This Will Only Hurt a Little

How it reads

This Will Only Hurt a Little is memoir (celebrity memoir, specifically), and its dominant mood is funny. The humour is the point, not garnish. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a big city setting, in the recent past, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are identity, family and coming of age. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 288 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.