You're Never Weird On The Internet [Almost] book review

I knew nothing about this book until passing by Waterstones on its release day. Felicia Day with a book?
It suckered me in, and though I didn't buy it at this point, I walked away thinking about it for days. I resolved to sample on the kindle - afterall, I knew she was funny on the various shows I had seen her on, and one of my favourite characters from Dragon Age, but how would I really feel about that adorably neurotic character made flesh, the veil falling down?
I couldn't stop myself - I actually read the sample section twice in the time it took for me to go from that to being able to grab that tempting Waterstones book. And from that point on I have struggled to put this book down. No exaggeration to say that there was periods of my day where I didn't dare read it because I knew I had something else to do and wouldn't be able to pull away from it.

And this was before it truly hit me.

The book by and large is a very witty account of her sheltered upbringing and shed so much light on this woman who had turned up in almost every avenue of my life in recent years but never knew all that much about. Felicia goes into very intricate details of her homeschooled upbringing, as well as going to and from different career ambitions and dealing with trying to fabricate an identity for herself. And that is all well and good, but as it approaches the final two chapters, things take a darker turn.

Suddenly that playful voice of hers skittishly reading along in your head turns somber, as the talk comes to the likes of stalkers (being trapped in a negotation for someone trying to buy her hair and fingernails from her / people breaking into her house etc) to the topic of the relatively recent #GamerGate and the confusion of social political issues getting muddied in the venom of shaming for the sake of shaming. Not to mention rather frank talks of depression, which I found all too familiar.

But what I love most about this book is that, though not afraid to get truly serious, there is never a real sense of someone dishing the dirt on people, or superiority - indeed Felicia seems to quite willingly throw herself into blame if there is a glint of opportunity to present itself. And never does the book become too morbid; even sprinkled throughout is her own witty voice guiding us and offering a perspective, and leaving with an empowering sensation afterward.

The only criticism I could voice is that I would have enjoyed more detail on her time on Supernatural, or more interestingly for me Dragon Age II where she managed to not only be included as a character, but then offered the license for her own mini web series of that! That I would have found interesting. But wanting more is rarely a bad thing, and here there was still plenty to love.


I'm normally a sucker for an autobiography, but very rarely do they prove to become genuine favourites - let alone shortly after closing the final page.


And for that, I am very jealous of her gift of writing.

My book From The Inside Out 

Felicia Day's slightly better book You're Never Weird On The Internet [Almost]