Let me start by saying that any book R. Eric Thomas writes, I will read. This is a hilarious collection of essays that straddles the bridge between dark and hopeful. He is a gay, black, pop culture journalist with a lot of thoughts on life as an adult, post-Covid. This one is a bit more on the serious side than his last essay collection, but I loved it even more. This collection focuses on the struggles of marriage, adjusting to life after quarantine, grief/loss, and how damn hard it is to make friends as an adult. It made me literally laugh out loud but also want to curl up in a ball at times. It's hard to do both! I, for one, also appreciated the plethora of pop culture references imbued throughout. If you are looking for something insightful and relatable with sarcastic, deadpan humor and an overwhelming message of hope, look no further.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this beautiful ARC.

This was fantastic! Thomas blends laugh out loud moments seamlessly with discussions of death, love, and living as a gay black man in America. I related to a lot of what he wrote in have a love/hate relationship with a city and his urgent care visit. The writing jumps off the page painting you a picture like you are listening to a long time friend. If you need a good laugh or cry I would give this collection a try.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book comes out August 8, and you’re going to want to get yourself a copy.

Eric has been making me laugh since I first read Here for It two summers ago and then immediately subscribed to his newsletter. This book is funny because Eric is funny, but there’s also a cracked-open feeling to it, a vulnerability that’s unique to this collection. Many essays reflect on the struggles of seeking connection and community as an adult, navigating a new marriage and moving back to a hometown you intended to keep at an arms length. There are passages on depression that had me googling “how do I get my insurance to pay for therapy?”

I was delighted to find that Eric and I have identical stances on where we’d like to be in the end times (not present!), but by the end of that essay he had me convinced that maybe, MAYBE, I might want to survive too.

Where this collection really shines is when Eric writes about his husband, David. From an engagement story that I think the Schitt’s Creek writers borrowed from, to the hardships of navigating a major death together, there’s so much tenderness as he describes “the work of love” in every day life, and at the end.

I loved this book, and if you’ve read this review and think any of it sounds even a little interesting, I think you’ll love it too.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was recently at an event that R. Eric Thomas was also at; after the event, I read a few of his ELLE articles and really enjoyed them. I was looking forward to this read, but it just wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I was hoping for shorter, witty essays, but this just wasn't for me. I am sure others will enjoy it.
Thanks for the arc!

R. Eric Thomas has written an insightful, sad, funny, and hopeful series of essays with a deceivingly bleak title. I loved the references to 90s music and movies, and definitely related to a lot of Eric's emotional rollercoaster moments. I believe this this book will be enjoyed by a small, specific audience: elder Millennials/Xennials and the youngest of Gen X, especially those who are liberal and understand that Trump politics are dangerous. If that's not you...this might not be your book. If it IS you, enjoy!!

4.5, rounded up. The range of emotions that this one inspired in me was wild- from laugh out loud moments to tearjerking, quiet, and honest moments of grief (sometimes within the same essay). As a world we have lived through a lot over the last few years, and R. Eric Thomas has captured some of the rawness and realness of those times, but also I will never forget the bananas portion of this book involving a broken glass and arterial spray.

I'm so thankful to Random House / Ballantine Books, PRH Audio, R. Eric Thomas, and Netgalley for granting me advanced audio, digital, and physical access to this sweet treat. Congratulations, The Best is Over! is projected to hit shelves on August 8, 2023, and I purely enjoyed it.

A collection of essays with a comical take on some pretty heavy topics (grief, Covid lockdown, being a gay, Black man in Trump’s America). He completely won me over in the chapter about hiking when he said “I firmly believe that Mount Everest in none of my business.”

Poignant and laugh out loud funny. R. Eric Thomas tops his previous essay collection with this new work. Now that he has come out and found love, life still finds obstacles to throw in his way. The author confronts the ghost of his hometown of Baltimore and the city versus the suburbs and deals with married life and the pandemic. If you liked "Here for It" or the author's twitter or elle.com columns, run out to get this new volume. If you missed "Here for It", rectify that! Please note, I was gifted an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

For years I thought I wasn't a "collection of essays" type person, but in the past few years I have learned that that's not the case. I don't need a whole biography to get to know a person. Sometimes some essays on a variety of topics gives me a better look into who they are, their opinions, and their life.

While I enjoyed a few of the essays in Congratulations, The Best is Over!, I found that by the end of the book, I didn't really feel like I got to know the author. This book just kinda hops around to different stories, but never really lands anywhere. The writing was kinda flat. I haven't read a ton of books by screenwriters, but both that I can remember had this same flatness–the dialogue and setting exist, but there's no additional prose to round out the feelings and emotions and location.

I don't regret that I read the book, but it's also not one I'll be revisiting or will stick with me past the initial read and review.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.

I very much enjoyed R. Eric Thomas' first essay collection, Here For It, so I jumped on the chance to read the ARC version via NetGalley when I saw it offered. Several other reviews mention how this collection is more negative in tone, as many of the essays touch on or directly deal with death, grief, depression, therapy, COVID, and others. Don't let that fool you, though! At its core, the underlying theme of every essay is that while life is chaotic, messy, unpredictable, and downright hard, with love and hope there is always a way through. Some of the essays are a bit uneven, but there are several standouts (the one on Oprah's Favorite Things jumps to mind) and plenty of true laugh-out-loud moments. R. Eric Thomas frequently muses on wanting to build connections, friendship, and community as an early-middle-aged adult (much like myself) - all I could think while reading this book was "damn, I wish I could be his friend!".

