I love Nora. I know I don’t KNOW her or anything, and Lord know I hope this review doesn’t come back to bite me when she is accused of holding squirrels hostage in her basement or some other atrocity that gets her canceled. But I’m not holding back! I loved reading about Nora’s life, thoughts, and insecurities. Her essays are written with humor and self-deprecation and also non-judgmental wisdom. Nora’s book was fun and a delight to read.

I was introduced to Nora McInerny in an unlikely way - listening to her talk about early 2000s pop culture on the Gee Thanks Just Bought It's Patreon feed. I found her funny, and witty, and shortly thereafter started following her on Instagram and devoured her published memoirs. I was so excited to hear she had a new collection of essays coming out!

Reading “Bad Vibes Only” was like slipping on a familiar sweater - cozy, and comforting. As a fellow Minnesotan, some of her stories relating to her childhood felt like they could have come from my own memories. Essays about rekindling old friendships, and family connections hit home. While I’m not a parent, I enjoyed hearing her struggles and change-of-heart about parenting in a digital world. And, of course, there were many laughs!

While I received an ARC of Bad Vibes Only for free, this had no bearing on my rating and review. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books!

Brilliant and funny, Bad Vibes Only is an enjoyable collection of essays about family life. Accessible and entertaining, Bad Vibes Only, will bring smiles no matter what kind of day you are having.

This book was INCREDIBLE and Nora is a brilliant mind. I hadn't heard of her before reading this book but afterwards devoured her podcast as well. She's an illuminating writer and deeply insightful cultural mind.

Loved this book. Very Nora. I've read her other books and always love the morbid humor in them. As someone who is part of the Dead Dad's Club I enjoy the reprieve of being sad about it all the time.

This was my favorite Nora McInerny book. I could relate to her desire to sit in on the couch, even on vacation, and her desire to stop writing about her son. Her writing is also entertaining and thoughtful. Thank you to netgalley for the early release.

Bad Vibes Only is a book of essays, perfect for any millennial (I'd say from age 30-45) to understand that life isn't always easy. I related so much to Nora's stories, I almost felt like there were certain lines that I wrote!! She is funny, insightful, and perfectly captures the weird world of adulthood. I immediately added all of her previous writing to my "to-read" list!!
Shared on Goodreads and Storygraph, also on a instagram story @readingtomydogs

Bad Vibes Only was a fun read, an essay collection in the tradition of Nora Ephron and Erma Bombeck. Nora McInerny writes with humor and pathos about the trials and tribulations of being a middle aged woman in a modern world. Even though I didn't always find the specifics relatable, I was able to enjoy every essay.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for access to this ARC!

Requesting this ARC, I had never heard of the author, but I loved the description’s honest and funny outlook on life (and the cover, isn’t it so fun?!) Honest and funny as exactly what I got in the absolute best way.
Nora McInery centers these essays on toxic positivity culture and effects of the internet. Since Nora and I are in different generations and have different beliefs, some of the content was not relatable to me. But honestly most of it she did a great job at finding the universal in her personal stories. That being said I definitely think the target audience for this book is Millennial moms who like to laugh.
While I can’t post any quotes quite yet of this book, rest assured that there are many I highlighted for safekeeping.

The title is what initially drew me in. Relentless positivity is sometimes the most exhausting thing and I was hoping that the author really understood that.

And I think she did. There was one line where she was talking to her therapist and he’s telling her to be compassionate to herself and her response is….I don’t have time to do that! It was incredibly relatable.

Other essays I felt missed the mark or instead of being relatable just induced more anxiety than I previously had.

Definitely a quick read, beautiful cover and encompasses the minuscule and immense modern dilemmas we face.

In an essay collection packed full of topics that can feel daunting (friendship, death, parenting, religion, the internet...), Nora McInerny somehow finds a way to bring humor and hope to each page. Though our life experiences are extremely different, I found myself feeling unbelievably seen by so much of what was written! I definitely would recommend this book to anyone wondering if it's worth picking up. This is my first time reading anything by Nora, and I'm excited to immediately check out the rest of her work.

Thank you SO much to NetGalley and Atria for this advanced copy in exchange for my review!

I've been a fan of Nora McInerny since "It's Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool Too)" and "Bad Vibes Only" is the perfect addition to her repertoire. Her brand of cynicism, realism, honesty, and transparency is perfect for me, especially when the world has been a continuous dumpster fire for three years.

This time around, Nora explores her relationships with her children, husband, the internet, and basically her entire existence. This is very much a collection of essays of where she is now, some are reflective, some are more anecdotal. She explains how her views on putting her children at the forefront of her books has changed over the years and it's obvious that she is more discrete about discussing her family and her marriage than in previous books.

I appreciate that this was more a journal from Nora as opposed to a memoir. Her life is pretty settled right now, besides the general chaos of the world at large, and it's much more commentary than some readers may want from her. I for one applaud this era of Nora McInerny and am glad that she is getting what she would likely emphasize is her "good is probably fine" moment.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I love this book so much, but I have a small bone to pick. I wish I had written this book. At times, it feels like I have. Especially telling awkward teenage stories. However, Nora's descriptions of how she has encountered loss in her life is so deeply moving and poetic, to a point where you begin to laugh at how absurd it all can be when it all happens at once.

A must read.

This book.... This little book really packs a punch. A funny, smart collection of essays about grief and just figuring it out. McInerney truly managed to put a lot of my feelings into words. Even when I couldn't relate, I totally understood what she was trying to say. I'm so very glad I read this.

