Publishers Weekly
★ 08/22/2016
In her first book, the Emmy Award-winning comedian offers an entertaining and eclectic collection of 30-plus essays, including "An Open Letter to My Vagina" and "Forgiving My Lower Back Tattoo." Her prose, like her popular comedy act, is plucky, forthright, hilariously raunchy—and honest. Though she claims the book is not an autobiography (at the age of 35, Schumer asserts, it's too early to share her life story), readers will learn of her childhood on Long Island, born into "New Money" (her father ran an exclusive baby furniture shop). By the time she's 10, however, challenging times have fallen on the family: the business is lost, her parents eventually divorce, and her beloved alcoholic father is diagnosed with MS. Schumer works various jobs (waitressing, pedicab driver, etc.) but ultimately is true to her passion for inspiring laughter. The book's centerpiece is a comparatively longer essay on her career, revealing the hard work of touring and the dedication, heartaches, missteps, and triumphs on the path to stand-up success. Along with off-the-wall one-liners, anecdotes, and confessions, Schumer shares some solemn experiences, such as bodysurfing with her disabled dad for the last time, and her involvement in an abusive relationship with a boyfriend ("When you're in love with a man who hurts you, it's a special kind of hell, yet one that so many women have experienced"). Amid ill-fated dates, alcohol-induced blackouts, and late-night eating binges, Schumer, in these candid, well-crafted essays, wears her mistakes "like badges of honor." (Aug.)
The Washington Post
...[T]he book does contain laugh-out-loud — occasionally graphic — dating anecdotes. It’s made funnier when infused with Schumer’s vivid, occasionally stream-of-consciousness writing style... Still, make no mistake: This is not solely a breezy beach read. With little notice, the essays whiplash from hilarious to grim as Schumer lays bare some of the most traumatizing moments of her life.
Harper's Bazaar
"The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo is an alternatingly meditative, sexually explicit, side-splittingly hilarious, heart-wrenching, disturbing, passionately political and always staggeringly authentic ride through the highs and lows of the comedic powerhouse's life to date."
Vulture
"If you find yourself feeling guilty for laughing at her pain, just keep in mind she's probably laughing with you, unapologetically, in true Amy Schumer fashion."
The AV Club
"Schumer is revealing and vulnerable, but it's her willingness to be unapologetically herself that makes the book such a wonderful and engaging read."
Associated Press
"Schumer keeps it real in The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo. [She] is a talented storyteller... Readers will laugh and cry, and may put the book down from moments of honesty that result in uncomfortable realistic details from her life. More important, the essays challenge readers to harness their own stories and rest in the fact that they’re good enough. Experience the world. Be bold. Love your body. It’s OK to fail and make mistakes. And lower-back tattoos can only make you stronger."
Salon.com
"Beyond the many powerful and empowering takeaways of The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo—from loving the hustle to self-love—perhaps the must overlooked is that of a woman's right to not only make mistakes, but to make art out of them."
Vogue
"Amy Schumer's book will make you love her even more. For a comedian of unbridled (and generally hilarious) causticity, Schumer has written a probing, confessional, unguarded, and, yes, majorly humanizing non-memoir, a book that trades less on sarcasm, and more on emotional resonance."
Buzzfeed
"Schumer shuts it down. Be like Schumer."
The Chicago Tribune
"Schumer weaves a brave, vulnerable tale without falling into the usual celebrity traps of neediness and defense...It's an exercise in either vanity or courage when a celebrity offers a self-reveal. In this case, it's mostly the latter. And even the parts that veer into the former are witty enough to make you glad you stuck around."
Vanity Fair
Amy Schumer exposes herself—hilariously—in The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo.
Entertainment Weekly's "Must List"
"The comedian's essay collection isn't just bitingly funny—it's also raw, honest, and often heartbreaking. We dare you to walk away without even greater understanding and respect for Schumer."
Cosmopolitan.com
"A hilarious and deeply emotional book."
The Atlantic
"[An] excellent new essay collection... [The book] is, contrary to the postmodern parfait that is Schumer’s standard act, decidedly un-layered. It is Schumer, the celebrity, shedding Schumer, the schtick. It is a memoir that is also an unapologetic paean to self-love. In that, The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo finds a new way for Schumer to be radical: It treats feminine self-confidence not in the way it is too often regarded, as a BrainyQuotable truism or an inborn gift or a fuzzy aspiration or, indeed, a source of shame, but rather as a skill like any other—something that is developed and worked at and thus, most importantly, earned... Schumer’s stories are really, particularly good."
