I did not finish this book even though I have it many many attempts. Between the poor grammar and spelling on a supposedly final draft and the fact that it was just a vapid sorry to begin with, I just couldn't do it.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Meghan and her story. I have followed her on youtube for years. She has overcome so much.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

Meghan isn't a person I'm totally familiar with, I think I watched some of her videos in 2014, and then became familiar with her again in February of this year during her Youtube hacking scandal. However, I still really enjoyed this memoir.
Meghan is very vocal about mental health online, and goes deeper about her own experiences in the book. It's honestly heartbreaking to read through, learning the somewhat ups and downs of her life. It's a memoir that's very open ended, but hopeful. Before reading, I'd hoped to learn more about the life of an influencer (because it's something that I'll never be able to do) but think that in the end it made it feel more authentic talking about her young school life and experience.

I really enjoyed this one! I definitely preferred the elements that felt more like a memoir than the parts that leaned more towards self-help, but overall, still a solid read. (I'm also very biased because I've been following Meghan for years and just really like her as a person.)

This book is basically what you would expect from a young Youtuber. Not necessarily bad, but nothing to write home about. It's kind of like an older sister giving advice even though she is not that much older than you and has made bad decisions but feels wise because of them. I used to watch Meghan on Youtube for years so I was interested to see if there was any juicy gossip that I did see in her vlogs. To be honest, there wasn't as much as I was hoping for. She relied too much on pop culture references and jokes that it felt too informal.

I've followed Meghan Rienks on social media for years, so I was very intrigued when I found out she was writing a memoir. Because Meghan is an internet personality and has been for a long time, she has already shared a lot about her life and struggles with anxiety and depression with the world. However, this memoir seemed to give her the chance to share stories she never has before and say "See? You're not special. I've survived that too." She focused mainly on the relationships she's had over the years between herself and friends, family, and boyfriends.

The setup of this book was very appealing to me. The book was broken into sections and she started each chapter with a personal story relating to the section. Then, at the end of each chapter, she would take whatever lesson or coping mechanism she learned from her experience and share her insights. These lessons were all relatable to readers dealing with a spectrum of relationship drama, but by starting with a personal story she was able to prove where her advice was coming from.

I haven't followed Meghan since the beginning of her YouTube journey, but this memoir would certainly be interesting to someone who has. In general, I think being able to realize that while she was posting a hairstyle video or whatever, a friendship was simultaneously imploding off-screen is an important reminder that just because people share part of their lives online doesn't mean they're sharing everything.

I will say that there were a few grammatical errors that I found while reading, but I'm assuming that's because my version was an ARC.

I've never heard of Meghan before, much less watched her you tube channel. I honestly don't remember requesting this book but I try and read all Netgalley books that I receive.

First off, let me say I did like the book. When I was reading it I thought it would be a great book for my daughter's when in High School. Meghan talks about all her crushes and mistakes she made with boys in a humorous way. She reminded me of the stupid stuff I did to get boys attention or perhaps the stupid things I did when they gave me attention. It made me feel better that even pretty girls do stupid stuff . Lol! I was a chubby, private school girl who still gets nervous at 46 and my mouth just spits out dumb things.

That being said, since I am 46 I didn't relate to alot of stuff. I feel like if I was a follower of hers I would absolutely love this book because you can tell her personality is in every chapter.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have followed the author for quite some time now on YouTube. I enjoyed reading about her life. There are some parts that were so relatable to my life. Meghan's personality shines through the book. I was able to understand her even more while reading her book.

It took me awhile to get into it. But half way through it it got very interesting. These were the moments that I was looking forward to once I learned that she was going to come out with a book.

If you want to learn more about Meghan's life i suggest you pick up this book.

I'm an occasional viewer of Meghan Rienks's popular YouTube channel, so I was excited to get my hands on her memoir. (Thank you, Gallery Books and NetGalley, for the eARC.) This book starts out strong, with generous helpings of Rienks's wit and charming anecdotes. I wish it had remained in this humorous memoir mode, but around the 40% mark it turned sharply in the direction self-help, with generic advice that felt more suited for young teens than adults around Meghan's age (mid-twenties). I did appreciate the heartfelt moments—the section about her difficult relationship with her mother was particularly poignant—but far too much of the book was bogged down by bulleted lists. If Rienks someday writes a straightforward, full-on memoir, I'll be all in. But this one, though initially promising, missed the mark.

