Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson, Mark Manson

13 reviews

mattyvreads's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

2.75

I’m don’t think I liked this book very much, although I understand that some of the points Manson makes are extremely astute and well-put. 

I could not get over the fact that this book is so inextricably white, cis, het, and male centered. It is hard to argue keys to a better life when you are starting from a foundation of such extreme, concentrated privilege. He won the privilege lottery. So yeah, I understand how you’re living your best, happy life. Oh, and he mentions he grew up rich, too. 

The advice isn’t ill intentioned, but there are some glaring blind spots in his worldview. He tries (and fails, in my humble opinion) to think outside of his perspective. Those sections feel pretty reductive and out of touch.

The advice is largely anecdotal, which some readers might expect. Occasionally, he’ll talk about

his girlfriend cheating on him

or

how during a rough patch of his life he had indiscriminate sex with many partners

and then tries to connect those points to other people’s lives or stories or trauma. There is a disconnect for me there.

Some of the references in this book are very dated. There are some pretty glaring ageist, misogynistic, conservative or otherwise Puritan values in this book. One story in particular mentions a character who he repeatedly refers to as “the Asian girl” and makes a strange, sexualized joke about her. He implicitly shames the sex positivity / body liberation movement. Almost every example he gives of relationship dynamics is heteronormative and perpetuates harmful gendered stereotypes. There’s a lot to unpack. 

Also, he brings up school shooters like three times and it’s always so jarring and seemingly out of nowhere.

Despite all of that, surprisingly, there are some great things in this book. Truly.

Here are some great insights from the book that I actually think are worthwhile:

1) “Happiness is not a solvable equation”
2) “Whatever makes us feel good will also inevitably make us feel bad” 
3) “Certainty is the enemy of growth.”
4) “Choosing better things to give a fuck about”

I don’t think I’ll read it again. But I’m glad I read it once.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Grief, and War

jeanaquinlan's review against another edition

inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

This book has some good advice about life, though it drags on at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Death

Moderate: Suicide

sh543's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Deadnaming, Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

lovesbug787's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.5

It is somewhat repetitive but gets the point across. Gives a lot of good information 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Infidelity, and Mental illness

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and War

Talks about a lot of uncomfortable or unfortunate situations as examples for ways to change life. They are brief for the most part but are covered and may be unsuitable for some people

storyoflife's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Suicide

jcprewett's review against another edition

medium-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Suicide

pidgepodge's review against another edition

funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

This was a truly interesting and informative book. It challenges your opinions on how to achieve and what to put energy into. It’s a really hard book to explain, but a highly recommended read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Addiction and Suicide

alicedroni's review against another edition

1.0

I listened to this audiobook on a train because it's INESCAPABLE and it was SO not worth the hype. 

It's basically: Man-child learns how to empathize with other humans only after witnessing something absolutely tragic (huge trigger warning) and then makes the tragedy all about himself and how it taught him how to finally be a human being.

Also he constantly brags about how much he *definitely absolutely fucks all the time for sure*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Misogyny

roaze's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Probably my favourite self-help book, i’ll never stop recommending it to people. Definitely helped me in a lot of aspects of my life. I could go on and on about this for just read it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

kiingchika's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death and Suicide