Better than her first book- Tampa, but that isnā€™t saying much.
The themes were there but the story is boring, and not funny at all.
I donā€™t know what others see in this author. ( )

2.5
When the protagonist Hazel is in college, one of her friends is going to interview a billionaire tech nerd. At the last minute, her friend is sick, and hands the interview over to hazel. For whatever reason, the billionaire tech geek falls in love with hazel, and 6 months later they are married. Hazel thinks money will make her happy, but she finds out that she is sadly mistaken.
Hazel has always been good at hiding her true feelings, so when she feels like the whole world is so messed up, and inside she feels like screaming, she can just sit there and show nothing.
She remembers when she was in elementary school and everything felt so artificial:
". . . no one was okay, but it was not okay to say that. There they were, ages 5 to 10, most of them in brightly colored clothing with cartoon backpacks that seemed designed for a Utopia in an almost-mean way. They were all emotional messes, especially hazel. . . . One of her classmates had a brother with cancer. Others were mean, shy, hungry, sad. By the age of 9 Hazel sometimes had a fantasy daydream at school where the teacher walked into the classroom and yelled,
'isn't everything horrible? Doesn't the pain of the world outweigh the Joy by trillions?' Etc."

The reason I gave this book an extra half star is because some of what the author writes is pretty funny and I can identify with it. Things that are horrible realities are made into jokes, so you laugh instead of cry.

One example of funny is what the protagonist's mother says about the distressed look in clothes:
"But most of her clothing was intentionally distressed - holes, skunk-spray patterns of bleach, faux cigarette burns, patches. 'Christ, her dying mother had said the last time Hazel returned home. Christ, christ, christ. Were you recently assaulted? What kind of a look is that! If I saw you walking down the street, I'd stop the van and ask if you needed a ride to the police station. You know what those jeans say to me? " I was gravely wronged. I have a report to make." And not in a good way!' "

Plus I liked the karma that was done to the other main character in The story, Jasper. He used women and stole their money. So he had some good payback in the book.
But mostly this book didn't work for me. Just too much of the writing was for shock value I think. ( )

Bizarre, nutty and tons of fun. This book is weird but great. ( )

I'm reviewing the the spirit of this book moreso than the book itself; it has the kind of nutso additive quality of a movie made by kids or second album made by a band with too much money/cocaine. Clearly there was no regard to whether the dialogue was realistic or the characters were relatable or whatever. It's a book edited for laughs & language. There are jokes in a scene where the main character tries to kill herself. There must be a German word for this... when you just make the thing you want to make, without self-censorship. The big difference here is that it's written by a woman who cannot possibly be in it for the money. AND it's a quick read. AND it's pretty good. Anyways I loved it. ( )

hilarious heartfelt and terrifying. love in the age of Google. ( )