Rounding up to 3.5 stars to 4! Overall, I really enjoyed this book. While I’m aware of who Rienks is and have watched some of her videos over the years, I was never necessarily a huge fan. Even still, I was entertained throughout, especially since we’re only two years apart in age, we experienced a lot of the same things as millennials. I found myself being able to heavily relate to her, and enjoyed the inside look at her life. She’s also hilarious and I audibly laughed a lot during my reading!

That being said, some of the chapters felt very disjointed, like this was a collection of essays versus a memoir. It didn’t take away from my reading experience too much, but there’s definitely some repetition during the book. On that same note, I feel like it become kind of self-helpy, though I didn’t mind it since these were lessons from her own life and experience, I just think it’d be a better read for teenagers or college students given that.

Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

3.5 but rounding up for the chapter on anxiety alone

i wanna start this off by saying advice/self help books aren't my thing as i find all of them to end up being at least a little bit cheesy/filled with advice that's fairly generic. 100% the reason i read this is because i love meghan and i have been following her for years. so the parts about her personal life, i loved and was super interested in. the advice parts however were kind of hit and miss. firstly, i feel like the target audience for this is definitely a younger demographic, so some of the advice fell into that generic category that younger people may not have heard yet. also, i don't know if this is something common for these types of books, but there were a lot of times where the book would reference something that we already have read about yet talk about it in more detail than it needed and other things that made it seem like skipping around was a thing? idk, as a mostly fiction/genre reader, that was strange to me, and it also felt like these repeated details were just taking up space that could've went to something else.

one piece of advice i really did enjoy though and will probably reference in the future is that for dating apps. i found it so fresh and current to our times. and as hinted at before, the whole chapter on anxiety meant everything to me, both reading meghan's personal accounts of it and the advice she gives on it.

overall, i enjoyed this. i would've preferred a more straight up memoir, but that's just my personal taste. if you're a fan of meghan, i think you'll enjoy this for the most part, especially the latter half. if you're a fan of meghan AND advice books, then this will probably be your shit.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of You're Not Special! Unfortunately this was a miss for me. I watched Meghan on YouTube back around 2012-2013, but slowly grew apart from her audience as she and myself evolved. I was really excited for an ARC of her book, and it started off really strong. Her humor is evident in the book, and she has reflected on her past in a way to make it relatable and gives the "you aren't alone/you're not special" vibe. It then started to feel like it was meant more for high school readers, but then at times it felt so adult maybe it would be too much for high school readers? Lots of mixed messages on who the audience was meant to be, which showed a few chapters I really enjoyed and but most I could have done without.

Admittedly I did not know who Meghan Reiken was before requesting this on Netgalley, but I like memoirs and the synopsis interested me. Once I was approved to read the ARC I went to YouTube to watch a few videos so I could have an idea of who she was.

This “sort-of memoir” starts right out of the gate with wit, humor and in your face realness- and I couldn’t get enough!

And I really couldn’t get enough because as soon as I was enjoying the book, it took a sharp turn and became a whole different book. For some unknown reason, the funny book of telling stories from her past changed into a self help book. When I was reading the list on how to make a friend, I was expecting it to be sarcastic or riddled with mishaps from her life. But no, it was actually a list with steps on how to make friends.

I’m not knocking self help books, but I don’t understand the switch. And really, what is the intended audience? The first 40% is based around drunk stories, semi dirty jokes and her dating life. Then the “hot to make a friend” list appears along with tips on how to feel confident in a two piece bathing suit in middle school.

I just don’t get it.

It’s really unfortunate because I was really enjoying this book until it had an identity crisis half way through.

I much preferred the first half where Meghan dropped some life lessons and pears of wisdom in between the tales of her shannegians and bad dates. Instead of the second part where the tips were listed in bold and numbered.

The writing style of the beginning reminded me a lot of Babe Walker’s “White Girl Problems,” which is a compliment. It was full of self deprecating humor and pop culture references make for my favorite kind of humor.

