Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I DNFd this book. I wasn't a gigantic fan because it just seemed so dated, with references to the 2016 election dominating the plot. While I liked the narrator's voice and POV, the story itself just seemed kind of...out of it. I understand that coming out is still a massive deal in some families; regardless of whether it's 2022 or 1997, when I came out, my family would have likely had the same negative reaction. But I think I am just done with that particular plot device and prefer to see someone struggling for a different reason rather than hiding this type of secret.

The Comedienne’s Guide to Pride is the debut YA novel by Hayli Thomson. While it could easily summed up as a sapphic rom-com, it’s more aptly the story of a high school senior coming to terms with her sexuality, and coming out to her friends and family. Taylor Parker is the daughter of two comedians - one who is a successful Christian comedian, and one who gave up her career to raise Taylor. Though her parents are now divorced, she doesn’t think either one of them will approve of their daughter being a lesbian - or a comedian.

When Taylor receives a notification that she’s a finalist for the Emerging Writers’ Diversity Award and has a chance to win an internship at Saturday Night Live, she has less than two months to come out to her friends and family before the winner is announced. She is terrified. On top of everything else, Charlotte Grey, the girl Taylor is in love with, asks for help with her senior project, putting them in close proximity.

The Comedienne’s Guide to Pride is witty and emotional, and so very fun to read.

I got a free copy through Netgalley, this did not influence my review

Honestly, now that I have had some time to think about, I might lower my rating to 3.5 instead of 4. This book was in no way bad, but it just didn’t stand out in the sea of queer books.

I didn’t particularly like our main character and how she treated other side characters. She was completely in her own head and didn’t care for others.

I understand that coming out is a big part of the story and as a queer person myself, I completely get that she’s stressing over telling her mom, but the whole thing felt a bit anticlimactic at the end, so that was kind of disappointing.

But if you enjoy sapphic books, you could pick this up, because it wasn’t a bad book at all, it just didn’t stand out for me.

A Salem, Massachusetts teen accidentally puts a deadline on her own coming out when she enters an SNL internship contest for "diverse" writers and falls for a high school actress.

Complex character relationships shine in this YA "coming-out" Rom Com. While worrying about how those close to her will react to her lesbianism, Taylor must grapple with her own biphobia and the ways it has tainted her relationship with a bi mentor. Not only Taylor's choices, but the choices of her mother and her best friend contain layers of good intentions, flawed assumptions, and subconscious selfishness. There are no villains here, only humans doing their best to love and support one another. If you're looking for a nuanced Rom Com or a coming out narrative with a unique backdrop, this is a book you'll want to pick up.

Cute and fun, A Comedienne’s Guide to Pride tells the story of aspiring comedienne Taylor who is the finalist for an SNL sketch contest that, if she wins, will out her to all of her family and friends. While I didn’t find myself enthralled by any of the characters, Taylor’s sense of humor and jokes interspersed through her dialogue definitely had me laughing.

This queer contemporary YA book is a treat for fans of the comedy world! Taylor, a huge Saturday Night Live fan, has just won an internship at SNL and suddenly her dreams seem like they just might come true. There's one big issue though - it's a diversity internship and she hasn't actually came out to anyone yet. This book deals with Taylor's grappling to come out, learning more about herself and her sexuality, and understanding the big spectrum of what it means to be queer.

This is a cute YA romance set in Salem and it has so much small town charm. The romance was sweet and it was a quick read.

i read this a little later than i wanted to, but it was the perfect read for pride. it’s not your typical coming out story, and the main character is so so flawed and uneducated even though she is part of the lgbtq+ community, but you can’t help but love her regardless. a laugh out loud funny book, like you would expect from the title. there should be more queer stories like this one

Taylor loves Saturday Night Live and she’s a finalist for a summer internship to work on the show. There’s just one problem, the internship is targeted at diverse applicants and nobody knows she likes girls. She’s decided that she’ll come out to everyone before the winner is announced just after Christmas. With a ticking clock over her head, Taylor tries to work up the confidence to share her secrets while she gets closer to Charlotte, an out a proud lesbian Taylor’s had a crush on.

