The Book Nook Chronicles

Erica’s Experience

Title: Quietly Hostile

Author: Samantha Irby

Genre: Essays/Memoir

Page Count: 304

Publication Date: May 16, 2023

Interested? Buy Quietly Hostile here

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Review

I want to preface this post with a hard fact: I learned about Samantha Irby in March.

This review happened all thanks to a dear friend of mine who invited me to a Q&A at Loyola University featuring Sam. I am not one to turn down a book event, quite literally ever, so I was there in a heartbeat and bought her book, sight unseen.

Irby’s prose are the purest source of chaotic good I’ve read in a while. There’s nothing more refreshing than a woman so willing to speak candidly about her bowel movements. There’s also nothing more inspiring than someone who can laugh at their own anxieties. Irby celebrates crass humor in a nuanced way I can only respect. My internalized Catholic girl? Blushing. Constantly blushing.

A perfect example of this was Sam’s essay, “Body Horror!” I won’t go into detail to avoid ruining the essay for those who haven’t read the book, but just know the middle of this story falls on page 69 for a reason.

Don’t worry about there being any chronological order to the 18 essays within Quietly Hostile. They are as organized as the pile of junk mail currently sitting on my mantel. I highly recommend reading this book from cover to cover (including the dedication to Zoloft). However, if your brain’s as lawless as mine, here are the five stories I would start with:

• “David Matthews’s Greatest Romantic Hits”
• “How to Look Cool in Front of Teens?”
• “Superfan!!!”
• “The Last Normal Day”
• “What If I Died Like Elvis”

I’m pretty convinced this book would make my mother swoon like a Jane Austen heroine after a long walk, but to my fellow millennial women who like people that tell it like it is—Quitely Hostile‘s the book for you. As a girl living in Chicago trying to achieve her dreams, I salute my former, fellow Chicagoan, Sam Irby. You did the dang thing!

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You can purchase Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby here.