Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir

What did I like? About 2 chapters where she talked about meeting her husband. I thought maybe it was going to turn into a decent book. I was wrong. What did I dislike? I disliked that somehow this ended up on the New York Times Bestseller List as as a #1 Seller; that Entertainment Weekly gave it glowing reviews; that Ladies Home Journal called it “the funniest memoir ever….”; that People Magazine, the Washington Post, etc. gave this raving reviews. I am clearly not in touch with what is going on in the world. It was trash. Complete and utter trash.

I was looking for an uplifting humorous book. Something to make me smile. All of the reviews said that this was the book to buy. They were wrong and I paid too much money for this book. I don’t know what I am going to do with it. I can’t give it to a local charity because I would be ashamed. I can’t recommend and share it with a friend. All I have left is to throw it in the garbage. What a waste of good paper (I should have bought it on Kindle, my mistake). Did I mention that I don’t like the book? She made money on this book? And sadly, I ordered two humorous books at the same time and now I see that the second one is written by Jenny Lawson as well! The joke is obviously on me, but I refuse to let her and these blind book critiques have the last laugh!

Save yourself. Do not buy this book. Save yourself time, money, and aggrevation knowing that people like this are considered “authors”. If that is the case, then I am writing my own book because they are selling people a bill of goods and people aren’t smart enough to see it.

I am ashamed to know that I spent so much time trying to understand this author (who seems like an intelligent person). She never once made me smile or laugh. She just constantly shocked and amazed me. She actually quit her job in HR to write….this. But hey, she is laughing all the way to the bank. The joke is on us.

Don’t waste your money. Please. It’s not a story, it’s more like reading the diary of a 13yo that overthinks about how awkward and weird they are, when in fact they just exaggerate everything. It’s not funny or relatable. Chapters have no coherence with each other. I couldn’t even finish it, I tried but I couldn’t. The part that really baffled me was the chapter where she has a conversation with her husband through post-its. Like. How. Is. That. In. A. Book. ??? If the conversation would have been funny, or interesting at all, then alright. But it was a total overkill.
I’m honestly not a hard to satisfy person, I’m not a hardcore critic and generally like popular books. I will never comprehend how this book got such success, it really makes me think anyone could write any crap and call it a book, if you have the right connections you get successful.
One star because I can’t give less (and for giving me the hopes of becoming a New York Time Bestseller with my teen year’s diary if I publish it one day).
I never write reviews but I’m hoping to save someone from the disgrace of owning a copy of this book.

I was hoping for a relaxing funny read – and instead got story after story about taxidermy, blood, and dead animals. Not funny to me. After 30 pages, I gave up on it.

I am surprised I finished this book. The author has a terminal case of “potty mouth” and doesn’t know how to communicate below a shout, There was way too many dead and bloody animals, and I thought her story was pathetically obtuse.

Sometimes you want to forget very embarrassing things that happen in your life and a few of those times youll ask your friends to pretend it didnt happen, now think about that being the majority of your life. Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, recounts her life from childhood through school, romance, marriage, and motherhood in her first book, Lets Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir.

Lawson starts off the book by throwing the reader into the deep end of her humor and really doesnt let them resurface until after finishing the book. Beginning with her childhood in Wall, Texas, Lawson goes through her quirky life from one embarrassing moment to another especially since her own father was a quirky taxidermist whose business was in the backyard AND that was before she even started school. Misadventures in high schoolmainly dealing with a cowand college follow, and it is in the latter where she meets her husband in which the most hilarious moments of her life begin. And through her marriage with Victor, the birth of their daughter, and move out into Texas countryside the misadventures only continue with predictably hilarious, yet embarrassing results.

Its hard to really evaluate a humorous memoir, except grading it on the content of its own humor. Honestly, given how much I looked forward to reading this book each day and the fact I had to stop reading out of either laughing or just being embarrassed at the authors own embarrassing situations means it succeeded. Yet on top of that is Lawsons faux notes from her editor(s) just add to the overall experience of the book. And the added bonus chapter of the paperback of notes from her promotional tour is a cherry on top of everything.

Lets Pretend This Never Happened is a hilarious memoir of a woman who owns up to her embarrassing moments, cherishes them, and knows they made her who she is. Though this wasnt the first book by Jenny Lawson that Ive read, yet now I can see why it became a bestseller and has led to a few more books by Lawson.

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