i do think that a lot of the complaints people have about this book are accurate, but i really enjoyed it anyway. it is pretentious and at moments unoriginal and poorly researched, but i find oyler to be really interesting and i never stopped having fun reading her thoughts and her voice.

I love how hard this tries and how hard it tries to seem like it does't care, but ultimately i didn't feel like it accomplished anything.

I have enjoyed Oyler's work historically and enjoyed some of these essays. Mostly I feel that they/the author needed more time to flesh out her arguments. I'm very interested in the subjects but a lot of the analysis felt superficial. Still, this book was an entertaining read and I look forward to reading more of Oyler's work as she progresses as a writer.

Struggled with this one. I have loved Oyler's past essays and thought I'd adore this one, but each essay was too long and rambling.

I’ve eagerly anticipated this collection since reading Oyler’s debut novel “Fake Accounts,” which is one of my all-time favorite books. As dramatic as it might sound, I credit “Fake Accounts” with reorienting my perspective on fiction, making me more inquisitive about authorship and the capaciousness of the novel form, while also just being a complete blast to read. I really haven’t been the same reader since; I think about fiction a lot more now, rather than just experiencing it and casting an unassailable opinion. The same can be said for Oyler’s essay collection; we not only finally get her treatise on autofiction (my favorite topic) but also her takes on gossip, revenge, Berlin, vulnerability, Goodreads, spoilers, and anxiety (some of my other favorite topics).

While the book is about the practice of criticism, and Oyler proffers Her Perfect Opinions™️ accordingly, the book interestingly simmers in the implications of moving between private and public spaces, both for herself as a novelist and critic with a reputation, and for her (likely chronically online) readers. It’s an inquiry she cleverly addressed in novel form and now expounds on it without the veil of fiction. The collection makes the case for thinking and making sense of what to do with judgment when we have it, or encounter it: “I think ‘Why I’m Right’ should be the subtext of any piece of critical writing, balancing as it does subjectivity with objectivity.” But it also raises the sticky issue, in ways both explicit and implicit, of what happens when such judgments are publicized, attached to a person, potentially misconstrued, yet hopefully grappled with fairly. This is captured in the book’s opening lines: “Well, well, well. The book has started. There’s no turning back.” There is indeed no turning back, for both Lauren and us readers, and we are all better for it. Read it! I will be judging you if you don’t.

No Judgment was an interesting mix of essays. Sometimes they felt a little wordy, but I appreciated the author's perspectives.

A treatise on gossip for the 21st century, the tea on what authors think of goodreads, plus the smartest, most astute and witty writing on the current culture (which undeniably must include a survey of life online) that I’ve read, NO JUDGMENT, is a brilliant collection for our times.

The first several essays are the most accessible and it makes sense that they’re presented this way in the book: essays on gossip, the role of ratings and reviews of the culture we consume, what it is to live abroad; things that are pretty relatable. Then, essays of an academic tone: an effort towards defining autofiction as a form of literature (as opposed to genre), exploring “The Power of Vulnerability,” both of which I found fascinating but understood better upon rereading sections. There’s a mix of irony as well as sincerity in this collection. Personally I love the balance. It was a delight to read. If you’ve paid any attention to life online over the past 10 years, there will be something for you in these essays.

Thanks to netgalley and harperone for the arc

I enjoyed reading each essay slowly and multiple times. I love the way the author thinks and how she makes her thoughts accessible to the reader. I will use excerpts for class and recommend to both students and peers.

Readers who have enjoyed Oyler's essays in The New Yorker, Harper's and other publications will love this new collection -- particularly because they are all new, original essays, not reprints. Witty, relatable, sharp and smart.

I am very mixed on this set of essays. The essays cover some engaging subjects including clever writing about gossip (the beginning made the subject feel both personal and detached) and Goodreads (probably wouldn’t have reviewed this one if I was reading it on my own and it wasn’t part of the deal with NetGalley…but hello, here we are). The anxiety essay makes the rest of the writing make more sense. However, there is still too often for me an air of superiority and an acidic tone/perspective that detracted from the aspects I found smart and interesting.

"No Judgment" is a collection of contemporary essays, written by an author who's very much my contemporary (an American, around my age - not specifying more than that) that talks about contemporary feelings and events.

Some essays that stood out to me include topics such as:
- that modern existential anxiety that's haunting all of us these days
- is it appropriate for an author to respond to book reviews and critiques from both professional platforms (like newspapers/magazines/and websites) and amateur platforms (like Goodreads). This essay feels really applicable to bookstagram especially considering the recent Goodreads scandals, even if I'm not sure if I agree with Oyler's stance or not.
- as a resident of Berlin, is she an immigrant or an expatriate? What's the difference and what freedoms are afforded one group versus the other?

Even as torn as I am on Oyler's opinions sometimes, I enjoyed this book of essays enough - and felt there was substantial thought and meat behind her thoughts - that I preordered this book for my own shelves. Maybe it'll get donated when I go through my books in a few months, maybe it'll stay. I'm not sure and that might be the most alluring part of this book.

