Review: Like This, But Funnier by Hallie Cantor

Like This, But Funnier by Hallie Cantor

Blurb from Goodreads:

TV writer Caroline Neumann is thirty-four and mired in professional envy and self-hatred. Even Harry, her usually supportive therapist husband, thinks it’s time for her to press pause on her career ambitions and focus on getting pregnant, despite Caroline’s serious ambivalence about having children.

When Caroline accidentally stumbles on Harry’s patient session notes and offhandedly mentions what she finds in a meeting with a producer, the momentum of Hollywood takes over. Before she knows it—and unbeknownst to Harry—Caroline finds herself pitching a TV show about the deepest, darkest secrets of her husband’s favorite patient, a woman known to Caroline only as the Teacher.

Amid the indignities of the Hollywood development process, Caroline must balance her burning desire for professional validation against her own morality and the health of her marriage. And when Caroline forms a real-life relationship with Teacher herself, the lines between art and life begin to blur further, shaking up Caroline’s understanding of what it means to be the “likeable female protagonist” of her own life.

 This was fine but definitely not as funny as I was expecting.  It was trying to go in the vein of Curb where one small misstep turns into something giant and it succeeded, kind of, but I wasn't laughing along the way.  I just was cringing and eternally frustrated.  You may have better luck!

Like This, But Funnier comes out next week on April 7, 2026 and you can purchase HERE.  

"Never have kids," the roommate deadpanned. But of course they all wanted you to. Even if parents regretted their decision, they could never admit it, even to themselves. The only way forward was to uphold the lie that it was the greatest thing ever and hope more people fell for it so you weren't alone, and then pressure your kids to have kids so you could be a grandparent.

Parenting was the ultimate pyramid scheme.