My Dear Friend Janet

DNF @ 28%

Apparently, this is based on a character from a series of short, comedic videos. I haven't seen the videos, and based on this book I doubt I will ever change that. While I'm sure the brand of humour comes across better in a visual-audio medium, it very much isn't to my taste. In fact, it made me feel gross and sick.

I hate it when people mock others for their sense of style or shyness, and the narrating character of this book does exactly that. In fact, the whole story is all about how Janet is so pathetic, hideously dressed, awkward, and useless that she doesn't even deserve to be noticed or mentioned. Not a single paragraph passed without at least one disparaging remark from the horrible narrating character about Janet's appearance or personality - including harsh taunting for something as simple as always getting the same order at a coffee shop as part of a routine, apologizing when bumping into people on the sidewalk, and not flirting with a handsome barista while he's on the clock.

Fuck that. I'm not going to endure another second of reading such a nasty, disgusting attitude. I have better things to do with my life than force myself to read something so upsetting. And finding out, via other reviews, that the narrator is apparently revealed to be Janet's internal voice at the end honestly doesn't help, at least not for me.

Keke Palmer made this story come to life. I found myself laughing out loud quite often.