Readers United Book Reviews | Small Admissions and Hyperbole and a Half

Jamie Shin ‘20 returns with two entertaining reads that are sure to offer an escape from busy day-to-day life.

Small Admissions by Amy Peoppel

Small Admissions, by Amy Peoppel, is a realistic fiction novel that follows Kate, an overachieving college student with a supportive older sister and two best friends that seem to have her back. Most important to Kate is her French boyfriend, with whom she plans to move to Paris, dropping everything that was once significant to her. Her life seems all figured out, until she hits rock bottom and falls apart when her boyfriend breaks up with her at the Paris airport, leaving her with seemingly nothing. The only good thing about hitting rock bottom, though, is that things can only get better from there. Kate miraculously lands a job to work in admissions for one of the best prep schools in New York, Hudson Day School. She learns things about herself that allow her to not only mend her broken heart, but also allow her to end and fix relationships with people in her life.

The very last two paragraphs of the book are some of the most fluently and well written pieces of writing I have ever read in this genre. It felt as if all 356 pages were leading up to those two short paragraphs, and it was all worth it. Both parts were necessary for the moral to really touch the audience. After I finished the book, I put it down and just thought for a while. This story made me so much more aware of my actions and how they affect the people I care about, and vice versa.

While Small Admissions is a fun and interesting story, the pace is very slow, and the plot sometimes feels forcefully stretched out. At times, the storyline seems slightly repetitive. However, this can sometimes be a good thing. Repetition of a character's actions can put an emphasis on the character's personality, and, in this case, what kind of person they are.

Verdict: I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a chick flick but not romance, laughter but not comedy, and life lessons without lectures. Though not the lightest read, Small Admissions is breezier than most books its length. Amy Peoppel does an excellent job of balancing humor and seriousness to create an entertaining book.

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh

Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh, is simply the funniest book I have ever read in my life. Rather than a traditional book, it is more a collection of short stories with simple illustrations that do an excellent job of capturing emotion. The stories come from and expand off of Allie Brosh’s blog post, Hyperbole and a Half. She splits the book into “chapters”, each chapter being a different story. She writes moments of her life, embarrassing, absurd, and even shameful, into episodes turned webcomic.

The topics range from light to dark. Amidst the humor, Allie Brosh also talks about her time going through depression. She speaks with brutal honesty, translating her struggle into something we can all connect with.

My favorite story was, “The God of Cake,” because I remember it as the one that made me read the book in the first place. My sister was reading it before me, and she would burst into sudden laughter every couple of minutes. This episode is the one she showed me pictures from that made me want to read it too.

Allie Brosh did an amazing job of portraying her emotions through her storytelling. I found myself cringing from second-hand embarrassment, gasping in shock, and laughing uncontrollably countless times.

Verdict: I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good laugh through a very quick-pace and light book.