How to Appear Normal at Social Events: And Other Essential Wisdom by Lord Birthday

Hello! My name is Mrs. Crackles, Queen of the Potatoes and inventor of the cheese nugget. With this informative guide, I am going to teach you how to read this book, HOW TO APPEAR NORMAL AT SOCIAL EVENTS.

1. Pick up the book.
2. Carefully remove the book from your mouth.
3. Is it out of your mouth?
4. Is it?
5. No.
6. Take the book out of your mouth.
7. Look at the images.
8. Read the words.
9. Shred the book and dip it in marshmallow fluff.
10. Massage yourself with the marshmallow-covered pages and have a Roman orgy in your living room.
11. Subcontract the review to your sentient pet octopus, Mr. Suckers.
12. Frolic.

When I saw this book on Netgalley, I thought it was going to be like the Sarah's Scribbles comics, a series of delightful vignettes told in comic book form about social awkwardness and introversion. However, when I went to go read some of the preliminary reviews on Netgalley, I was surprised to see that this book had a rather dismal 1.67-average rating.

Now that I've "read" this book, I can see why. This "Lord Birthday" person is apparently an Instagram artist of some renown who has 100k+ followers. Some of his illustrations are charming, but his humor is definitely one note. If you ever dabbled in fanfic as a preteen, you're probably familiar with the term "crack-fic", but if you aren't, it's basically a fic written with the purpose of being utterly random. This is the book equivalent of that. It makes no sense and is proud of it.

If you enjoy random humor where the punchline is nonsense, then this is your book, and I'm sure it will greatly assist you in your battles against the nefarious Spinach King (just, for the love of God, take the book out of your mouth, first). If that kind of "humor" doesn't appeal to you, set the book aside and step out into the daylight. Turn your back on the book, lest it consume you.

Yours,

Mrs. Crackles (cheese nugget inventor, Potato Queen)

Thanks to Netgalley/the publisher for the review copy!

1 to 1.5 out of 5 stars