Witty, profound, silly, and painfully honest memoir of a music journalist from a generation which grew up with the evolving internet from an early age.

Obsessively googling exes and prospective partners, and developing one-sided love affairs with celebrities she has never met, we follow the author's coming of age through school, university, finding her way in her career and dealing with a diagnosis of POI (Premature Ovarian Insufficency) and Early Menopause, while living in fear of her internet searches being discovered.

Heartfelt, relatable and a great read.

I really expected this book to be one of my favourites, unfortunately it just wasn't for me. I tried to persevere but unfortunately It was a DNF.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC

This was an impulse request on Netgalley as I was so intrigued by the basis of the memoir - how a life spent chronically "online" can shape you as a person. I was born in the early 80's , and 'online' only really became easily accessible in my 20's (dial up before that) but I also have teenagers who are digital natives so there is a draw to try to understand what their life could be like with the world behind a screen.

This is an emotive, honest and engaging memoir, woven with a thread of humour that really works hard to lift the weight of the topics, many are deeply personal to the author 'early menopause/ infertility issues/ miscarriage)......and then a huge dollop of pure obsession with 'online' - is this ok?

Yes...It's 'o-k'.....

I was super intrigued by the premise of this memoir and it didn’t let me down. It was so relatable and I found myself nodding my head to things the author did or thought. It was also hilarious and it just made the experience of reading this book all the more enjoyable. I really hope this author writes more books in the future because I’ll be the first in line. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a chance to read and review this book.

This is a memoir about being chronically online, which I read as an ebook on my kindle inbetween checking the cycle of social media applications I seem to need to confirm regularly.
Harriet Gibsone and I are about the same age, I think, and her account of growing up in the nineties, listening to music, trying to get email penpals and use this thing called the internet was very familiar.
Her drive to work in music, be the coolest girl, be a part of that journalist scene, was a bit less familiar but written so that I could relate.

I like memoir, and I like seeing other people’s lives, especially from their point of view. It’s interesting to read about what other people experience, the growth they do throughout and how their story has impacted them. One thing I struggle with is when the main character keeps making bad choices. I appreciate that this is part of the memoir, but I do find it frustrating when the person is self aware enough to realise that they need to make the change, but lack the motivation/competency to actually make the change needed.

The book also takes an abrupt turn halfway through as it focusses on Gibsone’s fertility challenges, which are described in detail so please be aware, it may touch on some painful areas if you have experienced similar events.

All in all, I recommend this for people who like memoir, and for older millennial people who bridge the gap between pre and post internet Britain.

I’m not sure if I enjoyed Is This Ok or not to be honest.
I like Harriet I’m addicted to my phone and social media. I have gotten pretty far down a rabbit hole or two when looking up a person thankfully I haven’t accidentally liked something from years ago by mistake though!
Is This Ok? is an autobiographical look at the life of Harriet Gisbone, a music journalist. I thought I would be able to relate to Harriet much more than I did having been a journalist myself.
The book follows her over a number of years and looks at how her use of the internet changes over time.

There’s not really much of a plot or storyline and it feels quite random. It is written well though and there’s some laugh out loud moments with some of the lengths she goes to in her cyber stalking!
There’s also a lot of dark moments and some difficult themes explored which some readers might find quite upsetting.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

Harriet Gibsone’s Is This Ok? is a non fiction exploration of what it is to “grow up online”, and how the arrival of the internet in her pre-teens enabled and exacerbated some of the things she would have experienced anyway. For Gibsone, surveillance of other people as a means of entertainment, as well as a way to understand herself and how she was supposed to behave was a big part of her childhood, and of course she was delighted by her ability to access this even more easily once she joined social media. The fact I knew this was non-fiction made me cringe deeply at different parts, and Gibsone’s narration on the audiobook is so funny even in very embarrassing passages.

The book mostly has a humorous or tongue-in-cheek tone, but there's a serious weight to how she explores learning how to present herself in real life and online, and how the two were more intermingled than older generations realised. It’s a real chronicle of the time she grew up in, as well as her own story, about the emo era on MySpace and then being a young adult hipster working in music journalism in the early days of Twitter, playing the part of musical muse or alternatively, part of the hedonistic indie-sleeze party scene. The book is told mostly through the lens of an addiction to or dependency on the internet, but also with romantic obsession which fueled a low self-esteem and body issues and “the shame, the shame of giving too much and loving too hard.”