Plenty of Harry Potter references but also deep cut references that brought a smile to my face - like the movie Aquamarine. But then the author quickly ruined these smart references by immediately making the same reference in the next chapter which felt very lazy. In addition to Aquamarine, there were two back to back Amy Dunne from Gone Girl references. The first was spot on, the second one didn’t make sense and was too close to the first.

The author referenced middle school far too much. I am not sure if this is because the author is very young and doesn’t have as much life experience and stories to share or if it is because she didn’t discuss her YouTube channel much so she didn’t want to pull from there. Plus, she does talk about the same incidents multiple times through out the book which interrupted the flow and added to it being disjointed. It was hard to keep everything straight because no timeline was being followed.

Overall, this book was disappointing, disjointed and unfocused.

Youre not special ⭐️
This is Meghans life. Messy and boy crazed.
Meghans life is comedic and also a cautionary tale. When going through her stories, her life, you get to see all of her ups and downs and a lot of boys. Because I do you know the author via the Internet I enjoyed this more because I know her humor and sarcasm and was able to sort a picture of her just going through and telling the stories about her life.
She also give some pretty good advice on life and dating and staying alive.
The more I read the more I enjoyed the book I enjoyed her questionnaires and lists and insights it made me laugh. And getting a book to make me laugh out loud is really a nice thing.

Thank you to Gallery books via netgalley for sending me a copy of you’re not special by Meghan Rienks. Available on May 5 2020
All opinions are my own.

I love Meghan's YouTube videos, Podcast and instagram posts. She is so funny and REAL. When reading her memoir, I feel like I'm getting advice from a really cool older sister. I loved this. Also, there are some amazing pieces of advice in this book!

"You're Not Special" by Meghan Rienks is hilarious and helpful all in one. I have been a follower of Meghan since her early days on YouTube as "MeghanRosette" and getting to step into her head with this book was extremely fascinating. I love the way she keeps things light hearted while also talking about the hardships that you may experience in your life. From dating to friends to just about anything, Rienks talks about the important aspects of life and reminds everyone that they are not alone.
I think this book would be wonderful for a young person who is struggling with finding their place in the world. Great read!

This was an entertaining memoir(-ish). I especially enjoyed that she included some helpful tips on how to improve your emotions.

You're Not Special was such a great deep dive into the life of Meghan! If you ever watched her youtube videos or follow her on any of her social media, I'd definitely give it a read! She doesn't hold back when talking about her childhood. all the awkward and embarrassing years, her relationship with her parents, and her life in general. My personal favorite part of the book was reading about her relationship with her boyfriend Mats. She took us through how it started and showed us the texts and how it's the love she's waited her life for! I'm a sucker for reading a cute love story. All in all, I gave this book 5 stars because I know the author from her youtube and social media and I feel like this was such a raw and real telling of her life and I appreciate being let in.

I first became aware of Meghan through her role in Oscar's Hotel. I knew she had a podcast, and I was curious to read this book. I found it a grave disappointment. I'd call it a low-rent "Grace's Guide" wanna-be, that leans too hard on being self-aware of her own privilege and status to be interesting or relatable. I would not give this to a younger person I knew, nor did I learn anything outstanding about her life. Also, she's a college drop-out, which makes her role model status questionable.

You’re Not Special by Meghan Rienks is an awesome, down to earth memoir that was hilarious and kept me engaged from beginning to end. The book also had a slight advice by “don’t do what I did” and “ yeh you aren’t alone in that thought” kind of book as well.

I loved the charming yet snarky, funny yet serious tones that Meghan presented with her presentation. She lets us all know through her stories that: yeh no one is perfect, yes life sometimes sucks, yes we all will end up having go through bad stuff and guess what?......it is normal and OK. The biggest take home is that what makes a person is how they respond and move forward from adversities. That is what separates us. Bad things will happen to us that are sometimes beyond our control and it is what we do with that that defines us as a person and shapes our future. Meghan just wanted us to know (in a fun/playful way so as not to make us cry) that she went through that stuff too, and ypu are not alone. And it will be ok.

This book was so much fun. I really enjoyed reading all the ups and downs. Great pacing and layout. A quick and fabulous read.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.