Haphazard and aimless as she claims to be, Samantha Irby’s Wow, No Thank You is purposefully hilarious, real, and full of medicine for living with our culture’s contradictory messages. From relationship advice she wasn’t asked for to surrendering her cell phone as dinner etiquette, Irby is wholly unpretentious as she opines about the unspoken expectations of adulting. Her essays poke holes and luxuriate in the weirdness of modern society.

Life has never been better to Samantha Irby. Can she still be funny? It’s a gentler kind of humor we encounter here. The drama of publishing a book or pitching a show to Netflix executives (so many chairs in the room!) can’t compete with the rawness and surreal scatological pageantry of the earlier essays. Nor must it. These three collections [Wow, No Thank You, Meaty, and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life] which span a decade, ought to be read together, with this latest as a coda, striking its valedictory note and reiterating the refrain that runs through the essays. In a crisis, circling 'life’s drain,' as Irby calls it, don’t cling unnecessarily to dignity. But don’t for a second stint on the good snacks, or the good stories..

...[Irby] writes stunningly astute, hilarious essays about topics both serious (becoming a stepmother) and less so (her slightly lazy beauty rituals). But like all the best essayists, Irby brings deeper insights to even her most lighthearted work.

Samantha Irby offers yet another laugh-out-loud masterpiece.

Throughout this collection, we get up close and personal with the inner (and sometimes frighteningly outer) workings of both Irby’s body and mind.

Irby’s collection shows a little more vulnerability and a little less deflection than her previous books. She has a way of making you feel close to her.

[Irby] hilariously takes stock of where she is today and how she got there, peppering in maybe-helpful advice that she’s gathered along the way. This is a fast-paced, smart, expletive-ridden read that will soothe your angst and have you laughing well after you’ve finished the book. Irby concludes that no matter your age, and no matter what effort you put in, life is 100 percent uncomfortable–and also pretty great..

It’s Irby’s third collection of essays, although they all read more like beautifully edited blogs.

Not every book can make you laugh out loud, but her book does it easily, and with a self-deprecating flow that still reveals Irby as accepting the flow of her life outside the city in a Midwestern suburb with her wife and children. If you are a fan of Bitches Gotta Eat—the blog that started it all here in Chicago, or her two previous books, Meaty and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, then you will not be disappointed. Other than the fact that Irby’s prose will make you laugh out loud, the compelling arc of Irby maturing, for better or for worse, has grown with each book.

...a spicy cocktail that will intoxicate readers — a few fingers of Dorothy Parker and a splash of comedian Wanda Sykes, as bracing and delicious as a cosmopolitan.

... humor and a vivid, resonant voice.

One essay is a 1990s mixtape, complete with track listings and their explanations. 'Lesbian Bed Death' is a series of statements that begin with 'Sure, sex is fun,' and end with things like 'but have you ever watched PBS?'.

Even when the author describes pitching show concepts to Netflix or battling Crohn’s disease, her one-liners and comic timing remain intact. A lot of the best anecdotal material springs forth from the more embarrassing and cringeworthy moments of the author’s life.

... overly manic.