A Seventeen Magazine Best Book of the Year!BuzzFeed senior writer Erin Chack hits you in the guts, the feels, and the funny bone all at once with this collection of personal essays that reads like Sloane Crosley for the Snapchat generation.
In turns hysterically funny and heartbreakingly poignant, Erin recounts everything from meeting her soulmate at age 14 to her first chemotherapy session at age 19 to what
really goes on behind the scenes at a major Internet media company.
She authentically captures the agony and the ecstasy of the millennial experience, whether it's her first kiss ("Sean’s tongue! In my mouth! Slippery and wet like a slug in the rain.") or her struggles with anxiety ("When people throw caution to the wind, I am stuck imagining the poor soul who has to break his back sweeping caution into a dustpan").
Yet Erin also offers a fresh perspective on universal themes of resilience and love as she writes about surviving cancer—including learning of her mother's own cancer diagnosis within the same year and her attempts to hide the diagnosis from friends to avoid "un-normaling" everything.
Honest, hilarious, and totally unfiltered, this sharply observed memoir introduces Erin Chack as a strikingly original new voice.
Erin Chack was born and raised in New Jersey, where she formed strong opinions about bagels. As a senior writer at BuzzFeed dot com the website her posts have received over 250 million views to date. She lives in Astoria, Queens, with plants that are definitely still alive and not dead haha why would you even suggest that.
This Is Really Happening is her first book. Follow her on Twitter @erinchack.
"With a knack for infusing the most dire or painfully awkward circumstances with a heaping dose of humor and infectious enthusiasm, Chack and her candidly conversational, meandering approach will quickly convert readers into chuckling confidants. A heartfelt celebration of goofiness in all its glory." —
Booklist “Readers will laugh, cheer, and internally groan at relatable awkward moments as the author invokes nostalgia and excitement for young adulthood." —
School Library Journal“With the same humor that has brought her writing gazillions of views on Buzzfeed, Erin Chack finds humor within the pain and awkwardness of her adolescence.
This Is Really Happening is like a YA version of Tina Fey's
Bossypants.” —
Josh Sundquist, author of We Should Hang Out Sometime and Just Don't Fall
“Erin Chack's laugh-out-loud funny and deeply affecting book made me want to call my college friends, pack up a car, and have a wild, imperfect adventure.” —
Katie Heaney, author of Never Have I Ever and Dear Emma
"Hilarious and brilliantly observed even as it's punching you right in the heart,
This is Really Happening will—no lie—make you a radder and better person. Lord knows it worked for me." —
Isaac Fitzgerald, editor of BuzzFeed Books and co-author of Pen & Ink and Knives & Ink“Erin has this incredible ability to spot humor in unexpected places, from cancer treatments to fearing death to young love. I was endlessly tickled by her wit and captivated by her story.” —
Shane Burcaw, author of Laughing at My Nightmare
"You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll barely notice that hours have gone by while you've been lost in Erin's world." —
Matt Bellassai, People's Choice Award Winner for Favorite Social Media Star, stand-up comic, and creator of the web series To Be Honest
