In a style of voice much like the wonderful Tara Schuster’s [b:Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: And Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, from Someone Who's Been There|46064076|Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies And Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, from Someone Who's Been There|Tara Schuster|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568743976l/46064076._SY75_.jpg|70980782] with much of the brusqueness of Alida Nugent’s [b:Don't Worry, It Gets Worse: One Twentysomething's (Mostly Failed) Attempts at Adulthood|16171220|Don't Worry, It Gets Worse One Twentysomething's (Mostly Failed) Attempts at Adulthood|Alida Nugent|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1363583081l/16171220._SY75_.jpg|22018670], Moore wants to pull you, the reader, into the conspiratorial undoing of her insecurities and her “hilariously painful” home life. Jostling between first and second person, she makes it easy for you to fall into step beside her as she points out all the evidence that proves she really knows how to be independent and alone— and how awful it’s been self-soothing for all these years when everyone expects and occasionally demands (like at the doctor’s office, or at “orphan Christmas” parties) her to just be normal and have family or friends she can count on like everybody else does. What I loved especially was how she so adeptly describes the thing we do when we are upset and craft apologies or alternate happy-endings in our heads in place of the conversations that should, but likely won’t, actually take place. Also adored how she admitted to comparing life events to “seasons” of a tv show, especially as it relates to the casting of her life and considering if that guy from “season 15”(when she was 15-years-old) might make a comeback because the audience is getting antsy and she needs a solid love interest already!

It’s possible that the entirety could be summed up with an aside she makes (but the innards are pretty freaking great so I don’t recommend only reading this summary and without picking up a copy immediately) when discussing the awful feelings she’s mired in during Christmas: “Because I’m a human being” she says and I wish that every person on the planet with any power or privilege could be slapped in the face with that reminder because I’m pretty sure society would be a whole less shitty. And those people, with the power to make the change to better the lives of others, could accept their own humanity and maybe grab on to a little humility too and do some good for their peers/employees/constituents/fellow humans because god knows we need more than a little good right now.