Not my favorite but I enjoy Clery and thought this book had a few laughs. It felt mostly for shock value but maybe that was the point?

I enjoy Laura's videos and comedy and was looking forward to this one! I was surprised at her painful past and how she overcame so much to get where she is today. I will say that the tone of the book overall made me feel somehow uncomfortable, as if I was sneaking a peek at my own teen's diary and overstepping. It made me feel sorry for her while wanting to root for her. I did like it, just not as much as I thought I would. I do enjoy her comedy and appreciate her sharing a peek at her life!
Thanks to Laura Clery, Gallery Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

I absolutely loved this book, it was such an eye opener. I actually follow her on all of her social media and have been a faithful watcher of her videos. I was absolutely thrilled when I learned that Laura was writing a book. To be able to learn more about her life and everything she went through was such an amazing experience. The tone and the book stayed true to the person she is. It definitely had heartbreaking moments that made me feel a lot of emotions. I definitely enjoyed myself.
It was well written and I never had the chance to put this down, I finished it in one go.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this amazing opportunity

This book takes you through Laura's life, you'll see her journey through her ups and downs, she has always wanted to be an actress, but she was stuck in her little town, how could she ever make it if she stayed, she decided to move to New York and that's where her problems really began. This book is funny yet sad but also gives you an inside of how life can go.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

This book Is everything. Laura clery is hilarious. If you haven’t seen her videos, look them up before you read this amazing book.

When I saw that Laura Clery-one of my favorite comedians-was releasing a memoir, I wasn't sure how to feel. While I love her comedy, I wasn't very familiar with her outside of her work. I was interested to see what she had to say that could make for a compelling book and hoped that she wasn't jumping on the bandwagon with so many other minor celebrities that have nothing real to say. I was so pleasantly surprised by this book! She writes so openly of her addiction and struggles with recovery, with sincerity and ownership of her faults, flaws, and, ultimately, her life and recovery.

Reminiscent of Busy Philipps’ book, this was a breezy, easy read with some troublesome parts but many heartwarming ones too :)

In Idiot: Life Stories from the Creator of Help Helen Smash, Clery breaks down her transition from the suburbs of Chicago to living in LA and writing and filming her own show. She walks through the transitions of addiction to sobriety and finding her way through relationships. I received a copy of Idiot from Gallery, Pocket Books via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Laura Clery, the creator of Help Helen Smash on Facebook Watch, is one of my favorite online comedians. I've been addicted to her Help Helen Smash series and her other videos for a good year now, and was super excited when I saw that she'd published a memoir. Her memoir does not let down, maintaining the same strong recognizable voice her fans have come to know.

It is, I think, important to note that this is just as much a recovery memoir as it is the memoir of a comedian, without recovery, Clery clearly wouldn't be who she is today. One of my favorite genres is comedic memoirs, in the vein of Lauren Graham and Tig Nataro, Clery strives to reach that level. While Tig Nataro takes her trials and turns them into comedic gold, Laura Clery is just a bit short. Maybe it's all still just a little too fresh, but sometimes there's an edge of something that feels like she wasn't quite ready to be this open this public about her pain.

Overall it's a good first draft of looking at life now that things are better. I'd like to see Clery try discussing the harder topics again once she's more settled into the other side of her life and more comfortable talking about the difficult things. For fans of her show, while her voice is clear, this isn't her show, here she fills in the gaps and shows who she really is as a person.

Side note - having read a surprising number of recover memoirs, I really appreciate that she didn't try to push her version of spirituality on people, it was a nice ending to the surprise amount of God and religion I've been running into in books lately.

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of Idiot by Laura Clery. I'm actually not a huge fan of most of Laura's videos, but I respect her hustle. I could tell that she had a good story to tell. This was a true story of success that was earned through hard work and always climbing back out of the black hole of addiction. I hope she continues to share her story. I highly recommend this book to fans of Laura, as well as fans of memoirs.

Idiot: Essays
By: Laura Clery

4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis:

Laura Clery makes a living by sharing inappropriate comedy sketches with millions of strangers on the Internet. She writes songs about her anatomy, talks trash about her one-eyed rescue pug, and sexually harasses her husband, Stephen. And it pays the bills!

Now, in her first-ever book, Laura recounts how she went from being a dangerously impulsive, broke, unemployable, suicidal, cocaine-addicted narcissist, crippled by fear and hopping from one toxic romance to the next…to a more-happy-than-not, somewhat rational, meditating, vegan yogi with good credit, a great marriage, a fantastic career, and four unfortunate-looking rescue animals. Still, above all, Laura remains an amazingly talented, adorable, and vulnerable, self-described… Idiot.

With her signature brand of offbeat, no-holds-barred humor, Idiot introduces you to a wildly original—and undeniably relatable—new voice.

