Allie I’ve missed you!

Love the book