Review: Everybody But You by Thia Sexton

Title: Everybody But You
Author: Thia Sexton
Format: ARC
Publisher: Weasel Press
Publish Date: August 29, 2017
Source: PR

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: ""A collection that's spirited and endearing . . . which she tells with winning self-deprecation and a level of detail that conjures the dusty, sunny fragrance of her travels. Sexton punctuates the pieces in an all-caps-studded brand of wacky humor, mostly in the form of wry one-liners." -- Kirkus Reviews"

My Two Cents:

"Everybody But You" is a collection of short stories by Thia Sexton, comedian. I was initially drawn to this book as I had seen Sexton on Comedy Central before and was looking for a light read that might have some humor thrown in. This book touches on many different subjects. Some of them are very funny on the serious, others are serious but Sexton does her best to try and lighten the mood, with mixed results.

In this collection, Sexton regales us with stories that cover everything from funny surnames to her adventures abroad (these are some of my favorite tales in this book). There are other stories like the one where she calls a suicide hotline, happens to get an operator that really sucks at his job (like really, really sucks), and she has to reassure him instead of him really helping her (this kind of made me cringe since hotlines like that are supposed to be a good resource and I'm not sure if it was the light treatment or the incompetence that bothered me more).

There are some truly funny stories that made me laugh out loud (always the mark of a good story). I really liked some of the stories about her family (nieces and nephews) and also about being abroad. I also liked the story about how she came to love New York. I'm not a New Yorker but I love to visit and I loved the way she captured the city (and EVERYBODY'S hatred of the one way streets and while I would never be brave enough to back down one of the streets, she does and lives to share the hilarious tale).

Overall, this was a solid collection with only a few stories that did not hit the mark for me.