My Thoughts:

Ok, I will be the first to admit that a biography/memoir is not my first choice. However when I heard that the genius behind Help Helen Smash was releasing a book I had to do more research. From there I found that she was writing about her time before youtube and Facebook and social media period...
To me this was already a hit, but then I found out what that time included... Then I was hooked I had to read this book!! Im so so super happy I did. Lauras book is relatable and written in a humorous but honestly blunt manner. Her trials through her own addiction and what it had caused her mentally and physically was really relatable for me. I have dealt with addiction and still deal with PTSD and Bipolar b disorder, so for ne to hear someone be honest about failing but getting back up was what really touched me and made ne fall harder for this book!!
I already loved Laura and her hilarious videos, but now I can actually relate to her and it gives the reader a really personal effect. Great job girl!!
Go ahead and be a boss bitch!!

absolutely adorable! The humor of the comic reads through loud and clear! Love her clips on facebook, so I had to try the book, and loved it. Well done!

Thank you to NetGalley, Laura Clery and Gallery Books for this ARC.

I love Laura Clery's videos, and was super stoked to read this book. She's got such a freshness and bluntness that is just amazing. The book is just as hilarious as she is in her videos. A fantastic read.

A few months ago I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a video with a character named "Helen". I couldn't stop laughing! When I figured out who the person behind the "Helen" videos was, I started following her. Laura Clery has not disappointed since! When I saw she had a book coming out, I wanted to get my hands on a copy of it! This book was a quick read with a glimpse into Laura's background and her dark past with addiction. I enjoyed reading it, but I bet the audio version will be hilarious!
Thank you to NetGalley and Galley Books for an arc of this title!

I was not familiar with Laura Clery prior to reading this book and I'm quite sad about that. I spent most of the night, after finishing the book, watching her videos and my god, she is funny.

Idiot is Laura's story - of her life so far. It's open, it's honest, it's hilarious and it's full of hard lessons. She's very open about her former addictions and relationship problems, and I think that's part of what makes her likable. She doesn't sugar coat anything.

I'm excited to see what happens next.....especially now that there's a baby! (Who is the CUTEST...I mean, of course, I stalked her instagram.)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I just recently “discovered” Laura Clery and have loved her videos on Facebook and YouTube.. She is hilarious! So I was so excited when I received an advanced copy from Netgalley. If you are a fan of the humor of Mindy Khaling or Jenny Lawson, you should enjoy this book. Even though some of the topics are serious ( her years of drug and alcohol abuse), Laura is a great storyteller and her story is inspiring. Something I really appreciated was how she fully accepts responsibility for her bad choices.

I received a digital advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
FIVE STARS and if I could give this book more… I would. I have been a HUGE fan of Laura for years now. Since the first time I saw a Pamela Pumpkin video my friends and I have “upped to Jesus.” So when I saw this title available for review.. I knew I absolutely had to request it.
It is so easy to get into the mindset that these “internet celebs” just got lucky, but Laura makes her journey known in Idiot and she holds absolutely nothing back. She is hilariously raw and real.
Even though she is more known for her comedic snapchat induced characters, Clery is incredibly sweet, ernest, and charming through every page. I hope everyone will do their part in ‘helping Helen smash’ and buy this book. It is utterly fantastic.

Super thanks to Laura Clery, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for letting me review this title.

I was not familiar with the author prior to reading this book. It was overall well-written & took the reader through the cycle of addiction, sobriety, & relapse. The author doesn't blame others for her circumstances & tells her story matter-of-factly. She brings a great deal of levity to a serious subject & clearly is able to laugh at herself. The absurdity of what she went through to achieve her dreams is astounding & speaks to the author's tenacity.

I had not heard of Laura Clery prior to grabbing this book. But after reading, I realized I did know her from her brief work as an actress. I found the essays that Clery shared were unfortunate experiences but she always put a positive spin on them. Her experiences in LA remind me of Chelsea Handlers biography.

Thank you #Netgalley for an advanced copy!

On the surface, it'd be near-effortless to pass Clery's book by, as it appears as if it quickly files under the "fifteen minutes of fame book deal" category, probably housing a couple slice o' life snippets we can at least half-relate to, and then--blamo!--stardom. Such is a natural thing to do, as I figure there are many of those coming out of the woodwork (and all due respect to those people, to be clear).

But here, there's a potent, worthwhile life story to be told. Some hard lessons learned, and colorfully recounted.

Clery's the first to give herself crap for making poor life decisions, and they lay the track to her success, displaying wisdom forged from some massively chaotic errors. The only thing that surpasses the sum of her mistakes is her drive and discipline. It's not off-base to say that, based on her comedic contributions and the content of this book, she's certainly achieving the career goals she's set for herself, and surely a role model for those to follow.

I'm admittedly quite charmed by her style of humor via her short Help Helen Smash material (had absolutely no clue she had been at her career for a while), and now this book is further proof that she's a funny writer, too. In here you'll find inspiration, appreciation, and laughs. Clery understands the connection between tragedy and comedy all too well, and it's to our benefit, because it appears as if she's really only begun to hit her stride. Hopefully we'll get to experience much more of her ideas in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Gallery Books, and Pocket Books for the advance read.

I've been following Laura Clery for some time now and was definitely excited to read about her journey. Although this book covers very dark times in her life, she somehow managed to discuss it with the humor we all love. Laura Clery enforces the truth of " to be happy is too serve". Serving others made her into the woman she is today, and of course hard work as well. After reading her story I now admire her for who she is and not just because of the funny chic on social media.