Another win by Samantha Irby! I love this collection of essays told in her own voice. They are raw and pure and true. It shines through in her storytelling that they come from a real place, which translates to a great read. I laughed out loud a few times and felt for her. Very human. I don't often read true essays besides articles in periodicals, but this one was a good time.

I love non fiction essays. They almost always come out of the blue and pleasantly surprise me, if they are well written.

When I started reading quietly hostile, I got that feeling. I was hooked on the narrative of the pandemic life. But honestly, the dry writing style - which I was initially drawn to, was exactly what tired me. I didn't finish this book in one sitting, but it was a fun ride with dollops of dark humor to accompany us.

Not her strongest collection, but still a fun, funny, and insightful trip through the last few years, especially the pandemic and the Sex and the City reboot.

If I could give this more than a perfect score I would. Again, Irby has me laughing until I cry and rereading some stories over and over again.

5/5 stars

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a hilarious set of short stories. Irby is hysterical and this was such a fun, quick read. I found myself laughing out loud at times and wanting to highlight portions to send to friends.

I'm a huge fan of Samantha Irby. She has a singular voice and never fails to make me laugh, even when she's writing about deeply sad topics. She is an auto-buy, auto-recommend.

I generally really enjoy Samantha Irby I just have started to wish that she was a bit more edited. If you enjoy Dave Matthews Band and Sex and the City a lot then you'll really enjoy this book. For me, the fact that so much time was spent on those two topics and her moving to much into poop humor for my tastes means this is one of my less favorite books of hers.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for the advanced review copy of this book.

Like her previous works before it, Quietly Hostile is a series of hilarious, relatable slice of life essays about the various mishaps and happenings in Irby's life. She writes about the pilot for a TV show about her first book, which never aired, and about the hate she got for being a part of the Sex and the City reboot writer's room. As always, we also get to hear plenty of tales from the bathroom.

I am mildly obsessed with this book's title, and Irby does use it to describe herself at least once in the book. I never have much to say about the experience with these books except that I laughed, I cringed, I loved it. The level of candor and frankness in Irby's writing gives it a unique bite of humor and also crude truth about the experience of being a human with a body. Sometimes that means I have to pause my audiobook during lunch, but it's worth it.

This may be my favorite of her books to date and I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a personal essay collection with a good sense of humor, who can also handle a few poop jokes because they will happen. Always.

QUICK TAKE: loved it. no notes. if you like Irby, you'll like this. nuff said. Audiobook was excellent.

I love Irby, but this was not their best work. Some of the essays were wonderful and on par with what I expect from them. Others were lacking.

This book wasn't for me. The crude humor went too far for my taste. While some of the essays were laugh out loud funny, a line was crossed when the author went beyond what was necessary to describe her bathroom experiences.

Reading a Samantha Irby book is like nothing else. I love her humor, but more than that, I love her approach to navigating or writing about something hard with humor.

She had me laughing and she got me to cry (usually mad about crying at a book, but for this ONE BOOK I will let it slide). Did she make me want to listen to Dave Matthews Band songs other than "Crash Into Me"? YES. Did that shock me? YES! But I loved hearing her just share about the things she loves and it made me want to love them too and celebrate the things that I love.

But for real, she is doing the lord's work asking people to not squat while they pee and spray all of their pee all over the toilet seat.

Big 'ol heart eyes for Samantha Irby foralways.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

Quietly Hostile is hysterical. I've never read anything like it so Samantha Irby definitely gets some bonus points for originality! My favorite chapters were david matthews's greatest romantic hits, how to look cool in front of teens, food fight, and please invite me to your party. There were a couple chapters that I had to completely skip because I thought they were way too much (the nuns and the peeing thing) but I also felt like I got to know the author better reading this and figured that is just her crazy and chaotic personal brand. I want to go back now and read her other two books. Funny women are the backbone of this country! Thank you to NetGalley, Vintage Anchor, and the author for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest feedback!

This book is so hilarious and at times squicky!! Her stories had me belly laughing and grimacing all at once. Her humor is one of a kind!
If you've loved her other books, you will love this one!

We can all use a little more humor in our lives so I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, I'm just not her target audience I suppose. This will be a good book for women who identify with the author and relate to feeling like a bit of a failure, not so much for happy older women.

This is probably my least favourite from Samantha Irby but I still managed to finish it in one sitting and had so much fun! Her writing is as engaging, witty and a blast as always. I got a little bit bored during the Sex And City part. I understand why it was included with her role in writing AJLT but rather long. She is a fantastic author and I can’t wait to read whatever she brings out in the future. A 3.5 star

Posted on Tiktok under my video of what I read in a week

samantha irby has a distinct and hilarious tone, which makes reading everything she writes such a delight. she writes with wit and brutal honesty, and it is just such a good set of essays. i felt like i was talking and laughing with a friend over facetime. just good vibes all in all!

Absolutely loved reading this book/group of essays. I have loved reading her books since a couple books ago actually!
Sam talks about her family life now, her younger years, and also not long before she met her wife. It's a literal "Laugh Out Loud" the whole way through! I think what makes her so enjoyable to read is that she takes normal situations, and throws IBD in the mix, and normalizes it, while also throwing a funny spin to it. There is no shame and you just have to laugh at how she can make the most uncomfortable situations hysterical. I hope to see more from her.

She is nor for everyone but she is for me! Another raucous collection from the queen. The switch from tender to raunchy to sweet is her strength, no one does it better.

Do you like reading essays or short stories? What are some favorites?

I started off greatly enjoy Samantha Irby’s Quietly Hostile. It’s a series of essays that delve into her life and experiences. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard reading a book of essays. Her stories were brutally honest and hit home with me on so many levels.

Then the essays fell off a cliff for me. She had a very strange one that delved into too much detail on the kind of porn she likes to watch. I don’t really care what she likes to watch and I don’t need to read the details. I skipped the rest of that essay, but the next essay was a detailed summary of all of the seasons of Sex in the City. I enjoyed that show twenty years ago, but I’m not so much of a super fan that I even remembered what was being talked about in these vignettes. She is a writer on the new series, so it was interesting from that perspective.

I just got stuck in the middle of this for two months. I picked it back up again and the rest were enjoyable, although not at the level of the very beginning of the book. I especially liked her essay on trying to get a TV show going on the fictionalized version of her life. It was fun to get the behind-the-scenes perspective on this.

I also enjoyed that Samantha Irby lives in Kalamazoo Michigan and had some local stories as well. I was born in Kalamazoo and grew up not far from there.

Book Source: Review Copy from NetGalley. Thank-you! Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.