The tone of the essays vary widely from the mad, hilarious daydream of a life with Gibsone’s longtime crush and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, to some really moving and hard to read passages on Gibsone’s health and fertility issues, through to the traumatic birth of her beloved son after undergoing difficult treatments. In these hard times she falls back on her old crutch of the internet and comparing herself to women and mothers who seem to have it all, and vicariously living through people she only knows as avatars. Like the character at the end of Prasifka’s novels, she starts to understand that she will have to completely rewire her attitudes towards herself and her body, and how she understands people and the world around her through the internet, and while this will be difficult to break away from the unhealthy attachment to something that in some ways brought her many good things in her life, she does not want to be defined by it especially as she begins to raise a young boy who will grow up never knowing the world without the internet at his fingertips.

Initially this book was a relatable and fun read, about the author’s self doubts and insecurities and her obsession with stalking people online, all told in a witty, self-deprecating style. Unfortunately, as the book continued in the same vein throughout, with little hope of personal growth or development, it began to feel repetitive, long-winded and dreary.

It appears that Harriet Gibsone has spent her entire life trying to turn herself into the various people she obsessively follows online, from fellow-journalist colleagues like ‘Laura’ to celebrities like Alexa Chung. It made me feel really sad, because Harriet – as presented through her own words – seems perfectly lovely and lovable if she could only set aside those obsessive thoughts.

All her relationships, both online and IRL, are subjected to exhaustive analysis, comparison and self-conscious adjustments in her search for some imagined perfect state of being, in herself and in relation to others.

I get it, and I definitely related to her struggle, as I am also a massive overthinker, but reading an entire book of someone else putting themself through this repeatedly made me feel small, tired, embarrassed and depressed. On the plus side, it also made me resolve to work on my own issues and ease off on the overthinking (thankfully I am not also a cyber-stalker!), so that is a positive outcome from the read!

The anecdotes about music journalism and the author’s personal relationships are all very interesting and well-written, so it’s not that the book isn’t entertaining… it just carries a lot of emotional weight that the humour struggles to lift.

Poignant, funny and oh so very true. A cracking good read. Very well written and great observation on the evolution of the internet in our daily lives

"Is This OK?" by Harriet Gibsone is a witty, insightful, and often hilarious exploration of the dilemmas faced in today's digital age. Gibsone's writing captures the essence of navigating modern life and social media, delving into the absurdity of our digital behaviors and the quest for validation. The book offers a refreshing take on the complexities of our online personas, making it a thought-provoking and entertaining read for the socially connected.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

I found this book to be quite relatable, especially being in my early 30s and also finding out I was pregnant with my first child 3 days into the first lockdown in 2020 whilst also being a nurse in intensive care was insane.

Following the authors look back at growing up surrounded by media and the negative and positive influence it can have with the second half of the book focusing more on her life as a new parent following infertility with a traumatic birth and chronic illness, my heart went out to the author.

I think it is important to remember with this book that this is ONE WOMAN's experience of personal internet habits, which can be relatable but might not be for everyone, however for me I found it be quite an interesting read and I hope the author is coping much better now, as I too have found it painfully difficult following my own personal experiences of traumatic childbirth in the last 3 years and declining mental health.

Is This Ok?

It absolutely is...

I may have been slightly out of the target market for this one (age wise), BUT it so highly relatable. I loved everything about it.

I haven't ruled out returning to this book, but it's still one of the oddest pieces of non-fiction I've ever read. Tonally it shifts a lot between seriousness and silliness, and in the early parts of the book I was unsure how I was supposed to feel about the author's online coming-of-age. The later parts of the book sound more compelling, so I might stick with it, but I was never quite sure that this was something I needed to read, or that I would learn anything from a memoir that is so *very* specific to the author's life - not something you get with recent memoirs by Octavia Bright, Emily Dean or Carmen Maria Machado, who somehow manage to combine their singular experiences with emotions anyone can relate to.

Did not finish this. Heard a lot about the book from reviews and newspaper interest. Didn’t hold my attention at all unfortunately. Mustn’t be the intended audience.

