I Choose Darkness: A Holiday Essay

This was hilarious short story by Jenny Lawson. Her holiday essay even though the cover shows an elf with bat wings, is about Halloween. I think at one point I started laughing so hard I could feel my side giving. I have read some of Lawson's other memoirs, and she has a great style. Her childhood always sounds bonkers. And this one gives her insight on being raised in the middle of nowhere during Halloween. The passage about she and her sister going Trick or Treating at their own home and their mom pretending to be different people was 1) endearing and 2) freaking funny.

I obtained this short essay/mini memoir about the author's attitude to Hallowe'en, the only holiday season she enjoys, as a free read on Amazon Prime. Some of it was amusing, such as the recollections of cheap or handmade costumes which I'm sure a lot of people can relate to (even if we didn't dress up for Hallowe'en, there were plenty of other school occasions where our Mums had to improvise with crepe paper, cardboard, poster paints and tinfoil), but other parts such as the arch asides to her editor about not being paid by the word came over as boring filler. I didn't enjoy it enough to seek out the author's other works, but it was an amusing short read so I am awarding it 3 stars.

I Choose Darkness

I Picked Up This Book Because: I’m a fan of the author.

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: KindleUnlimited
Dates Read: 10/14/2022 - 10/14/2022
Stars: 4
Narrator(s): Jenny Lawson

The Story:

A short tale of the author's childhood Halloween experiences. It was fun and rambling in a way I find unique to Ms. Lawson. Her stories are always laced with traumatized humor which makes her so entertaining.

In a Nutshell: An essay by journalist-blogger Jenny Lawson about her favourite festival. Hint - It’s not Christmas. Humorous but not memorable.

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Jenny Lawson is known for her humour blog, where she writes her thoughts on many topics in a tongue-in-cheek manner. This essay is on the same lines.

Lawson begins by declaring her dislike for Christmas, Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, not because of religious reasons but because of the huge amount of planning and preparation these festivals entail. Her favourite holiday is Halloween, which she lovingly calls “the glorious dark queen of the year”. This brief 25-page essay documents, in a fun way, Lawson’s passion for Halloween, and how she celebrates it while still show more being incredibly lazy about the “celebration”.

There wasn’t much personal connect for me with the core topic as I don’t celebrate Halloween. (Nothing against it personally; it’s just not celebrated in India.) But I do know enough about Halloween through books and movies, so Lawson’s humour made the topic entertaining. Her comments about her decorative and culinary skills are amusing. Her hilarious reminiscences about the family Halloween celebrations during her childhood in rural Texas are the best parts of this essay. It was nice to see a few photos confirming what the author wrote about the old costumes.

I also loved the interludes where Lawson’s editor makes an on-page appearance, and the essay turns into script format, with the editor and the author having a discussion about getting the story back on track. These conversations were hilarious!

All in all, this is a very quick read. If you go through this with an overly logical lens, you might find flaws, as often happen with humour essays. So just read it in the right spirit, as a fun memoir-like essay about why the author loves the darkness of Halloween. It is a good introduction to the wit of the author but too short to be memorable. Maybe it will establish a greater nostalgic connect with readers who celebrated Halloween before the advent of the internet.

3.5 stars.

The digital version of this essay is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.

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My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter show less

In a Nutshell: An essay by journalist-blogger Jenny Lawson about her favourite festival. Hint - It’s not Christmas. Humorous but not memorable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jenny Lawson is known for her humour blog, where she writes her thoughts on many topics in a tongue-in-cheek manner. This essay is on the same lines.

Lawson begins by declaring her dislike for Christmas, Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, not because of religious reasons but because of the huge amount of planning and preparation these festivals entail. Her favourite holiday is Halloween, which she lovingly calls “the glorious dark queen of the year”. This brief 25-page essay documents, in a fun way, Lawson’s passion for Halloween, and how she celebrates it while still show more being incredibly lazy about the “celebration”.

There wasn’t much personal connect for me with the core topic as I don’t celebrate Halloween. (Nothing against it personally; it’s just not celebrated in India.) But I do know enough about Halloween through books and movies, so Lawson’s humour made the topic entertaining. Her comments about her decorative and culinary skills are amusing. Her hilarious reminiscences about the family Halloween celebrations during her childhood in rural Texas are the best parts of this essay. It was nice to see a few photos confirming what the author wrote about the old costumes.

I also loved the interludes where Lawson’s editor makes an on-page appearance, and the essay turns into script format, with the editor and the author having a discussion about getting the story back on track. These conversations were hilarious!

All in all, this is a very quick read. If you go through this with an overly logical lens, you might find flaws, as often happen with humour essays. So just read it in the right spirit, as a fun memoir-like essay about why the author loves the darkness of Halloween. It is a good introduction to the wit of the author but too short to be memorable. Maybe it will establish a greater nostalgic connect with readers who celebrated Halloween before the advent of the internet.

3.5 stars.

The digital version of this essay is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter show less

Halloween Misadventures
Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook (September 29, 2022), released simultaneously with the Audible Original audiobook.

I've never read any Jenny Lawson previously, although I thought the cover of one of her previous memoirs Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things (2015) looked hilarious. Reviews from Friends and Follows were mixed though, ranging from 2 stars to 5 stars. So her humour is an acquired taste and not for everyone. I Choose Darkness is a mini-memoir about her rural Texas upbringing and her family's cheapish methods of Halloween costume creations and hand-me-downs. As the home was isolated, instead of trick or treating at neighbours, Lawson and her sister would circle the family home show more and each time their mother would meet them at the door and pretend to be a different character. That was the most charming story of the book. The Kindle edition includes a selection of photographs of the young Lawson sisters in various Halloween costumes. In small doses, Lawson can be funny.

I Choose Darkness is a one-off Amazon Original Kindle eBooks/Audible Audio audiobooks released on September 29, 2022 as a Kindle Single where "This essay takes Jenny back to where it all started, from her humble beginnings as a trick-or-treater in the 1980s, on high alert for (logistically improbable) candy laced with razor blades and the (allegedly) ever-present threat of satanists on the loose. From there, she has risen from the candy-wrapper ashes of her childhood to claim her rightful lifestyle as the queen of Halloween.".

Trivia and Link
You can watch for current and past Amazon Original Kindle short stories which are usually paired with their Audible Original narrations at an Amazon page here (link goes to Amazon US, adjust for your own country or region). show less

4.5 stars.

Really enjoyed this short read/essay. It was funny, gritty, and well-written.