I loved this book! I really enjoy anything Jenny Slate puts out. This was a great reflection on different stages of life but oh so funny. Wonderful on audio.

Fans of Jenny Slate's unique voice will find a lot to love in Lifeform, which finds her attempting to make sense of some of life's most complicated chapters. Equal parts hilarious and moving, the thing that shines through most of all is Slate's deep sense of connection, to her family, the natural world, and to the titular Lifeform growing within her.

I loved Little Weirds so, so much but I had more trouble connecting with this book for some reason. It could just be the difference between listening to her read her first book and reading this one in print. However, Jenny Slate is still as charming and delightful as ever with plenty to discuss after falling in love, being pregnant, and having a new baby. I think people will find plenty to connect with here and it's definitely still a worthwhile read if you have any affection or curiosity for Slate.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing this arc for me to read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for an advanced reading copy of Lifeform by Jenny Slate in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars.

I don’t even know where to begin! No one writes like Jenny Slate—you really have to read her to understand what I mean. If you love undeniable whimsy and having your heart overflow with emotion, this book is right up your alley.

Lifeform is divided into five parts, a collection of essays that follow Slate’s journey through falling in love after divorce, pregnancy, motherhood, and beyond.

I’m not a mother myself, but that didn’t diminish the beauty of her writing for me at all. I appreciate her candor and anxieties surrounding the entire experience, as well as her reflections on everyday existential crises like mortality and insurmountable grief.

While her absurdism and stream-of-consciousness style can sometimes be a little tricky to follow, her emotional intelligence—along with her boundless charm, wit, and laugh-out-loud humour—make this a stunning read. Slate’s uncanny ability to perceive the world and spin it into compelling prose is nothing short of moving. As someone who also feels things intensely and in unquantifiable ways, I felt seen by this book.

If you’re into audiobooks, she narrates it herself, adding even more depth and joy to the experience of Lifeform. Jenny Slate is pure chaos, but in the most relatable way possible. I love her and this book!

Jenny Slate's new memoir is humorous, obviously, but surprisingly poetic as she enters a new stage in her life - motherhood.

While the musings aren't always linear, the story is still beautiful. While my favorite parts were the bits she did (a quick reenactment of a therapy session, a raccoon gossip sesh), I appreciated the more in-depth, almost spiritual in a sense, remarks on life. Not everything that was said resonated with me directly, but Slate's way of viewing life and its impact provided a new perspective. Having finished the book, I couldn't help but feel more optimistic towards life. I hope I can continue that optimism for a while.

There were a lot of things that I giggled at and touched my heart as a mom as I was reading through. There are a ton of changes and crazy things we do when we become a parent so I appreciated the humor and depth in the book that made it real. Motherhood is messy but beautiful!

I reallllly wanted to love this book as a mom but I just had a hard time getting through it. I was determined not to DNF because there were great parts about it though so I did finish! I loved her acknowledgements at the end because it really takes a village for a mom to get STUFF done and keep the dreams alive!

It made me want to potentially write letters to my children about my parenting experience but it just wasn’t a book I couldn’t put down or eager to keep coming back to.

Slate returns with another installment in sweet, enlightening, and raw insights about her life. For the celebrity memoir genre, Slate's misfit meanderings don't dawdle trying to prove themselves to an audience. While Slate is sufficiently aware of her persona in pop culture, she understands the same grace and levity with equally thinking about how her interpersonal relationships have its own legacy, most evident as Slate prepares and ponders for and about motherhood.

I love Jenny Slate’s voice. The way she can find the beauty in little moments and reflect on the weirdness that is human life. As someone who loves deeply and is a mom and also a Millennial doing those things, I could relate to so much of this. I loved many parts of this book, but The Swan, -whew- that one will stick with me.

From the popular creator of Marcel the Shell, a collection of reflections and essays, mostly about motherhood and families. The author is so relatable, and the essays are compulsively readable! I look forward to recommending this title.

Super quirky but also really fun and full of realness. Learned a ton about love, pregnancy and motherhood… and all the animals Jenny encountered along the way. Great collection of essays and strong use of form to connect the narrative themes.

I really love Jenny Slate, and am a big fan of hers. I expected to enjoy this as I have her other work, but I just couldn't connect to it. Maybe because of the recent press issues with the movie? Though I don't think this has really impacted my opinion of her... who knows. Still, we will order a copy of this.

Jenny Slate has a distinctive voice, which she brings to this collection of essay of fakling in love getting married, and having a baby. There are some stories and lines that stick in my mind.

There is sometimes a soft spot in me where if the pinhole rips open by way of children’s laughter or the way they hold a flower or wonder over soap bubbles floating into open air, that I imagine myself a father and I want to leave them all the things I love. This is that kind of book. From mother to daughter. Wanting so much to say I’ve carried you in me and I’ve lived a life and this is all I’m feeling. Feel it with me, please.

A lot about motherhood. A lot about the body. A lot about the body during motherhood. Heartwarming. Absurdist. Reaching breaking point of laughing or crying, that great in between that Slate is so good at.