Smart, timeful and insteresting. Like many essay collection, I enjoyed some more than other, but that's not to say anything was bad or unenjoyable. This is like a time capsule in many ways and it was really thought provoking to read.

I enjoyed digging in to Lauren Oyler's No Judgment. Oyler's style is prickly and fun. She doesn't hesitate to share her opinions on the state of modern literature and culture. Her essays on Goodreads and autofiction were particularly insightful. Unfortunately, the book didn't work for me as a whole. While all essay collections are bound to have hits and misses, this one had a few too many misses for me. I would still recommend it to the right reader; I could see Oyler's style working for particular audiences.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

There's no doubt that Lauren Oyler is a great writer. Some of these essays are very deep and academic, so much so that a few of them went over my head. I especially enjoyed her essay "My Perfect Opinions", which discusses the nuances of Goodreads. Seems pretty meta to be writing a book review about Goodreads. Her essay "The Power of Vulnerability", discussed her opinions of Brene Brown and her theory of vulnerability, of which she's built a small empire. While I agreed with some of Oyler's thoughts on this, I felt that she came across a bit bitter and mean-spirited.

Overall, I did enjoy No Judgment. It did take me awhile to get through though.

First book of March and I'm so thankful to Harper Audio, Netgalley, Lauren Oyler, and Libro.fm for the advanced digital and audio access to this book before it hits shelves on March 19, 2024.

Oyler is a fabulous linguist and writer, and I couldn't get enough of her essays on judgment, criticism, and being alive. There were countless times when I physically laughed out loud, reacting to something snarky and relatable that she had to say, especially when talking about the critics of GoodReads and how this feels so meta typing out this review, as I am not a paid professional, I'm just doing this for free and for fun.

Oyler is so well-researched and I will now be scavenging the internet to locate more of her non-fiction work, because I just loved what I consumed.

Ok but not great. Essays written like they're for a magazine or a website, definitely not about issues of "substance" by design. But just not my thing.

I thought about cheekily giving this book a one-star rating after Oyler's "takedown" of Goodreads, but I enjoyed it too much. I really liked the essays on GoodReads and autofiction, and generally appreciate the angle from which Oyler approaches things. TED talks are stupid. These essays were well considered and they often tickled me. I look forward to whatever she writes next, although I hope that doesn't put undue pressure on her.

Oyler's essay collection stands as a cultural artifact and critique. I can't recall a essay collection that has felt as "in-the-know" as this one in recent years, particularly the growing discourse on what it means to be a reader in the social media age. While the essays themselves don't focus on social media, what's impressive is Oyler's self-awareness to how writers and readers cannot exist without understanding how the evolution of a readership has shapeshifted in the prominence of social media. Highlights of the collection include thoughts on autofiction and even Marvel movies. Oyler also doesn't spare herself from critical inquiry, citing her published novel to be put under the microscope of bookish readers and "public" readers alike: the reactionary impulse of the world determining what's in and what's out, what's cool and what isn't, what's fact vs. fiction, etc. No Judgement is a delightful book of questions that isn't afraid to give plenty of confident and assured answers.

lauren oyler explores gossip, goodreads, living in berlin, autofiction, vulnerability, and mental illness in this essay collection. my favorite pieces were: my perfect opinions; i am the one who is sitting here, for hours and hours and hours; and my anxiety. no shock to anyone that the one about goodreads and the one about autofiction were top tier for me!

i thought this was a great mix of both personal and researched writing - lauren’s own anecdotes and the examples she pulls from other sources are all used in an entertaining and intriguing way. these are longer essays that reference a lot of other works (both essays and books). i added a lot of new stuff to my list of things to read, and find myself keen to read more essays published outside of the typical essay collection format, starting with a bunch of the ones mentioned in this book! it really stands out to me that i have a genuine interest in doing further reading, because that doesn’t always happen for me with super referential work - it’s a signifier that i was pulled in by the topics discussed here.

no judgment is a very realistic look at the subjects of each essay. oyler is skilled at unpacking the opposing viewpoints, while maintaining the strength of her opinions. i appreciate that she’s able to make conceits where necessary and acknowledge the multifaceted and sometimes hypocritical nature of humans beings. the tone is funny, verging on millennial humor but in a self aware way. lauren and i both love a dash, a semicolon, and a parenthetical, but certain sentences felt a bit overwritten and hard to follow so i welcomed those moments of levity. overall a solid collection and i really need to check out her novel fake accounts!

4.5 stars rounded to 4 stars. I really enjoyed the topics of these essays. The style in which Oyler approaches the topics is also very interesting. It feels weird to write a review on Goodreads about this book as there is an entire essay dedicated to criticism including a long section regarding Goodreads. That being said I enjoyed how the essays engaged the reader and the thoughts behind them. They did run a bit long but the author even states in an early essay that is her reading style so it follows that would be her writing style. If you are the type of reader who likes sprawling essays with large words that you may or may not need to google this is the essay collection for you. The best essay to me was Why do you live here? but I also enjoyed My Perfect Opinions.