Review of the Day: We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby

Irby’s book is a collection of autobiographical essays that actually made me laugh out loud quite often. But the essays also describe some very challenging experiences like growing up poor, life with serious chronic diseases, the challenges of dating with a less than perfect body, and mental health. 

My favorite essay in the book was called “The Miracle Porker” about her adopted cat she named Helen Keller. The essay begins as follows:

I never even wanted a pet. I’ve spent the last fourteen years of my life running the reception desk at an animal hospital, and do you know what that means? It means I can give you eleventy billion real-life reasons why letting a dog or cat take up residence in the shadowy corners of your home (scratching up your children, vomiting in your shoes, caterwauling all hours of the goddamn night) is a bad fucking idea. Right now, while I’m in Detroit drinking my very first Faygo in a sunny loft overlooking the river and glaring at people enjoying themselves below, my feline companion, Helen, is in Chicago, probably definitely pressing her moist butthole against all the clean surfaces in my apartment. She is a pig demon from hell, sent to my life as payback for all the vicious thought-crimes I have committed against people who listen to music on the bus without headphones (p. 31).

Every essay is worth your time.

kindle and Audible audiobook. 288 pgs. 27 March 2026