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buffyali's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
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
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.
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.
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
krissydurant's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder
livcashmere's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I’m quite conflicted with how to review this book. I should start off by stating that’s it’s definitely not what I thought it was going to be. I heard Glennon interviewed on ABC’s conversations podcast years ago and have been meaning to read this book ever since. But untamed definitely took me by surprise because it read a lot more like a self-help book than I was anticipating.
Honestly my biggest problem with this book is I just found nearly all of Glennon’s lived experiences to be extremely not relatable to my life. I’m not sure whether it’s a generational thing but it always makes me so sad to think of how many women spend huge chunks of their lives being absolutely miserable because they feel societal pressure to do so. Of course this is still an ongoing problem today but nearly all the women in my life no longer or have ever felt that type of pressure before. Glennons story just reeks of your typical Gen X white feminist who has had this huge mid life epiphany and has suddenly decided to think for herself. Honestly, I’m truly happy for her but reading this book just made me feel so frustrated most of the time. When Glennon talks about discovering and following her ‘Knowing’, I understand what she means, but it’s absolutely wild to me that she spent 40 years of her life ignoring that feeling. Also she mentions several times that her previous books were full of bullshit, which made me think exactly the same thing about this one!
That aside, I do think that Glennon is a wonderful writer. And I really enjoyed the short, non-sequential chapter layout of this book. She explores a lot of interesting subject matters in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the reader. One aspect I really hated though was her long lectures that she states she gives a variety of people in her books, particularly her kids and Abby. I’m sure they’re not word for word but the absolute paternalism and the need for controlling everyone around her was so prevalent that if I was on the receiving end in real life I would be rolling my eyes and walking away. She also talks a little too much about God for my liking, but each to their own.
Overall it was a well written novel, but took my by surprise (not in a good way) with the self-help, religion and God aspects. I was going to give it a lower rating originally but settled on 3.5 because the chapters about her relationships and life were very interesting and well written. The rest of the book was about a 2 due to how preachy it was.
Honestly my biggest problem with this book is I just found nearly all of Glennon’s lived experiences to be extremely not relatable to my life. I’m not sure whether it’s a generational thing but it always makes me so sad to think of how many women spend huge chunks of their lives being absolutely miserable because they feel societal pressure to do so. Of course this is still an ongoing problem today but nearly all the women in my life no longer or have ever felt that type of pressure before. Glennons story just reeks of your typical Gen X white feminist who has had this huge mid life epiphany and has suddenly decided to think for herself. Honestly, I’m truly happy for her but reading this book just made me feel so frustrated most of the time. When Glennon talks about discovering and following her ‘Knowing’, I understand what she means, but it’s absolutely wild to me that she spent 40 years of her life ignoring that feeling. Also she mentions several times that her previous books were full of bullshit, which made me think exactly the same thing about this one!
That aside, I do think that Glennon is a wonderful writer. And I really enjoyed the short, non-sequential chapter layout of this book. She explores a lot of interesting subject matters in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the reader. One aspect I really hated though was her long lectures that she states she gives a variety of people in her books, particularly her kids and Abby. I’m sure they’re not word for word but the absolute paternalism and the need for controlling everyone around her was so prevalent that if I was on the receiving end in real life I would be rolling my eyes and walking away. She also talks a little too much about God for my liking, but each to their own.
Overall it was a well written novel, but took my by surprise (not in a good way) with the self-help, religion and God aspects. I was going to give it a lower rating originally but settled on 3.5 because the chapters about her relationships and life were very interesting and well written. The rest of the book was about a 2 due to how preachy it was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Eating disorder
boba_n_books's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
This was a really solid book. I enjoyed hearing about her life, especially the parts where she talks about protecting her family from outside forces. It was very empowering.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder, Alcoholism, and Body shaming
kat_leona's review against another edition
challenging
dark
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
1.75
Not my favorite but I’m also not a non fiction girlie. I thought some parts had really good thoughts and others not enough. Good read if you don’t dissect each chapter but does that make it a bad read because you can’t dissect it too hard or you’ll start questioning the author credibility to properly narrate. I understand why people love it and if we didn’t break it down so much in book club than I may have also joined the collective that love it. But after reading it I honestly just think our girlie glennon needs therapy and this book starts a deeper discussion but does not do that conversation the justice it deserves. Like why do we as women question ourselves so much when our counterparts literally don’t bat an eye. Or why do we immediately think a confident woman is a bitch and hostile? There’s were ALOT of good points she brought up that stimulated conversation within our group. But once that conversation started you begin to realize that she couldve expanded or worded something different or whatever it was. We thought it had good ideas and foundations but it should’ve been edited and reviewed more
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Classism, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Eating disorder, and Misogyny
agnesg's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Eating disorder
sarabookshelf's review against another edition
3.0
My two good friends recommended this book to me, and seeing how many celebrities praised it, I decided to give it a go. And in theory, I should have loved it. But it just wasn't for me.
I agree with most of the ideas stated, and there are several memorable quotes that really make you think. However, the way the ideas were presented and the way the book is written just didn't resonate with me. Sometimes I felt it was a bit emtpy, and that the author was just trying to check off every feminist issue, but doesn't really reach the point, and instead just writes buzzwords. It's a bit pretentious at times, and too many mentions of religion and spirituality for my taste. It's also quite repetitive.
At times I also felt like she was just advertising her charity, and at other times she is just talking about how amazing her life is, how much she loves her wife, and how smart and loving and intellectual her children are.
It might be a great book for someone, and it might truly help people who are at similar stages in life or going through the same issues as she did. However, at this point in time, this book is just not for me.
I agree with most of the ideas stated, and there are several memorable quotes that really make you think. However, the way the ideas were presented and the way the book is written just didn't resonate with me. Sometimes I felt it was a bit emtpy, and that the author was just trying to check off every feminist issue, but doesn't really reach the point, and instead just writes buzzwords. It's a bit pretentious at times, and too many mentions of religion and spirituality for my taste. It's also quite repetitive.
At times I also felt like she was just advertising her charity, and at other times she is just talking about how amazing her life is, how much she loves her wife, and how smart and loving and intellectual her children are.
It might be a great book for someone, and it might truly help people who are at similar stages in life or going through the same issues as she did. However, at this point in time, this book is just not for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Infidelity, and Religious bigotry
belladonnashrike's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
2.75
would be 3 stars if it weren’t for the pacing for parts 1 & 2 of this book - they were so disorganized that I couldn’t enjoy the writing until part 3 (which was the longest and definitely the most well-written of the 3 sections).
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Sexism, Addiction, and Infidelity
Minor: Racism, Mass/school shootings, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, and Drug abuse
nicolioliolio's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
2.75
As a life-long atheist, I’ve never been taught that homosexuality is a sin, so I’ve never had to reconcile my beliefs. This book clearly isn’t for me. What it has done is confirmed that most Christianity is a prison and it deeply damages people.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism and Eating disorder
Minor: Homophobia