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A review by aschwartau
Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness
5.0
I did NOT know whether or not I would enjoy this (audio)book or not because (a) I didnt know who he was and had never even heard him talk and (b) I have not seen a single frame of the new Queer Eye show. So why read this book, you say? Well, I love memoirs, I love celebrity memoirs, it was recommended to me by several people, and I'm revisiting the IFS therapy model and someone said he talks about it in his book, which I found interesting since I've never really seen the IFS model discussed anywhere in the mainstream outside of the movie Inside Out.
When I first started listening to the book, I was worried his 'over the top' persona might start to rub annoying at some point, or all of his flip little "honey"s and verbal quirks. But very quickly, his story sucked me in and his willingness to show vulnerability in the sharing of his life story endeared him to me. I loved this memoir so much and am now really interested in trying out the show! JVN has a new fan!
My only real criticism is that for a book whose opening chapter discusses the IFS model and his various "parts", implying the whole book would be structured on discussing his various parts, it doesn't really refer back to his 'parts' very often. When they did pop up it was like "oh, right! Totally forgot you had kicked things off talking about that." I think a little more could have been done to tie the narrative into the conceit that had been brought up in the opening chapter. And he ended too many sentences with "honey", lol. In the audio version, this came off forced; starting the sentences with 'honey' would have felt more natural in most of those instances.
But seriously, this is a fantastic memoir.
When I first started listening to the book, I was worried his 'over the top' persona might start to rub annoying at some point, or all of his flip little "honey"s and verbal quirks. But very quickly, his story sucked me in and his willingness to show vulnerability in the sharing of his life story endeared him to me. I loved this memoir so much and am now really interested in trying out the show! JVN has a new fan!
My only real criticism is that for a book whose opening chapter discusses the IFS model and his various "parts", implying the whole book would be structured on discussing his various parts, it doesn't really refer back to his 'parts' very often. When they did pop up it was like "oh, right! Totally forgot you had kicked things off talking about that." I think a little more could have been done to tie the narrative into the conceit that had been brought up in the opening chapter. And he ended too many sentences with "honey", lol. In the audio version, this came off forced; starting the sentences with 'honey' would have felt more natural in most of those instances.
But seriously, this is a fantastic memoir.