Okay,(exhale) this book is a lot. The main thing that resonated with me is that I am not the only one whose brain goes on wild tangents. This book is an excellent display of how brains work with ADHD. That being said my ADHD brain had alot of trouble following down her paths and segways but by thinking that I was then triggered to go down my own paths of “is this what I sound like to other people?” And then I’d have to go back and listen to parts over again. She definitely added dramatic flare to it that only Jenny Slate can. I love her standup and hearing her voice was the highlight of this audiobook.
♥️ Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this audiobook ARC.

I was able to listen to this audiobook thanks to Netgally for an honest review. Jenny Slate is so fun and engaging, very animatic in her narration of her book. There were many times she was yelling or screaming haha. This is what made the audio easy to get through. As far as the material, I was often lost and honestly had no clue what was going on most of the time. I do think maybe that was the point of the book, to show her lively personality.

Jenny Slate has the most instantly recognizable voice in her writing. Her embrace of all things whimsy and joy is an inspiration and an absolute delight to read. I reread her first book, Little Weirds, every year and I think Lifeform will join that rotation next year. I can't wait for whatever she writes next!

I loved the whole book! I feel like it was entertaining, funny, whimsical and philosophical at the same time. I love the fact that Jenny Slate herself narrated this book. Because I love her voice and the way she really emphasizes certain words and elements of the stories that she writes, It feels like she's right there with me. I love how she whispers, yells, laughs. I especially liked her "letters to the doctor" paragraphs. I feel like they were very insightful and at first sometimes you don't feel like you'll relate, but then you do. It was great seeing and feeling like you were on her pregnancy journey with her. All in all, i very much enjoyed this audiobooks, and I would definitely pick it up over and over again.

First thing’s first: thank you Netgalley for the ALC of this book!
Lifeform by Jenny Slate was a collection of essays about Jenny going from single life, through pregnancy, and into motherhood. The essays were a mix of stories, fake therapy sessions, dreams, letters, and more.
I love Jenny Slate and this book was so funny. I loved her point of view and I loved the way she would describe things. I laughed out loud many times while listening to this book! Her worries felt very much like a lot of my own worries and it was nice to hear them spelled out in such a silly way. I’ve never grown a human inside me (and I don’t plan to), but I have a feeling a lot of her worries and fears would be mine, too. I could really listen to her read the phone book, but it was much more fun listening to her read her own words.
4⭐️

Read Lifeform if:
1) listening to Charli XCX’s ' think about it all the time' made you nauseous in a strangely comforting way,
2) you’ve seriously considered hiring a witch from Etsy to cast spells on your enemies, or
3) you have never done anything casually, ever.

The narration from Jenny herself is a standout—it’s a weird but wonderfully introspective ride that only she could make feel so chaotically relatable.

A solid 4 stars. I’m a fan of Jenny Slate (most recently the best part of It Ends With Us) and so I was excited to get an advanced audiobook through NetGalley of her latest set of essays. I would highly recommend the audio as Slate performs rather than just reads which really captures all of her intended tone and authenticity. While the overall focus of the essays is her experience growing a “lifeform” and her experience bringing them into the world, they aren’t limited to this topic. Two that really stuck out to me were a conversation with her therapist and her thoughts on having a houseguest. I really enjoyed Slate’s unique perspective and related to her anxiety. What comes across through are her real human emotions and the thoughtfulness with which she reflects on life. Looking forward to picking up other writing by her in the future.

I am such a fan of Jenny Slate the actor, so I jumped at the chance to listen to this audiobook. Not only is this read by the author herself, but she is truly the only one who can bring these quirky essays to life.

The audio performance was truly the highlight here for me, since I honestly struggled to get through the entire collection. There are some essays that stand out for their humor and insight (namely one struggling through personally loving a movie that doesn't quite hold up when rewatched years later), while many are just hard more experimental and harder to follow. There's an intermittent series of letters to a doctor that are sometimes funny but sometimes truly baffling.

Ultimately, I think that this will work for a lot of people, especially those who appreciate writers who experiment with form and narrative. It's truly a treat to listen to anything read by the author, especially one who fully commits to the performance like Jenny Slate does.

I really like Jenny Slate. Knowing that she's involved in a project means I'm more likely to want to see it, read it, listen to it, etc. Of course when I first heard of Lifeform, I knew without a doubt, I would pick it up - or in this case, I would listen to the audiobook.

I like that Jenny Slate reads her own book, which seems like an obvious choice, but is not always the case with memoirs. It's like just having a conversation with a friend - albeit one-sided conversation - but that's how much I was drawn into the book.

Let's be honest, there is not really any shortage of books about motherhood - which I am in no way complaining about - but I felt like this was one I could personally relate to the most.

