I listened to this on audiobook, which I usually enjoy when the author is the narrator, but I struggled with this one. I was excited to read about Ellie as a real person, without the façade of the characters I know her as. And I’m not sure if this is just the way that she talks all of the time, but I felt like everything she said was veiled in a tone of sarcasm, and it made it really hard to fully relate to what she was saying. I know she had a disclaimer that a lot of her stories were exaggerated, and I did have a good laugh at a couple of points, but it couldn’t help but feeling a little disingenuous. I also didn’t really get the point of a lot of her stories; like she would talk about this random thing that happened without explaining its significance/how it impacted her/etc. I mean, it was funny, but I felt like there was a lack of a “point.” There was no theme or common thread, it was just a bunch of random things that happened to a random person who somehow became a little famous.

SO FUNNY I LOVE ELLIE KEMPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like Ellie Kemper and this was enjoyable and nice!

Kemper's whit and good-girl attitude make this collection of essays in her first memoir an exciting, fast read.
Her humor and description often make it unclear if she is a reliable storyteller, and that makes the work all the more exciting to read. Her genuine, clearly flawed, and expressly human actions are brought to life throughout each essay. I have already started recommending this to everyone I know.
Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was just a bit boring and not that funny. I like Ellie Kemper as an actress/comedian but there just wasn’t enough here to keep me interested. I think this would have been better if she had waited until later in her career when she might have more stories to tell.

Closer to 2.5. It started out promising and Ellie Kemper is a good writer, but ultimately there is little there there. By the time she goes "you wouldn't know them... because I didn't tell you about them yet" for the second or third time, and she devotes an entire chapter to Soulcycle you can tell she's running out of things to say, in what is already a rather slim volume. It makes you feel better about your upbringing, because it makes you feel like you've survived more than she ever will.

I enjoyed the audiobook of this, highly recommend Ellie's narration for this work, I don't think it would be as punchy and fun without it.

Ellie Kemper has led an entirely frictionless life, which made this memoir have a different flavor from other comedian memoirs I've read (Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Trevor Noah, even Mindy Kaling). Usually memoirs like this are trying to strike a balance between the serious, challenging moments in their lives, some essays with more of an agenda, and some hilarious anecdotes. Ellie Kemper's book is pure joy and fluff the whole way through, with no hint of darkness or strain. It is probably the most consistently funny of the comedian memoirs I've read, with several moments that made me laugh out loud. But there's something to the reviews on here that say she didn't have quite enough material to fill a book, and I think it would be borderline boring if read instead of listened to.

To come