oh no by Alex Norris
My rating: 5/5 cats
BEFORE THE REVIEW, A STORY:
i wanted this book, so i ordered a copy into the store where i’ve been working. when it came in, i said “YAY!” and brought it over to the register-area to show chloë. we had barely gotten to giggle over ANY of it before a customer glided over and while i was ringing her up, she reached for the book, flipped through it, and added it to her haul.
chloë drawed this to stop my weeping.
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i have read it now, but no time to review it yet – OH NO!
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AND NOW REVIEW
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i love this book. i really love this book.
you would THINK that a three-panel strip using the same punch line every time would get old after a while. and many DID think it – critics of this book are all I AM DISAPPOINT! IS SAME JOKE FOREVER! the author of this book anticipated their displeasure:
and yet, if comedy has taught us anything, it’s that tenacity is rewarded and the more times you do something, the funnier it is.
and this book is funny. i’m sorry, but it just IS. and it is so many different kinds of funny
it is ‘oh no, that is absurd’ funny
the rueful laughter of ‘oh no, i have ruined my own life’ in sizes small
and medium
and large
with a side order of ‘oh no, i must laff thru my tears’
and some very relatable content regarding the oh noes of productivity fails, whether they are circumstantial and blameless:
or… otherwise:
this book also covers the oh noes of all relationships – friends:
family
romance
and furbabies
it’s a litany of human follies, and the simplicity of the drawings/running gag belies how much work these strips are actually doing. for example, this one:
is a punch-punch-punch of deflating assumptions and misplaced envy: skill ≠ financial stability, success ≠ happiness, beret or no beret, all blobs are sad blobs, so manage your expectations
and, like the story of everest, the OH NO just keeps getting funnier and funnier the more it occurs. but also sad. very deeply sad.
this book is 1/2 all-new strips and 1/2 strips dragged outta here:
there is also a store for the buying of oh no merch:
but of course right now it’s all sold out OH NO
someday i will have me that pin.
i love this book. i am a blob.
oh no.