NPR
"Amy Schumer bares her soul in The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo."
The Guardian (UK)
"Some of the prose...could rival Oliver Sacks or Paul Kalanithi. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo would still be a success if it wasn't funny, because it is so unashamed and human."
TheSkimm
"This is your happy hour with Amy Schumer. You'll get everything from tips on how to be a standup comedian, to the story of her one one-night stand. It's "Bossypants" meets "Trainwreck" meets your long weekend."
People
"Revealing."
Lenny - Lena Dunham
"A poignant yet shockingly amusing book."
Funny Women
"This book is what a selection of personal essays and letters should be, witty, sometimes casual, sometimes achingly sad but always entertaining. This rich, unashamed and slightly strange book should be on your shelf if you have ever wanted to be inside Amy Schumer's head."
Esquire
"Surprisingly moving and unsurprisingly hilarious."
Glamour
It’s hard to top the title of this essay collection, but what’s inside is best of all. Yes, Schumer is as honest and hilarious on the page as she is onstage.
The Pool (UK)
"[Schumer is] a concert pianist of comedy: keeping a steady rhythm of jokes with her left hand, adding deeply political, immensely feminist flourishes with her right... [She] knows what people want her for: she knows they like her jokes, and her delivery, and her vulnerability. But she also knows what she wants them for: to read, to listen, and to understand the world as she sees it. And she might end up changing it a little before she's done."
RollingStone.com
"Schumer chronicles her life with digestible stories that impart powerful messages through a kind of logic of the opposite: she makes mistakes so that we can learn from them."
Online E!
"...we knew [The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo] was going to be good. And boy, did she deliver. Sprinkled with her famous humor, Schumer's book provides comical anecdotes that makes it feel like you're chatting with your bestie while downing a pint of ice cream and bottle of wine (yes, both at the same time), while also touching on some very intimate and dark moments that may raise your eyebrows in a different way than you're used to when it comes to Schumer."
Entertainment Weekly
"The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo is laugh-out-loud funny when Schumer wants it to be...but more often, it’s surprisingly honest and raw... If you’re here for humor, of course, you won’t be disappointed...But on the whole, this book is far less a portable joke factory than it is a real, deep dive into Schumer’s life, and what it’s like to be an imperfect woman and content and proud of yourself despite that."
The Daily Beast
In line with its genius name, The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo tackles the arduous task of explaining how Amy Schumer of Long Island became Amy Schumer of Vogue’s cover and internet think pieces, packed with the characteristic self-effacing humor and unfiltered raunch you crave.
Associated Press Staff
"Schumer keeps it real in The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo. [She] is a talented storyteller... Readers will laugh and cry, and may put the book down from moments of honesty that result in uncomfortable realistic details from her life. More important, the essays challenge readers to harness their own stories and rest in the fact that they’re good enough. Experience the world. Be bold. Love your body. It’s OK to fail and make mistakes. And lower-back tattoos can only make you stronger."
Library Journal - Audio
12/01/2016
Here comedian, actress, and writer Schumer (Inside Amy Schumer; Trainwreck) looks back on her teenage years, her relationship with her parents, her sex life, and her boyfriends. Schumer doesn't hold back, talking about everything from her sexual awakening to the body shaming she experienced; no story is off the table, including experiencing lust-at-first-sight while in the airport security line or discovering her fitness instructor's secret bad habit. Read by the author, this memoir brings to the table her well-known sass and comedic timing. VERDICT Fans of Schumer will pick this up without hesitation. Readers who enjoy memoirs by strong, opinionated women will want to give this a try as well.—Jessi Brown, Huntington City-Twp. P.L., IN
AUGUST 2016 - AudioFile
Amy Schumer's stand-up comedy is raunchy and belly-laugh inducing. Fans will enjoy this memoir about her journey as a female comic. Her delivery makes you feel like you’re in a room with her while she’s laughing at her foibles. Her experience as a comic translates into many strengths as an audiobook narrator. Her pace is rapid—so quick, in fact, that you may miss a joke now and then. The humor is off-color and includes honest discussion about sexuality as well as a liberal sprinkling of swearing. Headphones may be helpful in certain listening situations—while at the gym, for example. On the whole, this is a delightful listen with one of comedy's most honest, funniest voices. M.R. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
