Before Rachel Bloom co-wrote and -produced The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, she was known on the internet for her humorous Youtube music videos exploring heady subjects, such as her sexual feelings towards science fiction author Ray Bradbury (Fuck Me Ray Bradbury), or compulsions and intrusive thoughts (The OCDance). The CW show gave her co-creators, a budget, and more professional actors with which to explore these themes, but any production environment, especially with the expectations of a television or Youtube-monetizeable audience, is going to act as a bit of a filter.
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are (Grand Central Publishing, November 17, 2020), her autobiography, is as unfiltered of a Rachel Bloom experience as you're going to get. I've only read the first few chapters, but I would describe my experience as follows: every page or two I would laugh explosively, and every ten pages or so I would need to take a break. She's had a childhood that ranges from relatable to peculiar, and tells of it with her famous eloquent, acerbic, and self-effacing delivery. There haven't been any musical numbers yet, but here's hoping!
You will put this book down, only to pick it up the next evening (depending on your reading schedule).
I enjoy Rachel Bloom's work, particularly in that the target of the parody often seems to me to be people who would not realize that their own attitudes and assumptions are the things being parodied. For example, I enjoy the parental situation of the pet thief in "I Steal Pets." Also, she's very funny. That helps.
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