I was really excited when Allie Brosh came back! Her previous book (Hyperbole and a Half) was published in 2013, and (much to the disappointment of her many fans) she had been largely absent from the internet since then, with her follow up book’s publication delayed several times. Allie (for some reason, I feel like I’m on a first-name basis with her, although we have never met), speaking for many, we were so glad to see you once more. You were missed.

Again, here’s her trademark combination of laugh-out-loud humor and very dark material–hilarity and devastation, often side by side, much like life itself. She’s had a rough go of it in recent years. Her sister died by suicide. Her parents divorced. She’s had some serious health problems, including major surgery. She and her husband divorced. As was revealed in her blog and in Hyperbole and a Half, she’s struggled with mental illness. So the publication of Solutions and Other Problems is itself a triumph.  

The book is good, and (I mean this most sincerely), like being reunited with a long lost friend. It’s about all kinds of things. Dogs and how funny they are. Cats. Ridiculous stories of her childhood. Social awkwardness. Technology. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. The ugly duckling. An ugly frog who goes sledding. An immensely touching montage of memories of her sister. Alienation. An existential crisis. (That may be just another way of describing mental illness. Or perhaps not. In any case, she’s considerably funnier than Camus.) 

The last words of the book are: “Because nobody should have to feel like a pointless little weirdo alone. Especially if they are.” Allie, old friend whom I don’t actually know, you’re not alone. Not at all. 

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BOOK: Solutions and Other Problems

AUTHOR: Allie Brosh

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2020

IMAGE: Book cover, Simon & Schuster