Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

8 reviews

hkajer's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual content

kayfab's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Racism, Cultural appropriation, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Drug use, Body shaming, and Panic attacks/disorders

deetabz's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

marisa_n's review

hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

3.0

This felt like a book-length version of those cheesy quotes on Facebook that say things like "a flower cannot blossom without rain." Overall, the book was cheesy, superficial, and disorganized. 

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.  

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Content Warnings

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

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 encounters

kelseyland's review

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Doyle's story is a fascinating one and I was very interested in her journey from poster child for the mainstream Christian(TM) wife and mother to someone who learned how to prioritize her own needs and desires. At the same time, she often talks about/to women as a broad category, but it felt to me like most of what she has to say would be most meaningful and useful to a very specific category of white, straight, middle to upper-class Christian women. The section on faith, religion, and the modern American church was the most impactful for me, and I also loved the glimpses into Doyle's marriage to soccer player Abby Wambach. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Addiction

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Infidelity, and Religious bigotry

lameyloser's review

emotional inspiring slow-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Police brutality, Racism, and Sexual content

whylal's review

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Addiction, and Mental illness

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Death, and Homophobia

Minor: Miscarriage

irene_fueyo_gomez's review

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Vomit