I loved Here For It and was excited to read R. Eric Thomas's new book of essays. Like others have mentioned this felt more serious than his previous work, but still had me laughing out loud, especially at the parts about home ownership. I enjoyed taking my team to read this and picking it up here and there throughout the course of the month. Thanks to Netgalley and Random House / Ballantine Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley for the chance to read this memoir, Congratulations, the Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas.
Call me a monster, but I didn't find it funny? I really wanted to love this one, but it just wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed this book, it was perfect to breeze through while still having deeper meaning. It made me think about my own relationship to my parents and deciding where to put down roots. I think it was a little disjointed at times, but overall an amazing quick read!

A very funny yet challenging collection of essays - the first I’ve read that dares broach the subject of life during 2020-2021.

Thomas up top seems to be an unreliable narrator, increasingly negative about everything around him and yet morbidly fascinated. He grows more earnest through the course of the essays: at one point, when he talks about possibly leaving his job, he says something to the effect of “it’s not fun anymore - nothing is fun anymore.”

This type of post-pandemic ennui was interesting to read. I’m not exactly the target demo and some subtleties were lost on me, but overall this was an enjoyable collection.

Thank you to NetGalley, R. Eric Thomas, and Random House / Ballantine Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is the funniest, deepest, most truthful post-COVID book I’ve had the pleasure of reading, Wonderful messages abound in “Congratulations. The Best is Over.” My takeaway - Life is destabilizing, unpredictable, often a mess, yet love endures, and hope in possibilities makes this passion play endurable (and, Amen to church values!) I also enjoyed R. Eric Thomas’s prior book, “Here for It” for its many hilarious observations.
In this book, he makes his journey home to Maryland (near his childhood home of Baltimore) emotionally vivid. He grapples with melding the person he is now with memories of who he used to be, His parents were grounding, along with all things theatre arts. The love of his husband, David, is particularly lovely and touchingly explored in this book. He demonstrates how all of these passions help him cope with the uncertainty of the outside world. I appreciate that scary, haunted dolls remain an enduring theme, especially when riffing about a former DC political figure. His signature cultural references make this a great read. Banal matters are none of his business, or ours. He keeps it real. Though I’m half of a “same-sames” couple, I can relate to R. Eric Thomas. I want to be his friend, sitting around his beautiful pond, complaining about those obnoxiously loud frogs, while also LOLing at any Saliere references he drops. I know a kindred soul. I only hope he’ll forgive me for showing photos of my fur-babies or at least feign interest.
Fantastic writing! Unforgettable book - I’m already planning to re-read, especially the parts about relatable suburban things like HOA’s, bargain mulch, and Nest cameras. And all the reasons to avoid boating. I appreciate this book for making even me feel sane.

One of the most fun reads I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time. Every essay gripped me, made me laugh, made me think, and made me feel seen. I related to so much of what he was writing while also being entertained and enjoying it. I couldn't stop reading them and stayed up late to keep reading.


Thank you to the author, publisher, and netgalley for giving me an advance copy of the book

R. Eric Thomas does it again! Here For It was one of my favorite reads of 2020, so I was anticipating this new essay collection and it did not disappoint. This book really brings you into the author's life and the insights that he shared resonated with me a lot.

I enjoyed R. Eric Thomas' first essay collection Here for It, so was excited to find out he had a new collection coming out. Congratulations, the Best is Over! is a nice complement to his first and does a similar nice job of balancing difficult topic matters with sprinklings of laugh out loud humor. This new collection picks up as Thomas and his husband move from Philadelphia back to his hometown of Baltimore, which he has some complicated feelings about. He struggles to adapt back to the city. His husband has accepted a ministerial role in a local church, while Thomas works from home, as he continues to write for Elle. He finds himself becoming more depressed, and his descriptions of his state of mind were moving and relatable. He tackles other relatable topics like trying to make new friends as an adult and the dilemma on whether to stay in the city or make the leap out to the suburbs. Just as he is finding his place, COVID hits, and much of the book is centered on how the virus affected his relationship with his family. This is a perfectly balanced essay collection of resonant emotions and challenges we go through mixed in with Thomas' perfect sense of humor. Many of his asides had me cackling. I'll certainly be recommending this collection when it publishes. I liked this one even better than the first.

Thank you to Ballantine Books for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

I read R. Eric Thomas's first essay collection, Here For It, early 2020, right before all the sh*t hit the fan, so to speak. Perhaps that's why I didn't quite appreciate him as much as I do now. Don't get me wrong, I loved the HECK out of that book, as I express in my review. But is it possible I couldn't know just how essential his writing is to my psyche -- and the WORLD -- as I do now? I think yes. Even without all the Whitney Houston and Sister Act Part II references that were found in the first.

In this second collection of memoir essays, Thomas pulls off quite the balancing act -- simultaneously making me giggle uncontrollably and sigh at his profundity. First for the giggling: Thomas's humor seems to be my absolute favorite kind. It's laced with pop culture references, sassy (one-sided) banter, and speaking aloud the things we all think but haven't had the courage to say. I just cannot get enough of his humor. It's smart, quick, and leaves me chortling.

But secondly, and perhaps more affectingly, is his unique ability to pinpoint the exact feelings of a moment, moments of nostalgia, moments of upheaval, moments of marriage, and moments of, yes, the pandemic. I haven't read a lot of work that tackles the bizarre whirlwind we have lived through in the past three years, but Thomas does it so gracefully. He captures the fear, the uncertainty, the boredom, the anxiety, the humor, the lack of humor, all so well. As a man whose debut book came out into the world weeks before lockdown, he has intimately lived through all these feelings, just as the rest of us have.

I don't know, I feel like I'm not doing this book justice, but please just do yourselves a favor and read this one when it comes out next month. Frankly, R. Eric Thomas is one of the best writers of our age, and I'm so glad to be a reader while he is out here making books.