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Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson ★★★★☆    (4/5)

This book was recommended to me, Eddie, by one of my fellow bookblr co-runners - Alys! I very much enjoyed this book, and after a run of bad stories it was a breath of fresh air to laugh at a book (for the right reasons..!). Jenny talks us through tales taken from her life where she has had to deal with her own mental health issues, both in an enjoyable and a serious manner.

I’m not usually the one to go for a first person, autobiography type book, and yet I found it a very humorous bit of writing. Usually I prefer fiction to autobiographies, but the way the story was told was far more fun and non-chronological than most. Jenny’s writing style came across really well, and it almost felt as though I was listening to an audiobook as I read the pages. Reading this book didn’t take me very long, as it was gripping and written in succinct enough chapters to keep me rolling onto the next.

The one thing I found myself negatively thinking, perhaps as someone who deals with mental health myself, is that at times I felt her character (or retelling of her character) seemed a slight hyperbole, as if some of the feelings or conversations were almost edited or exaggerated. Obviously this may just be me being slightly envious as to someone who can have a more positive outlook on their own mental health and make light of the situation more often than I do, but there were some times where I would roll my eyes at something written.

But that was the only gripe I could find with the whole book. I found myself laughing out loud, turning to the people I was sat next to to read parts of the book out loud, sharing a laugh together, or photographing relatable scenes to send to my sister. It was very worthy of the four stars I gave it, and I will be looking out for other books that Jenny has (or will) write!

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Me too, Kit. Me too.

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The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag ★★☆☆☆    (2/5)

I was drawn in by the beautiful cover, and the recommendation from Bridget Collins, The Binding being a particular favourite of mine. However, I wasn’t very convinced by this book at all.

Firstly, the whimsical language used was originally intriguing, but soon became too much when used in every paragraph. The characters, four girls on the cusp of adulthood, were all thrown together at me all at once, with POVs that switched every page or two and hindered my ability to really get to know them individually. The switching was a theme throughout the book that I disliked, being used not only with characters but with perspectives (first/second/third all used) and many timeline jumps too. I felt as though I was spending more time trying to figure out what was going on than actually enjoying what I was reading.

The book did have good aspects to it too. I enjoyed the writing, and there were some genuine laugh-out-loud sentences that I could tell came from good voicing. There were certain descriptions that felt vivid and picturesque, and the final 50 pages were far more gripping than the earlier 400.

However, spending the majority of a book waiting for answers, as well as questioning many of the decisions made, really didn’t make me enjoy reading. I soon got bored of a new man being introduced and immediately striking each girl with their oozing charm, as well as some of the ethics of quite how much sex 17 year old girls were having with older men. Furthermore, there were many scenes that felt... less developed - such as tragic backstories that were thrown in to give the characters a sad tale, and yet many of them were never dealt with again. Oh, and I won’t get started on the one character whose only trait seemed to be the fact he was fat.

I feel like I never really gave this book a chance, which was partly on me for not being open, but the writing style was far too jumpy for me to really get into and it did not help itself really.

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Scarlet often thought about how it might feel to be loved for no special reason at all. Without trying to twist yourself into agreeable knots, without having to give what you might not want to give, safe in the knowledge that you were loved for just being your own simple self. With her own daughter, Scarlet determined to prove that unconditional love was possible, to prove that it was her mother and not her who was flawed.

The Sisters Grimm, Menna van Praag