Book Review: Passive Aggressive Notes by Kerry Miller

BIG THANKS to April and HarperCollins for my copy of the book!

Passive Aggressive Notes by Kerry Miller

Published by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Rating: 4.5 stars

This book was originally inspired by passiveaggressivenotes.com, a popular website started by Kerry Miller, where people were asked to upload passive-aggressive notes that they have received or have found from any place imaginable. As the website states, the criteria for what constitutes a ‘passive-aggressive’ note is taken from the New York times definition: “the classic description of the behavior captures a stubborn malcontent, someone who passively resists fulfilling routine tasks, complains of being misunderstood and underappreciated, unreasonably scorns authority and voices exaggerated complaints of personal misfortune.”

In my opinion, it really means a note with sarcastic politeness and sometimes some harsh words thrown in. Many of these notes were written in response to noisy neighbors, stolen lunches, messy roommates and my favorite ones between lovers, family and friends.

I absolutely LOVE these kinds of books that reveal other people’s notes and letters. I find it so interesting to read and this book is filled with some hilarious (and some just plain creepy) notes. The amount of hostility generated by such simple acts really makes me wonder about some people. Some of these notes must have been written by some seemingly crazy people because their comments to others are things I wouldn’t catch myself even thinking about, let alone telling someone else. Therein lies the beauty of a book like this: lots of fun without actually ever having to encounter these people or get these types of notes addressed to me (not yet at least but should that day come, you know where you'll find them ;)


This book is a fast read and a fun one to pass around with your friends and family, who will surely get a laugh from these crazy notes.


Here are some examples: