Audiobook Review: Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release Date: November 15, 2016
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

A collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the Academy Award-nominated actress and star of Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect.

“I’m excited to publish my first book, and because I get uncomfortable when people have high expectations, I’d like to use this opportunity to showcase my ineptitude and pettiness and the frequency with which I embarrass myself. And while many of my female inspirations who have become authors are incredibly well educated and accomplished comedy writers, I’m very, very funny on Twitter, according to BuzzFeed and my mom, so I feel like this is a great idea. Quick question: Are run-on sentences still frowned upon? Wait, is ending a sentence with a preposition still frowned upon? I mean, upon frowned? Dammit!” (Anna Kendrick)

Anna Kendrick’s autobiographical collection of essays amusingly recounts memorable moments throughout her life, from her middle-class upbringing in New England to the blockbuster movies that have made her one of Hollywood’s most popular actresses today. Expanding upon the witty and ironic dispatches for which she is known, Anna Kendrick’s essays offer her one-of-a-kind commentary on the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture.

I like Anna Kendrick but I don’t consider myself a huge fan. I chose to listen to her book because she has a reputation for being funny on Twitter and I thought it would be funny. Parts of it were funny but it was full of self-deprecating humor that rang false. She paints herself as a helpless idiot stumbling through life but a person can’t make it to where she is in the entertainment industry if they are as dumb as she makes herself out to be. Weirdly, she comes off as decidedly smug at the same time. Most of her attempts at sarcasm or irony fall flat. Unfortunately, there isn’t any celebrity dirt to make up for all of that! George Clooney is so nice, Tina Fey is so nice, and so on.

I listened to the audiobook of Scrappy Little Nobody and Anna reads it herself. Perhaps that amplified her personality and I would have liked the book more in print. What I learned from this book is that sometimes it’s harder to be funny in an essay format than in 280 characters.