jennabeck13's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Body shaming, Misogyny, Sexism, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Racism, Drug use, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry
parasolcrafter's review against another edition
1.75
Graphic: Abandonment, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, and Pregnancy
deetabz's review against another edition
3.0
Moderate: Mental illness, Addiction, Bullying, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Grief, Alcohol, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Xenophobia, Racism, and Sexism
Minor: Fatphobia, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Sexual content
buffyali's review
3.75
Moderate: Mental illness, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Drug use, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Self harm, Sexism, and Drug abuse
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Racism
marisa_n's review against another edition
3.0
To be fair, it wasn't all bad. The author has clearly lived many different lives as she's worked to find herself. She's turned her story into a series of easily digestible anecdotes and life lessons. There were a few powerful reminders about self-love, romantic love, and parenting. There were some empowering messages about trusting your intuition, defining happiness for yourself, and challenging oppressive systems.
That said, the actual book itself was a mess. It was simultaneously overly formulaic and completely unorganized. Each chapter starts with a simple anecdote, has an a-ha!/ light bulb moment, and then ends with a life lesson to tie it all together. That said, the chapters were in no coherent order--neither chronologically or by theme. I'm convinced you could randomize the order of the chapters had have a fairly similar reading experience. It was incredibly frustrating to guess where you were chronologically. Moreover, the author was constantly learning a lesson, just to jump back in the timeline and re-learning the same lesson. It made the a-ha moment feel forced and insincere. Lastly, the strange order made the book feel incredibly repetitive, as no topic was given enough space within a single chapter to reach any depth.
The author should have put all the stories in chronological order. This would have helped clearly describe who she used to be, provide us a chance to root for her in her non-linear journey, and then display a character arc. Alternatively, she could have given a brief overview of her story in the introduction, then organized all the chapters (in chronological order!!) into sections organized by large themes, such as inner self, love, parenting, god/ religious institutions, community/activism. I think the messages could have been so much more powerful if she started describing her internal journey, and then how it changed her relationships with those of various proximity to her.
Overall, I think the book was fine. Perhaps I'm just not the target audience... This book might be written for women who are white, christian, politically moderate, mothers (who she used to be). To be fair, if she can reach those kinds of women and engage them on issues related to race, gender, sexual misogyny, etc., then that's a win in my book. That said, I have the feeling she's mostly preaching to the choir.
Graphic: Homophobia, Biphobia, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Gaslighting, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Abortion, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Rape, Infidelity, Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Classism, Death, Fatphobia, Grief, and Gun violence
Spoiler
At one point, when she is expressing her repulsion at having sex with her husband, she is gaslit into being told to make it work. She describes having 'consensual' but emotionally manipulated sexual encountersmadmichele's review against another edition
2.75
it’s a nice easy read and a good break from all the depressing books I always have my nose in, but it wasn’t super profound to me. there are definitely some gems in there, though. the ending was a little flat and weirdly abrupt.
ultimately I don’t understand the praise this gets, it was okay. not bad, but not the best piece of writing either.
not trying to rain on her parade at all. despite my critiques i am very happy she was able to flourish and now lives the life she wants to live without the societal & religious constraints that are bestowed upon us from such a young age.
Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Sexism, Addiction, and Infidelity
Minor: Racism, Mass/school shootings, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, and Drug abuse
neni's review against another edition
4.0
- the fact she didn’t fully explore/deepen any of the topics she talked about. There were lots of important topics she touched upon with plenty of useful insights, but somehow she managed to make most reflections quite surface level. I would have liked to see some of the nitty gritty explored in more detail.
-there were quite a few sections in the book where she was touching on more spiritual/religious/philosophical ideas where the writing came off as a bit too cringey and cheesy for me. Not that there weren’t some interesting insights, but I could definitely tell she used to be from a religious backround just from the way she phrased certain things. She wasn’t literally preaching any religion per se, but the style was similar to a lot of religious speech which made me a bit uncomfortable to be honest and took a little of the relatability away for me.
Still, overall I found this to be engaging and it definitely tugged at my heart strings
Moderate: Eating disorder
Minor: Sexism, Violence, and Racism
sunnivab's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexism, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Addiction, and Alcoholism
Minor: Miscarriage and Panic attacks/disorders
lg_02's review against another edition
2.75
Moderate: Eating disorder, Addiction, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Sexism
ekmook's review against another edition
3.25
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Mental illness