Shit, Actually

I really like West's style, I vibe with her sense of humor but even she couldn't make a chapter about Harry Potter interesting to me, I'm just bored to death of hearing about these movies/books even in humorously presented valid if loving criticism form. A lot of the chapters are about movies I have never watched or barely remember (because I don't really watch movies not because they're obscure) and it was still pretty funny. A good palate cleanser read.

I feel so #blessed and also wise and correct to have my tastes line up so nicely with those of Lindy West, who is so smart and hilarious. I laughed out loud MANY times at this, even at reviews of movies I hadn't seen. And I loved her intro where she talked about finishing this book during the pandemic and thinking about it standing in for a movie night with friends since we can't have those right now. I want to be friends with Lindy West and watch a dumb action movie with her, and I want her to review all of the Fast and Furious franchise.

6 stars for the audiobook, which was exactly the hilarity I needed right now. You NEED Lindy's own delivery of these film reviews, the jokes, the asides, the references. The Face-Off commentary had me pausing the book I was laughing so hard. A delightful way to re-experience the peaks (or arguably valleys) of 90s/00s cinema!

Made me laugh during Election Week Hell 2020, 5 stars.

This is the laugh-out-loud funny escapism we all need right now. I couldn't stop sneaking paragraphs in between video meetings, which was a terrible and brilliant idea. Terrible because I had to try not to laugh as I recalled what I read (and I got called out more than once for this–“what's so funny?”), and brilliant because the humor somehow made work more bearable for a few days.

3.5

I didn't even know Lindy had a new book coming, but when I saw the audio advance copy available through Libro.fm this month, I immediately felt like listening to it. Each chapter in this is Lindy rewatching one of her old favorite/popular movies and critiquing them based on how well they hold up now, or just how not great they actually are. As someone who didn't grow up on Hollywood, I didn't know many of these movies and hence share no nostalgic memories of them, but Lindy makes the narration a lot of fun and I haven't laughed so much in the middle of a book in recent times. Definitely recommend the audiobook if you need something lighthearted.