Reviews

Impossible: My Story by Stan Walker

isaznz's review

dark emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

soph_mills's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

maria_mxx's review

5.0

Very emotional read but I loved it! Stan has a very lovely way of describing his life and the pain that he has felt along the way is shocking. Must read.

ijoh016's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

3.75

ashs_books's review

5.0

To be honest, I struggled to read this book. I was about a quarter of the way through, Stan was only 8 years old, and I had to put the book down. Reading about it is nothing compared to what Stan went through. As a warning, he writes about child abuse and rape, and it’s intense.

adelie_wants_books_and_snacks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I have no words. That was an amazing book. His empathy, forgiveness, and understanding is just mind blowing.

leanneg888's review

5.0

Recommend

shirllb's review

4.0

Stan is completely honest about the things that have happened in his life and hasn’t used his background as a way to define who he is a person today. He spoke openly about the traumas he went through as a child, but has shown that the past doesn’t have shape or influence the person you are today.

izziebelle's review

4.0

Was a good read Stan has been through a lot in his life and was very honest about that in the book.

maplessence's review

4.0

First, let's get one thing out of the way. Impossible couldn't be nominated for the Ockham's (NZ Book Awards) last year as although Stan's voice shines through, he had the services of a ghostwriter, Margie Thomson. The Ockham rules are clear - the majority of the book has to be written by the writer.

For the most part Ms Thomson does a sterling job of organising Stan's thoughts, although the ending of the book rambles a bit.

For those of you who don't know him, Kiwi Stan Walker won the final series of Australian Idol aged only 19. Stan has the voice of an angel, but that isn't the most remarkable thing about him. What is truly remarkable is Stan's ability to forgive a nomadic childhood full of physical and sexual abuse.

...but when we landed on the Gold Coast the heat was a whole other thing. It was so hot it shocked us when we got off the plane. And there was Pāpā, and we had our new beginning. But of course we didn't. You can't just move somewhere else and expect the problem to change. You're the problem, and you take it with you wherever you go. Be a drug dealer and a rip off and an abuser in New Zealand, you'll be exactly the same in Australia. It was all exactly the same, and the cops started coming around to get my dad, just like they did back home.

Since this is real life, I don't consider it a spoiler to say Stan's whole immediate family healed through finding their faith, although finding out some truths was hard for them. And I haven't even touched on Stan getting stomach cancer...

Not a perfect book, but still very highly recommended.

Those of you who would like to discover Stan's voice... Much to my surprise I found that Stan himself doesn't care much for this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZmKOLY-cpw&ab_channel=StanWalkerVEVO

And my favourite is the duet he sang with fellow Kiwi Ginny Blackmore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGym_pbrVWc&ab_channel=GinnyBlackmoreVEVO

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