Review: Big Mushy Happy Lump

The Fussy Stuff

Title: Big Mushy Happy Lump (Sarah’s Scribbles #2)

Author: Sarah Andersen

Format: eBook

Genre: Fiction, Comics

Quick Take: Warm, funny, and very easy to finish in one sitting. The kind of book that makes you feel seen without asking anything of you in return.

My Take

I picked this up in exactly the mood it was made for: wanting something light, a little funny, and completely low-stakes. If you are not familiar with Sarah’s Scribbles, it is a collection of one-page comics, each one a self-contained little moment. The topics range from the anxiety of everyday life, to the particular exhaustion of being an introvert in a world that wants you to be considerably more social than you are, to the specific and often absurd experience of being a woman. It is light on narrative and heavy on recognition. You are not reading a story so much as nodding along, strip by strip.

And it is just really fun. Sarah Andersen has a gift for capturing things that are true in a way that makes you laugh rather than sigh, which is a harder balance to strike than it sounds. The strips about womanhood were the ones that landed hardest for me, not because they were surprising, but because they were so accurate. There is a comic in here about male puberty versus female puberty that made me laugh out loud. Actually out loud. The kind of laugh that comes from recognition rather than shock, which is honestly the best kind.

This is comfort reading in the truest sense. You are not going to be challenged or have your worldview rearranged. You are just going to feel like someone finally put words, and drawings, to the thing you have been quietly carrying around for years. Sometimes that is exactly what you need, and this book delivers it in spades.

Unfussed Verdict

If you want something funny, fast, and genuinely relatable, especially if you are an anxious, introverted woman who has ever had a lot of feelings about being an anxious, introverted woman, this is an easy yes. Just do not go in expecting it to change your life. Sometimes a book does not need to.

Unfussed Homework (Optional, Obviously)

Think about the last book you genuinely enjoyed in the moment but can barely remember now. Does that bother you, or is there real value in a read that simply makes you feel good while it lasts? And more importantly: do you reach for those books on purpose, or only when you stumble into them?