Book Review | I Hate Myselfie by Shane Dawson

I Hate Myselfie by Shane Dawson
Published by Atria/Keywords Press on March 10, 2015
Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Comedy
Pages: 228
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased (I also received an eARC from NetGalley)
Goodreads: ★★★★

The book that more than 12 million YouTube subscribers have been waiting for! Shane Dawson’s memoir features twenty original essays—uncensored yet surprisingly sweet.

From his first vlog back in 2008 to his full-length film directorial debut Not Cool, Shane Dawson has been an open book when it comes to documenting his life. But behind the music video spoofs, TMI love life details, and outrageous commentary on everything the celebrity and Internet world has the nerve to dish out is a guy who grew up in a financially challenged but loving home in Long Beach, California, and who suffered all the teasing and social limitations that arise when you’re a morbidly obese kid with a pretty face, your mom is your best friend, and you can't get a date to save your life.

In I Hate Myselfie, Shane steps away from his larger-than-life Internet persona and takes us deep into the experiences of an eccentric and introverted kid, who by observing the strange world around him developed a talent that would inspire millions of fans. Intelligent, hilarious, heartbreaking, and raw, I Hate Myselfie is a collection of eighteen personal essays about how messy life can get when you’re growing up and how rewarding it can feel when the clean-up is (pretty much) done.

REVIEW

I've been a Shane Dawson viewer for a few years now, and was excited to hear that he was releasing a book. I Hate Myselfie is a unique memoir containing short essays that document events throughout Shane's childhood. It is a very quick read, and I ended up flying through it on the day I purchased it. Shane was holding a book event at Barnes & Noble Union Square, so I jumped at the opportunity to meet him in person and get a signed copy. You can read more about my experience at this event very soon (I'll link it here once my post is live!). 

When it comes to rating and reviewing I Hate Myselfie, I'll admit it's not an easy task. First and foremost, I'm a biased reviewer because I've watched Shane's videos for so long that I understand his comedy style. The average person picking this book up off the shelf might be offended by the crude language and anything-but-policially correct stories. I decided to base my four star rating on the fact that this book will mainly be read by Shane's fans, who I imagine will relate to my reading experience.

The first thing I really enjoyed about I Hate Myselfie is the writing style. Shane's written voice is just like his spoken one, and that made the essays feel extremely genuine. It felt like Shane was writing letters to me, and not like he was writing a book for the public. The essay format was a great choice, as it allowed readers to hear about many different events in Shane's life, and permitted him to jump around in time without the book feeling choppy. I especially liked the sections of dialogue within each essay. They made the stories flow very easily, and added a personal touch. While this writing style might feel very colloquial to some, it was a logical choice for this genre, and helped make Shane even more accessible to his fans. 

I also thought it was great that the book included fan art. Each essay's title page had an illustration by one of Shane's viewers that corresponded with that particular essay. Readers even got to know each artist a bit through a short bio on the back of each illustration, and many of those bios included social media information for the artist. While this may be a small part of I Hate Myselfie, it was such a nice touch to include Shane's audience in the book. I liked the feeling of community these illustrations brought. 

One critique I do have of I Hate Myselfie actually has nothing to do with the writing or content of the book itself. I was a bit disappointed with the quality of the book binding. By this I mean that the publisher chose to release the book in paperback that is not the best quality. I purchased the book brand new at Barnes & Noble, and the edges were damaged and the spine was coming apart as I read it (quite carefully) for the first time. In addition, the title and cover pages are very plain, and I was surprised at the lack of design on the book itself. In fact, I Hate Myselfie feels almost more like an unfinished ARC (advanced reader copy) than a finished work. I wish the publisher put more effort into the book's presentation do to Shane more justice. I know this is somewhat of a petty complaint, but when a paperback book of under 300 pages is $16.00, I expect a good quality product. 

Putting that aside, I really did enjoy I Hate Myselfie. I'm not sure that I would recommend the book to those who don't know who Shane is, but if you are even vaguely interested in learning more about him, or if you enjoy comedic memoirs, I say go ahead and pick up a copy. While I didn't necessarily learn anything surprising about Shane in this book, I do feel readers get to know him more on a personal level, and get a good peek inside some very emotional times in his life. I would love to read more essays from Shane in the future should he get the opportunity to publish another book. 

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Book Review | We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist

Nonfiction isn't my go to genre, but when I heard about We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist, I was intrigued. We Should Hang Out Sometime (hereinafter "WSHOS") is a memoir chronicling Josh's love life, or lack thereof. Josh admits to the reader right from the start that at age 25 he had the horrible realization that he's never had a girlfriend. That is, if you discredit the 23-hour relationship he had in middle school. That doesn't really count, right?

WSHOS follows Josh's love interests in chronological order throughout his life. He recounts each crush to his audience, and then he contacts each woman in the present day to explore why their relationship never blossomed. Along the way we encounter some lovely women, some awkward situations, and some downright "this would only happen to Josh" moments.

Prior to hearing about WSHOS I didn't know who Josh was, but when I added the book to my Goodreads, I discovered he is a YouTuber. I watched a couple of his videos before starting the book, which I think was a great idea because I could hear his voice while reading. I expected WSHOS to be extremely lighthearted and funny, but it was quite a bit more serious. While Josh does have a great sense of humor and sarcastic wit, I was surprised at the emotional depth in the book. I didn't just learn about Josh's love life, I learned about his life – the cancer he survived as a child, how he gets around with only one leg, and more (but you'll have to read the book to find out). WSHOS was not exactly the comedy I hoped for, but it was a great coming of age story.