I have long adored Jenny Slate--her standup, her acting, the way her characters are vibrant and fully-realized beings. I didn't care for Little Weirds overall, though there were flashes of brilliance and combinations of words and images that could only come from Slate's mind. Lifeform takes those moments of brilliant whimsy and expands them, creating with them a work that takes the reader through the beginnings of love, the creating of life, and the loss of loved ones. This book was far more structured than LW and ends up being quite profound.

Here's a snippet of Slate on grief:

"It seemed cruel to me that we patiently live through periods of anguish and shock when we lose our family members, and we keep facing it, believing that activity and time will settle it all down for us. We make a deal with fate: I'll keep this flame that signifies the one you took. I will let it scorch me in my heart if you let it die down naturally, and eventually there will just be a scar on my heart, and I will always know what I have lost. But by then, I will feel only the emptiness, not the terrible scald. I will let the fire of the loss run its course. This is the debt I will pay so that I can have a more bearable sadness."

This one is a beaut.

Jenny Slate is such a treasure. I was delighted to be able to get an ARC of this book to read her take on love, pregnancy, and new motherhood. I’m sure this book won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, as Slate’s writing can take sometimes bizarre or absurd twists along the way. However, I found her writing to be profound, beautiful, and enchanting. At times, her imagination reflects a childlike wonder that is steeped in wisdom. This was a quick read and I can’t wait for my friends to read and share their thoughts on it with me.

This book was wild. I think the description uses the term "genre-bending" to describe these essays, and that feels completely spot-on to me. There's a structure - the book is organized in five acts/sections (Single, True Love, Pregnancy, Baby, and Ongoing) - but within those sections, there's a mix of essays, letters to a doctor, descriptions of dreams, and a few snippets from a hilariously weird play. If you really like things to be plot-driven, I wouldn't recommend this - this felt more like tumbling down a hill than reading a structured narrative (in a good way). Once I got into the vibe, I just let Slate's free-wheeling prose carry me through.

When I saw Jenny Slate announced a new book, I got so excited. The way she tells her story feels so whimsical and creative - it makes reading fun.

Most importantly, I love how her writing submerges you in a vivid description and then suddenly brings you back to a feeling so deeply relatable that you’re taken aback. Like we were talking about Stonehenge or a lunch date or a stork and now suddenly I’m crying because I too worry about giving birth/being a mom/being a person. I hadn’t thought of it that way before but now I can’t see it any other way.

It really is a joy to read her work.

Thank you to netgalley & Little, Brown and co for this ARC.

Jenny Slate's first book, Little Weirds, completely changed my life. When I saw Lifeform was going to be released later this year I jumped on NetGalley for the opportunity to read it first and it did not disappoint. Slate's writing story is laugh-out-loud funny, devastating, and beautifully conceived. It's honestly so hard to describe so I recommend that you read it to fully understand the gravity and weight her words are on paper.
In Lifeform she talks about the various transformations of her life from singlehood, finding a life partner, marriage, pregnancy, and motherhood. It is beautifully composed and, for me personally, resonates in many ways.

Not to be controversial or start a whole thing, but Jenny Slate is doing what Miranda July thinks she’s doing. That whole intense, weird quirkiness but with meaning behind it? I just think Slate is so much better at it and comes across as way more natural and sincere. I remembered only sort of liking Slate's other book “Little Weirds” and giving it 3 stars, so I revisited my review for that one. I think this release is similar but her ideas were a bit more organized, and she perhaps had a better grasp on what she was truly capable of as a writer.

The various pieces can be a bit rambly and stream of consciousness in parts, but are then deeply poetic without warning in the best way. There’s an amazing essay in which she reimagines part of the plot of Ghostbusters, specifically from the POV of Dana. (I sometimes do that with movies I like, too! Inserting myself into the plot and completely rearranging things or continuing after the credits.) There is also a genuinely beautiful piece about the aging and death of family members that I found very moving. (Though this may be the one and only thing to be aware of as far as possible trigger warnings. It's also deeply sad.)

There WERE a couple of parts during which I had a difficult time following her. I couldn’t really picture what she was describing or figure out what she was trying to say. But the rest of the book more than made up for these moments. It’s kind of tough to explain unless you just read it, but the way she talks about things like Anxiety, aging and Depression is so real and harsh and relatable. I also really like the dark humor in her writing, because one moment she’ll be going on and on about how she’s the happiest she’s ever been and then immediately she’ll be talking about being painfully aware of her own mortality. (For example.) But the actual jokes are quite weird and funny.

I’m visiting Boston in October, because I used to live there and I miss it. I recently found out that Jenny Slate will actually be there promoting this very book the night BEFORE I arrive! Sadly, I’ve already purchased my plane tickets. The absolute tragedy of this timing is almost poetic and I think she would appreciate it.

4.5 stars

Thanks so much to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

Jenny Slate’s writing is ethereal, gentle, and strange in the very best way. She captures the intersections of reality and imagination in such a whimsical-yet-analytical form, and it always makes my heart sing just a little bit. I loved the first half of this book, particularly the sections about the raccoon and eavesdropping at lunch. There is just a human quality to these essays. However, as a young woman who is really struggling with the concept of the desire to not ever have children, I did not relate to the second half and found myself skimming it at times. This has nothing to do with the writing or Slate’s talent, but my own aversion to the idea of myself as a mother at this point in my life.