I think that’s something that would be pretty true to life. It’s also impacted by the constant calling of BS from other character, so you never get a good misleading arc. The characters were a little too self-reflective at times, so you didn’t get the unreliable narrator business as much as you could have. You are inherently dealing with the biases of the characters as they tell their own stories, though I wish they’d have taken this further. It’s partially on me for not paying enough attention, but it’s something that I ran into.īut overall, it’s something new. They’re closer to traditional dialogue, so I was treating each icon as the opening quotations marks, so when I saw a new icon, I immediately was switching characters. Where I got tripped up was in the text messages. They give you icons that are attached to each text and email so you know who’s sending each message, but that’s not always a perfect answer. There were always times attached but no dates, so if there’s an extended break, you’re never really sure. The big issue for me was the lack of dates. This setup was interesting and made for a fast-paced read, but it wasn’t always easy to follow. I noted in my first post this would not be a serious literary criticism blog (I haven’t taken an literature class since I was 19).

Evidently the term is epistolary novel, and lots of them exist. I’m guessing others exist, whether it’s contemporary technology or using letters, but I haven’t delved into them. There are two things to talk about: How the book is written and then how well the writing is executed. The real hook is that the story is told entirely through text message and email. The plot of the story is two best friends go to colleges across the country from each other and go through the highs and lows of their first semester in college away from each other. The character based on her is going to school for screenwriting. Raskin route to Just Between Us was a little more traditional: she’s a comedian, writer, and actress. The character based on her goes to school to be a journalist. Prior to the show and her time on Buzzfeed, Dunn was a journalist (and still does write some), but in the last couple of years, she has also been hosting the Bad with Money podcast dealing with financial issues at personal and societal levels.

Like I said, they have the YouTube show, which features them portraying caricatured versions of themselves on a fake advice show and a more sitcomish single-camera sketch show. The book’s two main characters are based on the authors, so let’s talk about them. I Hate Everyone But You comes from Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin, a comedy duo who run the YouTube channel Just Between Us.

I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn