Congratulations, the Best Is Over!: Essays -- R. Eric Thomas - Hardcover

The beloved bestselling author of Here for It returns with an all-new collection of heartening, deeply relatable, and laugh-out-loud essays about what happens after happily ever after.

"Funny, insightful, and hopeful . . . a profound meditation on what it means to come home, and on finding your way again after the chaos of life takes you off your path."--John Paul Brammer, author of Hola Papi!

After going viral "reading" the chaotic political news, having one-too-many awkward social encounters, and coming to terms with his intersecting identities, R. Eric Thomas finally knew who he was and where he was going. He was living his best life.

But then everything changed.

In this collection of insightful and hilarious essays, Thomas moves back to his perpetually misunderstood hometown of Baltimore (a place he never wanted to return, even to be buried) and behaving completely out of character. They say you can't go home again, but what if you and home have changed beyond recognition? From attending his twenty-year high school reunion and discovering another person's face on his name badge, to splattering an urgent care room with blood à la The Shining, to being terrorized by a plague of gay frogs who've overtaken his backyard, Thomas provides the nitty, and sometimes the gritty, details of wrestling with the life he thought he'd left behind while trying to establish a new one.

With wit, heart, and hope for the future, Congratulations, The Best Is Over! is the not-so-gentle reminder we all need that even when life doesn't go according to plan, we can still find our way back home.

Author: R. Eric Thomas
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 08/08/2023
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.78lbs
Size: 8.57h x 5.84w x 0.91d
ISBN: 9780593496268

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 03/01/2023 pg. 22
Publishers Weekly 05/01/2023
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2023

About the Author
R. Eric Thomas is the bestselling author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and the YA novel Kings of B'more, both of which were featured as Read with Jenna book club picks on Today. He is also a television writer (Apple TV+'s Dickinson, FX's Better Things), a Lambda Literary Award-winning playwright, and the long-running host of The Moth in Philadelphia. For four years, he was a senior staff writer at Elle online, where he wrote the popular "Eric Reads the News" column.