I went back and forth on whether to read this one, which I guess should have been an early warning sign. I think I would have really enjoyed this when I was younger. It was funny and had a cute romance. However, I found Taylor’s flaws to be more annoying than relatable. She wasn’t willing to open up to anyone and that translated into her being rude and biphobic to the people who cared most about her. I felt like the story focused more on some of the subplots than the main plot, but even those weren’t woven together well and were left hanging.

If the description sounds interesting to you, pick it up because it’s well written even if it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

I received an advanced copy of A Comedienne’s Guide to Pride from Page Street Publishing so I could share my review with you!

As an avid fan of Saturday Night Live (I would be more than willing to die for Kate McKinnon if it was ever necessary), I could not contain my excitement when I read the synopsis for A Comedienne’s Guide to Pride! I forced myself to wait to read my copy until Pride month, as a little reading treat, and I’m very glad I waited. A Comedienne’s Guide to Pride is an instant pride month classic! Taylor was such a hilarious protagonist, and reading from her point of view was delightful. I found her to be especially relatable, as I not only share her identity as a lesbian, but as a person who uses humor to cope with difficult circumstances. Though this book was largely very funny, there were still high emotional stakes and a lot of intense scenes for Taylor, which gave the story a solid balance in my opinion.

My Recommendation-
If you love the sense of humor the cast brings to each episode of Saturday Night Live, you need to grab a copy of A Comedienne’s Guide to Pride as soon as possible! I would especially encourage folks who need a funny queer story to make them laugh (and to give them all the feels) this pride month!

I am DNF'ing this book, not for any problematicies, but because I'm just not vibing with it. 3 stars because it has potential to be a great book for someone else.

This book is about a girl who entered to work at SNL and befriends who her long time crush, both falling for each other but Taylor is too scared to reveal their relationship. This was a great coming of age story where the main character learns to discover herself and to love who she is. Thinking this was a LGBTQ+ comedy book, I was expecting to laugh a lot throughout this book was disappointed with the lack of humor. The story was still great though because I love coming of age story as it helps readers discover themselves too. The storyline was great but a little basic with no twists and turns. The pacing was perfect and I enjoyed the setting of the story.

The main character in this book is Taylor who is a closeted lesbian. I enjoyed her character as she wants to pursue her dream but that also means that she has to reveal her secrets. I enjoyed how much she grew in this book as she had such an amazing character development. The main side character in this book is Charlotte whom I also loved as she helped Taylor reveal her true self and to love who she is. She challenged Taylor which shows how good their relationship is because if you don't challenge your lover then what is love. The trope in this book is an f/f friends to lovers romance which was so good and very well done.

The ending was cute with a HEA. This was such a cute coming of age novel and it's something that can lift your spirit on a bad day just because you know you are not alone. I do have to say that the story line was kind of basic as there was nothing dramatic in the book to change the storyline. Like I read many similar books to this kind of storyline. Overall this is an amazing read and I recommend it if you love Rachel Lippincott and Casey McQuiston books.

This story felt real. At times, it felt raw. The characters, even the protagonist, are imperfectly perfect. They laugh and cry and make mistakes, and sometimes they react in ways that feel unreasonable and yet what's more real than that? This book has given me a lot to sit and think on, and I wholeheartedly enjoyed every minute of it. Well done!

This. Book. Was. HOT.

I need more believable Sapphic romances in my life with fully realised characters and this books delivered. It was funny, emotional and filled with believable characters with flaws who weren’t always actually likeable. (The protagonists mother and best friend spring to mind here, as well as the protagonist herself from time to time.)

What also sold me on this was the setting, Salem. As a sucker for anything about the Witch Trials this book made me fall in love with the town just as much as the story.

This book and I may not have gotten started on the best foot, but by the end, I was fully invested and didn't want to stop reading. Taylor is a very believably imperfect protagonist. Her growth throughout the story obviously has to do with coming out and becoming more confident in her lesbian identity, but it's also so much more than that. The writing was uneven in places, but there are parts of this book that just shone, and that makes me really excited to see what this author writes in the future.

CW: outing of a queer character, biphobia, homophobia, panic attack, discussions of abortion, references to racism/cyberbullying, past infidelity, food tampering

The Comedienne's Guide to Pride has been an instant new favourite. There is one quote in this book (which I will not quote because we all know we can't quote arcs) that is about how our lovely, in the closet, MC Taylor doesn't know whether she is funny because of her sadness, because all the funniest people were also the saddest.

That quote I think is excellent to describe this book because it is funny. It is so, so funny. The things Taylor says, either to be actively comedic or just casual banter she has is hilarious. This book is also so sad. Taylor is struggling with her sexuality - or rather the coming out part - and she is struggling with herself as a person. She's struggling with her family and their whole dynamic, she is struggling to fit in. even though she has big dreams for herself to stand out.

Taylor is such an amazing character that you will root for her and just hope she will be okay. You're laughing with her, are mad on her behalf, you want to wrap her up in a blanket and tell her she will be fine and you will relate to her. She is just such a highly relatable, fully fleshed out character, that she often almost jumped out of the pages for me.

The romance in this is so... wholesome, I am in absolute awe. Taylor lands the girl, she has been pining over and the joy she experiences is just so catchy. Their understanding and trust is so lovely, and even through rough patches, there is always the impression of the deep affection these two characters feel for each other.

Reading this book had me go through a whole rollercoaster of emotions and I already know that this will definitely be a re-read and I cannot wait to do it all over again.

Taylor has a big secret. Well, make that a few. First, she has applied to a prestigious internship at Saturday Night Live. Her dream is to write sketch comedy, so she is hoping to score this internship. However, there is a big catch for it. This internship is for diverse writers. The problem isn't that Taylor doesn't fit this category - the problem is that she is a closeted lesbian. She has to find a way to come out to her mom before the winner is announced, just in case she is chosen. As she struggles with this, she starts to hang out more and more with Charlotte, and cannot deny her feelings there. On top of that, one of her mom's best friends, Jen, has come back to stay with them for a bit... pregnant and with her boyfriend. Taylor had always assumed Jen was only into women so she feels a bit betrayed by this.

This is more of a coming of age story that I thought it would be. That isn't bad but there is less comedy scenes in it - that is less of the focus than on Taylor discovering herself and learning to love herself. I thought that this one started a bit slow but then halfway through, it just clicked and I wanted to find out how it was going to end.

I think this one is a solid 3.7/5 (so I'll round up for the four stars). Like I said it starts slow, but I .liked Taylor's development and the lesson about loving oneself.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wish I loved this one more than I did. I had a lot of issues with it, The summary seemed like this book would focus more on the <i>Saturday Night Live</i> internship than it did. Obviously Taylor getting the internship is a huge piece of this story, but I thought we would get the time leading up to the internship and then actually go with her through it as well and see more of her in that element since it meant so much for her. But that didn't happen. I guess I was expecting more exposure to her sketches and maybe even multiple scenes of her doing standup or a full sketch played out. I guess this just didn't go the direction I thought it would based on the summary. Which I recognize isn't necessarily a fault with the book itself, but I kept wishing we were getting a story about a girl going through the SNL internship, falling in love, and wrestling with coming out while she juggles with loving herself and becoming a comedienne. We got pieces of that, but I think I just wanted the whole.

On the flip side Taylor and Charlotte were the heartbeat of this story. Honestly, I'd read another book that focused only on them in New York following their dreams. I'd buy that and love every page of it. Any time these two were on page together, I was happy. Their relationship was phenomenal.

he Comedienne’s Guide to Pride is a upcoming YA release that I hope is on everyones radar. If you are a fan of SNL, sketch comedy & improv in general then this is the book for you. This novel has a sweet romance between the main character of Taylor and her long time crush Charlotte, a really fun mother and daughter dynamic with Taylor and her mom, and a great friendship between Taylor and her friend Brooke. One of my favorite parts about this novel is that it not only had a lot of heart, but it had a lot of genuine laughs in it too. I honestly found myself laughing at a few of the jokes Taylor makes and situations she gets in. So whether you are an avid SNL fan or just someone looking for a cute new YA release, then I’d be inclined to recommend The Comedienne’s Guide to Pride.

DNF @ 27% -- was very into the premise of this when reading the summary, but got into it and just couldn't get my brain to stick. Having trouble following the threads, I'm a little burnt out on coming-out stories (that happened between requesting the ARC and receiving approval of the ARC, otherwise I wouldn't have asked), and everything isn't tied together as tightly as I'd like.

Most of my decision to DNF though comes from life circumstances and being unable to focus on reading right now. Perhaps will circle back to this one once it's out in print and I can pick up a physical copy from the library.