I really enjoyed this cosy novel and the peek behind the scenes it offered at the comedy world. It was funny, charming, and clever, and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the comedy bits of Dolly Alderton’s Good Material in particular.

Timely exploration of the comedy scene and the themes are well explored and originally put across. It's great that someone has chosen to look at this area of the entertainment industry.

The book had a good pace and was readable with interesting characters and scenarios but something about the writing style felt slightly disjointed for me and left me struggling to connect at times. I didn't find this as engaging or as engrossing as I'd hoped it would be.

What a debut! A #MeToo story set in the world of standup comedy. This was an outstanding, searing and topical book.

It follows Ali, a 40-producer for a radio station. She’s rather meek and ordinary. She’s been sent to a standup comedy routine to scout for a comedian called Paul. Unfortunately there seems to be allegations about him so instead she ends up talking to Ed, who seems like an ally. We see a friendship develop between the two that has some flirting too. For the first 40% of the book you think is this a romance? I’m ngl I even found myself considering DNF for a bit cause I was so confused - where’s the story going? Then you have the confrontation scene between Sid and Ali and suddenly the book takes a darker turn. You start to realise there’s more to Ed than meets the eye. After this point the book was just unputdownable and I was gripped.

I liked the nuanced way the author shows how reluctant women are to come forward and how they sometimes see other women, even ones who’ve been gaslit and abused, as a sort of competition. The way a part of them thinks maybe they’ll be ‘different’ and how everyone is a feminist until they realise they can gain more by male validation so they compartmentalise their feminism. I did, however, think the ending was going to be bittersweet. It was a bit neatly tied up for my taste. I wanted to what Ali and what the rest of the women were doing a year later. Regardless this was a brilliant debut and I can’t recommend this highly enough.

This is kinda old ground but ground breaking at the same time such an insightful dark book that I couldn't put down. Well written and handle the dark aspects of the boon with care, will make you think and I hope raise discussion...important book getting reading it

This book, the themes it contains, has been a long time coming and Julia Raeside has booted it out of the park. She has perfectly presented the insidious nature of abuse, in all its apparent nuance. Grainne Murphy captured my feelings precisely when she said (of the book) ‘One of the most accurate depictions I have ever read of the true monsters in stand up; it's not the swaggery lads you need to keep an eye on; it's the “good guys”’
‘Don't Make Me Laugh’ is a brilliant, timely piece of work. I hope it reaches a wide readership - of men, especially. Time's up!