One thing I questioned in the book was the breakdown of chapters. I really enjoyed how each section of WSHOS was captioned with a girl's name, and it was quite fun to see Josh reflect on each relationship with a hypothesis of what went wrong. However, it was unclear to me why those sections had to be broken down even further into smaller chapters. It made the story a bit choppy for me, and a think larger sections would have allowed for a better flow.

In the same way, I worry that Josh writes WSHOS with his fans in mind as the audience. It's great that he includes his signature hand-drawn graphs in the book, but if I hadn't watched his YouTube videos I wouldn't have understood their significance. Similarly, the ending of the book is a bit abrupt. Because I followed up on WSHOS with a healthy does of Josh's videos, I know how his story concludes, but not everyone else will. Thus, I think the epilogue of WSHOS would be stronger with a bit more explanation and finality.

All in all, I gave WSHOS a 3.5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. It was an enjoyable memoir about a unique life, and I'm glad I got to know Josh better through his work. I highly recommend WSOHS to Josh's fans, and to those who enjoy stories about love and relationships. WSHOS will be released on December 23, and is available for preorder on Amazon HERE. You can also subscribe to Josh's YouTube Channel to learn more about him HERE.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I use Amazon Affiliate links so you can find the books I mention easily. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.

Book Signing | Grace Helbig at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe for Grace's Guide

When I found out that Grace Helbig, YouTuber, comedienne, and author extraordinaire, was coming to New York City for a book signing the day before my twenty-fifth birthday, I couldn't help but rejoice! Grace is an awesome human that I follow online, and I jumped at the opportunity to meet her. In honor of her first book's release, Housing Works Bookstore Cafe hosted a launch party on October 19. I decided it was perfectly cool to buy myself a copy of Grace's Guide: The Art of Pretending to Be a Grown Up as a birthday gift.

I had never been to an event at Housing Works before, but I've been to enough YouTube meet-ups and book signings that I knew I had to be there early. I arrived at 10:30am, and asked when the line would be starting for the 1:00pm event. I was super surprised when employees told me they weren't going to start setting up until 12:00 noon! Nonetheless, I hung around for a couple hours, and soon the place was packed with a crowd I was 99% sure was there for Grace.

Things got a little complicated. Everyone had to get up and move out of the cafe so the employees could set up chairs. Then, just before we were about to choose our seats, the book sales began. So even though I was one of the first fans to arrive, I ended up missing out on a prime seat due to there not being a line. I had a few seconds of panic and annoyance, but luckily I used my ever-growing patience skills and dealt with the disorganization. Finally, I got my book and chose a seat. I was next to a pole, but luckily had an amazing view of Grace!

Grace was really sweet and funny, and just like I would expect her to be. She read a piece from her new book, and then took questions from the crowd. I was completely obsessed with her outfit and totally chill attitude. Plus, she gave great advice to those of us trying to make it in New York.  Grace spoke for about half an hour, and then we were called up in groups to get our books signed. There was no personalization at this event, but Grace did pose for pictures! Here are a couple of awesome selfies we took!

 Overall I had an amazing time at Grace's book signing even though things were a bit disorganized at first. Grace was so nice, and I can't wait to read her book. As a now 25-year-old millennial, Grace's Guide is absolutely perfect for this time in my life. I'll be sure to have a full review up once I finish reading it!

Book Review | Can't Look Away by Donna Cooner

I was extremely excited when I saw Can't Look Away by Donna Cooner on NetGalley and discovered that it is a young adult, contemporary novel starring a YouTube Beauty Guru as the main character! I've watched the YouTube beauty community for about a year and a half, and love that this new part of our culture is being represented in young adult literature. I couldn't wait to dive into the story!

Can't Look Away is told from main character Torrey Grey's perspective. She and her family move from Colorado to Texas as the book begins, as Torrey's younger sister Miranda was just killed in a car crash. The family is looking to start anew, and Torrey must attend a new school. While being the new kid at any high school can be nervewracking, Torrey has an extra reason to panic. She's a YouTube Beauty Guru with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and since her sister's death the spotlight has been on her more than ever. Torrey hopes that she can survive at her new school without anyone recognizing her, and tries to cope with her sister's passing at the same time.

I really enjoyed Can't Look Away, and was very impressed with the careful research done by Cooner. She was able to capture the small nuances of the YouTube beauty community from the video titles, the catchphrases, and even the gossip websites. As someone who watches beauty videos on a regular basis, this attention to detail made the story very believable, and it represented the YouTube reality quite well. I also loved how the title of each chapter is a title of a beauty video. It was creatively done, and definitely worked.

The story itself was also great. It had depth to it, and the character development was strong. I did see some Mean Girls parallels throughout the story, and at times I found myself lining up the characters of Can't Look Away with the Plastics and Aaron Samuels. However, the stories are quite different, and if I focused on the big picture I could see how they aren't truly connected. I do wish, however, that Can't Look Away was a bit longer. There are some aspects of Torrey's life that I would like to see explained a bit more. While Can't Look Away had a good conclusion, I was left wishing it was a series – I need to know more about Torrey and what comes next for her!

Overall, Can't Look Away is a wonderful book, and perfect for any fan of YouTube in particular. I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, and definitely recommend it. Can't Look Away is available for pre-order on Amazon HERE and will be released in September.

I use Amazon Affiliate links so you can find all of the books I mention easily. This book was provided for my unbiased review. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.