I heard about this book on a book podcast this summer, and I was so excited about it. Mainly, because it was compared to Dear Sugar, which is one of my all time favorites. I’m sad to admit that it didn’t live up to my expectations.

What I liked: The stories were interesting, and they are all about real people. The other put an ad out on Craigslist with the text “tell me about yourself” and got response after response. After listening to many people, she decided to write down their stories- anonymously. The stories are raw and emotional and show humanity at its most tender.

What I didn’t like: The majority of the stories are very sad. This is a book that you definitely need to be in the right headspace to read. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel; there’s just a tunnel. Which is sometimes the truth, but it can be hard to read about. Because of the structure of this, I also didn’t emotionally connect to any characters. I think what distinguishes Dear Sugar from this is that Cheryl Strayed uses her own experience/stories to respond to strangers’ stories/questions. This is purely stranger’s sad stories. I have discovered that, as a reader, I need to connect to the characters/people I read about. And the format of this didn’t allow that for me.

Overall, I’d say if you like real people’s stories- particularly sad/tragic/unusual ones, this is worth reading. I’d definitely recommend this as a library check out because I don’t think you’d want to read it more than once.