Bad Vibes Only is anything but bad vibes, but it does challenge the idea of toxic positivity without directly addressing it over and over again. Sometimes, the vibes are bad. And that's okay. That's life.

I’m a huge fan of Nora. I’m pretty sure she could read me the phone book and find some way to make it funny. I also know she has a tendency to read reviews and comments and that makes it hard for me to review Bad Vibes Only. This is McInerny’s third memoir and fourth book. She has a way of describing her experiences and offering perspectives that everyone will enjoy.

What I liked: I laughed, I cried, I thought far too deeply about life thus far. Her writing was introspective and interesting.

What could be better: While I enjoyed the book overall, I think there comes a point where people start running out of content to write about their life. I liked the book but not as much as I enjoyed her other works.

I expected great things and I think it was just good. I would give the book 4 out of 5 stars because I do like her writing style and how she approached each of the topics. It may not be a book that you sit down and read in one sitting, but it is worth reading nonetheless.

I cannot recommend Bad Vibes Only Enough. It's spot on to this life in so many ways. I cracked up at the 'How to Be a Parent' essay. I lived for the 'Is It Good' essay in which she relates the impossibility of telling our children something is only good or only bad. She writes with humor and insight, and I related to it so much.

Bad Vibes Only by Nora McInerney

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 11th, 2022.

McInerney’s memoir-in-essays takes us from her largely technology-free childhood through to the reality-TV and social media reshares infused present. A cross between Anne Lamott, Florence King, and Nora Ephron, the book is both insightful and hysterically laugh-out-loud funny. Or is it? This woman is self professedly neurotic and an incredibly intuitive writer. What I found both instructive and a little depressing is how closely some of my own neuroses match hers — reading her descriptions made me realize how incredibly neurotic (in just these TINY little ways) I really am — and maybe those aren’t quite as funny as the rest. Still, I totally laughed my way through.

McInerney is the creator / host of the podcast “Terrible, Thanks for Asking.” I haven’t listened to it (because podcasts don’t unreel as fast as I can read) but I bet it’s great.

Some great quotes:

“Memory loss was a problem for future me, and I trusted she’d be able to deal with the consequences of my actions. That trust was entirely misplaced, because I’m not even forty yet and on a good day I’ll walk into a room and ask Matthew, ‘What was I about to say?’ as if he’s a searchable database with a Bluetooth connection to my brain.”

“ ‘Good Vibes Only’ makes a cute saying for a mug, but a pretty ominous interpersonal standard.”

“It doesn’t take a psychology degree to understand that some things are just more pleasant than others, and that as comfort-seeking mammals with disposable income we are attracted to the pleasant, the easy. And yes, we know that ‘life is hard’, but we also really want it to be hard in ways that are manageable and more inconvenient than difficult.”

“Because no, this is not what happens on my version of the internet, where opinions are either inconsequential (what does your coffee mug really say about you?) or authoritative, loud and devoid of all nuance.”

“I hate to describe critical thinking as a privilege, but take a look around: life is hard, and people are tired, and the small doses of camaraderie and dopamine we get from clicking “reshare” on a hot take will always be easier and more satisfying than reading a well-researched piece of reporting and thinking aloud to yourself, ‘Well, it certainly seems like a complex issue.’ “

“Our children — God willing — will grow up and move out, will establish their own lives shrinking and shifting so that we are no longer the sun but some outer planet that upon further inspection actually may just be a defunct satellite stuck in their orbit.”

“At nine she had realized that our memories are the only things keeping us here; a weak Velcro preventing us from being ripped from the history of time. We want to remember because we too fear existential obliteration, shudder at the thought of being lost to an endless sea of unforgettable moments long forgotten.”

I adore the perspective Nora McInerny brings into the world, so I was thrilled to receive an advanced copy of this new essay collection. Literally as soon as I was approved, I started reading! With this book, it's important to know that this is more essay collection than straight memoir like her previous two books - Not a critique, but just worth noting for knowing what you'll be checking out. I mention a lot in my reviews as of late that being a new parent influences what I resonate with as I read. This was very much the case with this one, and I absolutely adored and loved the essays on parenthood. I will devour pretty much anything this woman creates, AND this was such a wonderful collection of her thoughts and reflections on a variety of topics. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy to allow me to have some more Nora McInerny in my life!

A funny and timely collection of 19 essays on a wide range of themes including motherhood, beauty norms, friendship, childhood shenanigans, and how being online all the time is shaping our lives.

This is the first work I’ve read by the author and I was immediately drawn in by the title, cover, and description. I will definitely seek out her other publications and podcast. The essays had an irreverent/cheeky tone and while not all of them worked for me, they were fun to read.

I appreciated that the essays did not try to answer or resolve the complex questions posed throughout but simply put them out there for our consideration and reflection. A couple of my favorite essays were “It Hurts to Be Beautiful” about the author’s take on aging and our right to approach this journey however we like; and “Strongest Girl in the World” about the author’s experience growing up in the 80s and how different parenting is now.

Recommended to readers looking for a sharp and humorous take on letting bad vibes mingle with the good ones every once in a while.

Many thanks to Atria Books for the opportunity to read this ARC via NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I’ve read one of Nora’s books before, so I was really excited to check this out! I loved the first half of the book and I really enjoyed learning more about her life and what she’s truly like. For some reason, I just didn’t personally connect with many of the essays in the second half of the book. I loved Nora’s honesty, openness and vulnerability, but I just don’t think I was the target audience for this book and that’s okay! It’s very well-written and had a lot of great quotations in it.