Read my full review at between-the-shelves.com!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon Pulse for providing me with an early copy of this book to review!

I'll start with the good: there are a lot of funny lines in this book. Kirby's voice is unique; while it's difficult to follow his train of thought at times, he's overall a funny guy. He tries to make light of what's happening to him, despite the fact that he's struggling more with his sister's death than he's letting on. It's this suppression of emotion that felt the most real to me throughout the book. Kirby doesn't want to talk about it, with anyone.

For me, the timeline of the book wasn't quite believable. Everything here happens within a day. But it feels like Kirby's in school a lot longer than he should be. There's all this time between classes where bullying happens. Overall, the events don't seem like they add up to a single day. The events would have made more sense if they spread out over a series of days, instead.

The other thing that bothered me was the little time that was spent on Kirby dealing with his sister's death. This book is being promoted as a book that deals with grief. But, we don't get much of that actually within the text. Just small scenes here and there. I would have liked seeing this theme explored more through Kirby's eyes.

Overall, despite the funny moments in the book, This Might Hurt a Bit left me feeling a bit lukewarm about the story.

2.5/5 stars
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