Book Review: "Stop Me If You've Heard This One" by Kristen Arnett

Cherry is a clown. Seriously. She spends a lot of time at children’s parties and other events all over Orlando, playing the part of Bunko, a rodeo clown who’s terrified of horses. She loves making people laugh, and would love to take her act to the next level.

When she’s not performing, she works at an aquarium supply store. (More accurately, she does as little work as possible and she and her coworker antagonize their boss.) But she hopes that she’ll make the connection that will allow her to concentrate full-time on clowning.

When she goes on a date with Margot the Magnificent, a talented magician, Cherry’s first thoughts center around her attraction to the older woman. But then she realizes that Margot might be the one to help further her ambitions.

When Margot suggests that they team up, Cherry is excited about what the opportunity could hold. But what will Cherry have to sacrifice in order to get what she wants? And what does she want—from her career and from her life?

It’s not just her career ambitions that Cherry has to make sense of, though. She needs to figure out her relationship with her mother, who never approved of her clowning, and she lives in the shadow of her late older brother, Dwight, who everyone remembers as hysterically funny. It’s a lot to live up to.

I liked the concept of this book a lot, but it never really grabbed me. I like the way Kristen Arnett writes, so I’m definitely interested in checking out her backlist, but I never felt completely connected to the story.