The oft-absurd thoughts that just pop into your head out of nowhere. Or all the things you worry about and wish you could just write your doctor a letter. I think these feelings are heightened by new motherhood so the dialogue Jenny Slate has throughout made a lot of sense to me. Even when it felt like she was going off on a tangent, somehow by the end of the chapter she'd bring everything back around in a poignant way.

The story is also an interesting conceptualization of birth in the cycle of life and kind of honoring those who came before.

It's a quick listen that you could probably finish within a day or two. I'm definitely going to be picking up a hardcopy of the book - although upon rereading I'll probably end up hearing Jenny Slate's voice in my ear the whole time!

This was just a confusing book. I felt I was listening to either a woman high on drugs ranting about a lot of nothing or a woman suffering from a specific episode of ADHD hyper neurotic something. The word vagina is said a LOT. Most of it didn't make sense as she was trying to be so vague when talking about certain experiences so as not to implicate the specific people, that the whole thing was lost on me. Her musings on pregnancy and motherhood seem so overly juvenile so as to come across as an alien suddenly founding itself in the body of a pregnant human.
The only saving grace in the book is that I listened to it and a such was treated to Jenny Slate's wonderful voice and portrayal. She definitely pours 100% of her soul into it and adds a quality and depth that's hard to match. If you decide to read this book there will be none of that.
I'm sorry this was not for me.
Thanks to Hachette Audio for providing me an audio copy of this book via NetGalley for review. All opinions are my own.

It's always difficult to give a rating to a book that is a collection of essays, even when they are by a single author with an overarching theme such as seen here in Lifeform. While there were some chapters I loved and was riveted by, there were just about as many I feel I only enjoyed because Jenny's narration carried this experience for me. Overall, I think her narration makes this a must listen for fans of her and her work.

I was looking forward to a heartfelt, relatable motherhood memoir but this was sort of all over the place and I couldn't really get into it. Okay on audio (with a bit of a fast talking author-narrated voice over). Overall a bit disappointing if I'm completely honest. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

One thing I am upfront about: I love Jenny Slate. I believe she has a singular voice, able to simultaneously make you laugh and cry while pondering the great existential questions of life. It's hard to describe her new work, Lifeform as anything short of spectacular, and yet it's hard to describe it at all! Since releasing her last book, Little Weirds, in 2019, Slate's life has changed. She's fallen in love and become a mother and herein she'll tell you all about the ups and downs of these changes. The book is broken into distinct phases - Single, True Love, Pregnancy, Baby, and Ongoing - and each has a mix of short bits and longer musings about her deepest fears and desires, which probably resemble yours, too.

The press release for this book notes that "no one writes like Jenny Slate." And it should also be said that no one can read you Jenny Slate's work like she can. The audiobook for this release is narrated by the author (with a few fabulous guest spots from friends Vanessa Bayer, Will Forte, and George Saunders), and it is truly special to feel the emotion in Slate's voice as she confesses her thoughts to you.

This was really really weird. I am sure the right people will love this book, but I am not the audience for it. It is very abstract essays. Just really not the book for me!

I really wanted to like this but I could not get through the chaos. You really have to be prepared to go down this rabbit hole of weird and random to like this book. I’m sure this book will be some people’s favorite given the right interest in humor. However, it did not tickle my funny bone and left me with a little whiplash.

I’m not sure if this is suppose to be a memoir or a farce. Just not my cup of tea.

2.5 stars
I tend to give higher ratings for memoirs because it’s their story to tell and I respect that. This is hard for me because I don’t know what I just listened to. It was weird and rambling, as advertised. The blog is scattered and the book is scattered and I know that was the point. I love Jenny Slate’s acting & stand up, but the format/presentation of this memoir didn’t work for me.

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.

Such a unique way of looking at pregnancy and child birth! Slate is honest, open, and extremely vulnerable in describing how she felt as she grew into a mother. I read it thinking it was a auto-bio, but quickly discovered it was more of a spiritual awakening. Slate’s humor combined with her raw self discovery made this book easy and refreshing to listen to!

Jenny Slate is not only hilarious, she's an amazing storyteller. Here we have her second memoir, Lifeform, telling the story of being single, finding her person, getting pregnant, having a baby and the ongoing ridiculousness that is life. So glad I received an audio version where Slate herself reads her own memoir/essays.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for this audio e-arc.*

I absolutely enjoyed every moment of Jenny Slate's Lifeform. I have been a fan of her acting over the years- from her time on SNL and Parks and Rec to Marcel the Shell with Shoes on, but somehow have not read any of her books. Lifeform was a great balance of humor (the letters to the doctor all had me laughing) and being heartfelt (talking about insecurities, worries about becoming a parent), and hearing her voice narrate the book made the connection even deeper.