Allie Brosh has a truly unique way of communicating her story. Her book, Hyperbole and a Half is a collection of her comics and stories from her blog. This book helps some understand, and gives others something to relate to. Through her funny stories and adorable drawings, she acknowledges personal problems and experiences.

Her book is separated into different stories, some continuations of the previous, and others with almost no attachments to any story in the book. Every story is about her and things that had occurred in her life. All of the stories have small comics or pictures to help visualize the scenes. The way she writes seems almost as if you were talking to her.
It’s fascinating to read about the things that go on in someone else’s head, and this book does exactly that. She writes about how she acted as a child, her dogs, her anxiety and depression, her strange coping mechanism, and a goose. The part that had the largest impact on me was how she described exactly how depression felt. She described how it was weirdly alright to feel sad if you had a reason, that eventually the problem would go away, and you would feel better, but how waking up one day and just being sad robs you of any means to feel better. When there’s no problem to fix, you can’t pinpoint why or when or what. It just confuses you.
Her book leads with the message that you are not alone. Every story and comic would help someone who feels like they’re a terrible human being. She explains her own thought process and habits, and throughout the book, one would realize that they think similarly. In the end, the reader feels better about themselves, knowing that someone else has the same frighteningly evil thoughts that they have, and the same ridiculous coping systems. This book opens eyes.
Her drawings really do add to the experience. Sometimes they help explain, but most of the time, they add humor to serious subjects. Without her pictures, the book could’ve been too serious, and too sad to read, but because the pictures are there, they add a tremendous amount of giggles to her stories. Even though they’re not the best drawings, they’re clear and illustrate the scene.
All of her stories are relatable in some way, even the most bizarre ones. Bits of her experiences can be found in everyone’s life. From her strange dogs, to her freaky childhood, everyone’s been in at least one of those positions. In her book, she explains multiple life lessons through words and pictures, and lets people know that they’re not alone with their strange thoughts and habits.