“Wow, No Thank You” by Samantha Irby was a New York Times Bestseller in 2020. The collection of autobiographical essays blend Irby’s real life experiences humorously enough for any reader to relate to. 

Irby’s essays focus on themes from suffering from Chron’s disease to her experiences building her career in the entertainment industry. Complete with brutally honest details and stories of cringe-worthy first dates, this one is for those who love to laugh. 

Irby’s humor is often described as raunchy, edgy and, at times, obnoxious. It is all of those things. But the honesty behind all of her satire and snark is authentic. When you’re reading about her social life as a young woman, you might find yourself audibly saying “so true.”

Her other books, “We Are Never Meeting In Real Life” and “Meaty,” are similar autobiographical comedies that Irby maintains her honesty through. At the time Irby wrote “Wow, No Thank You,” she was 40. Through each chapter, she talks about a different topic or time in her life. Not necessarily in chronological order, the reader learns about some of her life’s most unfiltered edits. 

“I thought this would be an impressive notch in my bedpost, which really means a notch in his, because at the time, I was sleeping on a mattress that had come rolled up in a cardboard box that I caught my neighbor trying to steal off the UPS truck,” reads a passage in season one, episode one.

Does this hit close to home for anybody else? 

The value of this book is its entertainment and comedic factor but is also chock-full of truths about life. 

Overall rating: 7/10