Title: Idiot
Author: Laura Clery
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication date: September 24th, 2019
256 pages
5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
From YouTube star and Facebook Video sensation Laura Clery comes a collection of comedic essays in the vein of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby and You’ll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein.
Laura Clery makes a living by sharing inappropriate comedy sketches with millions of strangers on the Internet. She writes songs about her anatomy, talks trash about her one-eyed rescue pug, and sexually harasses her husband, Stephen. And it pays the bills!
Now, in her first-ever book, Laura recounts how she went from being a dangerously impulsive, broke, unemployable, suicidal, cocaine-addicted narcissist, crippled by fear and hopping from one toxic romance to the next…to a more-happy-than-not, somewhat rational, meditating, vegan yogi with good credit, a great marriage, a fantastic career, and four unfortunate-looking rescue animals. Still, above all, Laura remains an amazingly talented, adorable, and vulnerable, self-described…Idiot.
With her signature brand of offbeat, no-holds-barred humor, Idiot introduces you to a wildly original—and undeniably relatable—new voice.
Review
Brave. I didn’t feel brave at all. I felt scared out of my mind. But I suppose bravery is not being unafraid, it’s being shit-your-pants-scared-out-of-your-mind and doing the damn thing anyway.
laura clery, idiot
So, I recently started watching Laura’s videos on YouTube and I find her and Stephen to be so funny and witty. One specific video told the story of how she met Stephen and she re-enacted it. At that point, I realized she was sober and and addict, and so was Stephen. At the end of the video, she never even finished the story but instead said to go read the book. So I did! Kudos to Laura for that level of advertisement.
I don’t often read memoirs, so when I do I need them to be interesting enough to hold my attention and well written enough to make it worth it. And folks? Idiot brought both of those things. Laura’s stories were well written, easy to understand, and a breeze to read through. Her writing is very straightforward and no nonsense, albeit the events she is writing about are shocking and scary at times. Her story and path to recovery is harrowing and terrifying, but also sadly common. She speaks often of her support system to get her to her relationship with Stephen, and even the ups and downs of that relationship as they both relapse and put each other through hell.
I wasn’t sure how well Laura’s on screen persona and humor would translate into written words, but it WORKED. I wouldn’t say it was laugh out loud funny, but more of just humorous enough to keep the storyline going. The humor of Laura’s story is more a dark and twisty humor, where you nervously laugh at something decidedly not funny that is told in a funny way – if that makes sense.
I respect the hell out of Laura for putting her past and present on blast like this. It can’t be easy to write down all your demons and past terrible decisions for the world to see. It’s not something I would be able to do myself, and it was an honor to read about Laura’s life.
If you enjoy memoirs, I highly suggest picking this up. TW for addiction, drug/alcohol abuse/possible sexual assault.
Happy reading, folks!
Baltimore Bibliophile 