Books › Let's pretend this never happened (a mostly true memoir)
Let's pretend this never happened (a mostly true memoir)
318 pages
A wildly inappropriate, laugh-out-loud romp through the eccentricities of childhood and the chaotic beauty of being a misfit.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like sitting at a bar with your most unhinged, hilarious friend as they spill their darkest, most embarrassing secrets. The pace is brisk and manic, propelled by stream-of-consciousness tangents and a delightfully profane, hyperbolic prose style. You are immediately pulled into a chaotic, absurd atmosphere where taxidermy and childhood trauma are treated with the same irreverent, laugh-out-loud comedic timing. Yet, beneath the relentless dark humor and bizarre family anecdotes lies a surprisingly tender core. It is an emotional journey from deep-seated shame to radical self-acceptance. This book is an absolute gift for overthinkers, anxious souls, and lifelong misfits who need to know that their own weirdness is not just okay, but something to be celebrated.
- Mood
- chaotic
- manic
- hilarious
- tender
- Tone
- irreverent
- darkly comedic
- self-deprecating
- absurd
- vulnerable
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- embracing weirdness · mental health struggles · eccentric family dynamics · humor as a coping mechanism · radical self-acceptance
- The writing
- Hyperbolic, profanity-laced, and highly conversational, driven by wild, stream-of-consciousness tangents.
- The arc
- Moves from frantic, shame-filled childhood anecdotes to a hard-won, hilarious acceptance of one's own profound weirdness.
- Who it's for
- Misfits, overthinkers, and anyone who relies on dark, absurd humor to navigate anxiety and family dysfunction.
Content notes
- mental illness
- miscarriage
- animal death/taxidermy
- profanity
About the book
When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.
In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives.
Description from Open Library.
Books like Let's pretend this never happened (a mostly true memoir)
See why they match
BrokenJenny LawsonA wildly funny, deeply vulnerable plunge into the chaotic reality of living with severe mental illness.
Furiously HappyJenny LawsonA wildly tangential, laugh-out-loud manifesto on fighting crippling depression with weaponized absurdity.
ShrillLindy WestA hilarious, battle-tested manifesto for taking up space and refusing to apologize for it.
LitMary KarrA darkly hilarious, fiercely unsentimental plunge into the abyss of addiction and the messy, miraculous climb back out.
Wishful DrinkingCarrie FisherA razor-sharp, laugh-out-loud survival guide to Hollywood royalty, addiction, and the absurdity of being a human action figure.
The girl with the lower back tattooAmy SchumerA raucous, surprisingly vulnerable late-night conversation with your funniest, messiest friend.