Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Untamed: Stop Pleasing, Start Living by Glennon Doyle

27 reviews

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.  

---

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

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

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. 

---

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

sdunn13's review against another edition

hopeful reflective fast-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Grief, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Eating disorder

katie_11's review

hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Eating disorder

lhohnstadt's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Drug abuse

mswarning's review against another edition

challenging inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

I did not vibe with this book at first. I thought Glennon sounded a little pretentious and self-absorbed. Her description of knowing and sinking sounded 'woo woo' in a gimmicky way. She's likely wiser than I think she is.. I liked the audio. I would consider checking out the print to save passages I want to ponder some more.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Infidelity

takarakei's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, and Addiction

chelsea_schultz's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, and Mental illness

sunnivab's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

I loved this book. There were so many lessons I learned, things I resonated with that I didn’t even realize I would have before reading and digesting it. I already know I will want to reread this book often to remind myself of the  lessons in this book, to refocus on myself, who I am and what I’m doing. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexism, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Minor: Miscarriage and Panic attacks/disorders