*spoilers ahead*
Chris and Rosie Ramsey’s new book, Sh**ged. Married. Annoyed. (SMA), is identical to their podcast which they started in February 2019 but in book form. I have to start by saying how much I adore their podcast, I started listening to it in my final year of University and it genuinely made me laugh so many times. Then when COVID hit and we entered the first lockdown, having SMA to listen to made my week and I still listen to their podcast every week. Their book came out in August 2020 and ever since its release I have been hearing good things.
The book goes between Chris and Rosie Ramsey, where they use different fonts to differentiate who is writing. Initially, I thought this would be confusing, but it worked well and flowed just like a conversation would do on their podcast. I even found myself reading their parts in their voices too. The only time I would find the alternating parts slightly disjointed was when one of them would be telling a long story and then randomly the other would add a comment in the middle. Whilst this was for comedic effect, I found it would interrupt the story and was a little out of place.
SMA involves stories by Chris and Rosie Ramsey from when they were growing up and snippets from the public too. This is very similar to the podcast and so I enjoyed reading it in book form. Although I didn’t find all the discussions relatable as a lot of the stories are surrounding having children and marriage, I did like getting to know more about Chris and Rosie, and what I had to come in the future! I did find it wholesome when Chris and Rosie mentioned they were trying for a baby knowing that recently Rosie gave birth to their second child. Something that was not so wholesome were some of the stories from the public! If you’re a listener of the podcast you know that many people don’t have a filter as to how much they will share, and this is the case with the book too. The book features some gross stories that are not for the faint-hearted either; they even having a warning on the last chapter, “Let’s Talk About Shit”, where members of the public share their toilet stories.
SMA also touched on how difficult lockdown has been, especially as this book was written during the first lockdown. It was heart-warming to hear the advice Chris and Rosie were giving and to know that everyone is struggling with the situation in some way. I loved how this book could go from talking relatively seriously about the pandemic but then go back to sharing a funny story about themselves on the next page.
My only slight disappointment was how the book ended. I feel like it ended quite abruptly in the sense the stories that were being told could have been told in any part of the book and so it did not appear to the reader that the book was coming to the end. I did not realise I was at the end of the book until I turned the page and saw a small acknowledgements section. Usually, in the podcast, there would be jingles to signify the podcast coming to an end, but with the book version, this obviously is not possible. Quite possibly I just didn’t want the book to end at all!
I have also seen a lot of people listen to SMA as an audiobook so it feels like a long version of the podcast which I can imagine would have been good. I wonder if listening to this book audibly may help the feeling of some of the comments being disjointed as I mentioned earlier and if the ending of the book was more obvious.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I do think you have to already be fans of the podcast and Chris & Rosie Ramsey themselves so you aren’t taken by surprise by how rude or grim some of the stories can be. These are largely stories told by the public though; the podcast made me realise how grim people truly are, no wonder we are in a pandemic! I think it is hard to find a genuinely funny book but for me I definitely found it.
4/5 stars
Soph's Library 
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