My sister purchased this book for me for Christmas thinking I would find it amusing. I've enjoyed her show Chelsea Lately so I was excited to open it up and give it a try. What happened over the course of my reading it was something I didn't expect.
At the start of the book all I could think about was, "wow, she got around." I was less than amused. I had never pictured her as such a hot mess of alcohol and self-destructive behavior. The first few chapters made me like her less and less as they shattered my notion that she was the kind of girl who would be such fun to go out with. Now I saw her as one of "those girls" who I would see acting out of control at a bar and judge her for it.
As the book progresses though you start to feel her maturing, even though the stories are still obsurd. My judgemental attitude slowly changed to one who saw that deep down she seemed pretty lonely and unhappy with her life. She may have been having some incredibly funny evenings, but reading what wasn't said showed something else. Eventually at the end of the story I realized that all the stories, though originally seeming very random, were tied together in a beautiful way. What was originally presented as a hell of a lot of fun turned out to be something that it seemed wasn't so much fun.
The writing in the book was nothing spectacular. There were times when I felt like I could tell where an editor changed a word/where Chelsea tried to "smart up" her writing and it was just awkward. Some of her strengths as a writer include using just enough detail to paint a picture, but not enough to boggle down and annoy the reader. She also does well to not try and be funny, but just lets her natural humor come through in her voice.
All in all, this is a short book with a good amount of laughs as well as a form of a moral to the story at the end. I would recommend it to anyone who wants light reading that isn't thought-provoking but rather just a good time.
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