Starting to read this book, it wasn't at all what I was expecting from the blurb. It took a long time to get us to the menopause position of the story, which is what the blurb 'sells' and which is what I was looking for. In the meantime, I must admit the whole thing lost me along the way for not only being uninteresting as all heck, but also so, so gross with its bodily functions and lack of hygiene, it totally turned me off every single time. Sadly, not what was 'sold' in the blurb, which proved very misleading

I found this book really relatable, being a similar age to the Harriet a lot of this was very nostalgic and I too am a fantastic internet FBI (read as top stalker)
hard hitting in parts but overall a really honest and enjoyable book

An honest and funny memoir with some poignant moments. Worth reading. Good read from start to finish.

Emotionally Turbulent..
Poignant, keenly observed and emotionally turbulent, the life of Harriet Gibsone is bared for all to see as she navigates her way through life in the times of the web amidst her own personal dilemmas, disappointments and disasters. Often brutally honest and yet often humorous albeit often darkly so - ultimately eminently relatable.

Is This OK? is an honest but very funny memoir by music journalist Harriet Gibson, about growing up as the internet becomes a bigger part of people’s lives. This is on top of the usual teenage anxieties and some very unexpected, devastating health issues which completely blindsided her.

I loved this book because it is SO relatable. Harriet is only a few years older than me, so I felt like I had a very similar experience of the world and pop culture growing up – the nostalgia really hit me reading this! But what really captivated me was Harriet’s unfiltered honesty and authenticity, as she fearlessly shared the highs and lows that many women can relate to.

It also addresses some important and widespread issues – mental health, toxic relationships, fertility problems, post-natal struggles and so much more. For this reason, I don’t know if I could say I completely ‘enjoyed’ every page of this book, because there were some parts that were really difficult to read, but I did find myself completely absorbed in it. Harriet’s writing is incredibly engaging and fresh, and I am already really excited for whatever she brings out in the future!

“As a woman prone to slow reaction times and meekness in real life, I could now partake in meaningful conversations and have an instant connection to someone without the threat of tending to them physically.”

Harriet Gibsone's memoir-in-essays is very funny, very frank, oftentimes very relatable and occassionally very wise. As someone who came of age alongside the internet, she spends much of the book reflecting the impact that it's had on her life - through social media creeping, especially. Gibsone begins at the end, telling us in her introduction that she wants to stop using the internet as she does - but first she gives us a deep dive into her internet habits and physche.

The result is very witty, ocassionally cringy and ultimately very enjoyable to read.
Gibsone's style is easy to read, chatty and informative, and she often uses episodes from her own life to illuminate the messiness of our world.

Her pre-and post-pubescent nonsense takes up a good chunk of the book's beginning - in many cases, the cringe was truly off the charts. I recoiled physically at her mention of switching from appear online to appear offline on MSN - largely due to recognition of how embarrassing being an online teen is. But Harriet makes friends online, too - in one excellent essay, she takes us on a journey from indie-music chatboards to meeting up with her fellow posters in real life: the results are decidely mixed and as a fellow Online Millenial, it struck a cord with me, reminding me of how often and how intensely internet vs real life connection can differ.

As the book progresses, Gibsone slowly lets us in on an illness she has - experiencing periods of intense mental ill-health, fatigue, and pain in her body. It is revealed that Gibsone has been diagnosed with early-onset menopause and this throws her into something of a tailspin. In the collection's most touching chapter, Gibsone tries to have a baby with her husband under the intense pressure of her condition - it's raw, and often painful to read, especially if you're familiar with fertility treatment in any way. Gibsone's story ends happily, and her chapters on motherhood - while not very relatable to me - are as honest and hilarious as the rest of the book. It's also beyond sad, at times, and I'll admit that I googled Harriet to make sure that she's ok now.

Is This Ok? does at times feel a little uneven - it's absolutely unflinching all the way through, though, even when Gibsone veers towards the less relatable. I did feel that Gibsone's chapters on rubbing shoulders with famous musicians took me out of the "relatable Millenial" vibe she curated so well in the book's first third. But these escapades are sitll deeply funny - her car-crash interview with Arctic Monkeys, especially - but they feel like they could have been in another essay collection.

Is This Ok? is a funny and charming deep-dive into one woman’s mildly unhinged internet habits - it certainly isn't the wildest thing I've ever read about the internet but it's a great look at what the internet has done - and is doing - to us.