I didn’t make my half cannonball, but I do want to hit my reading goal. So I squeezed in a short essay by Jenny Lawson this morning. I Choose Darkness is a short essay and Amazon Original.
Goodreads synopsis:
From cheap costumes to creepy dolls to questionable candy, number one New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson weaves a hauntingly hilarious account of her ongoing—sometimes outrageous—Halloween life.
The holly-jolly holidays aren’t for everyone, least of all when you look back on that one Christmas when there were two definitely haunted dolls waiting for you and your sister under the tree. You have to assume that’s where it all started.
And so it was for Jenny Lawson. Now, she lives in the land of eternal Halloween, as evidenced by her interior decor and general state of darkness. (Although, if you ask her, her taxidermy zoo is less dark and more delightful. But not everyone has taste, so what are you going to do?)
This essay takes Jenny back to where it all started, from her humble beginnings as a trick-or-treater in the 1980s, on high alert for (logistically improbable) candy laced with razor blades and the (allegedly) ever-present threat of Satanists on the loose. From there, she has risen from the candy wrapper ashes of her childhood to claim her rightful lifestyle as the queen of Halloween.
This was a great holiday-themed essay to close out the year. Jenny Lawson aka The Blogess excels at self-deprecating humor and going off on tangents. The essay even includes excerpts from her editor telling her to stay on track! She talks about how she likes to celebrate Halloween year-round, which I can get behind. As a fellow millennial who grew up in Texas, it was fun to see similarities in her childhood Halloween traditions. If you’re looking for some 80s and 90s nostalgia and lots of humor, this is a quick essay that will make you laugh I hope.