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thegoldfish's review
This book was not what I hoped it'd be. It was a lot of excerpts of the author's own memoir and a few pieces of haphazard advice thrown in, none of which was especially compelling.
aphoenixwriting's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
4.25
corneliadolian's review
3.0
First, the caveat that I found the voiceover/narration insufferable at many many points. This may have skewed my experience of the book a lot. The actress did a brilliant job with pronunciation and accents, and her delivery was definitely captivating and entertaining, BUT the tone she used sounded aggressive, haughty, and a little self-aggrandizing. It didn’t match the tone of the book or of Aronie herself (from videos I’ve seen). It did a disservice.
While Aronie’s experiences and heartbreaks are definitely gripping, this book doesn’t actually deliver on its quiet promise of guiding or helping one to write a memoir. Or to heal. There’s very little new or really useful advice. There’s no transformation for the reader. The “healing power” isn’t that evident to me after finishing this.
It’s about 50% snippets of Aronie’s own unpublished memoir, mixed with lots of common writing advice, anecdotes that interrupt the flow, characters who just show up late in the game but we are supposed to see them as very important. With a few gems sprinkled in.
It felt a tinge bait and switch-y, like Aronie draws you in promising you healing, but then just uses much of the space to give you her own memoir bits because the whole memoir isn’t being published.
Ultimately, I guess this book might be a great argument for writing your memoir and getting it out into the world, so that it doesn’t dominate or overshadow other good work you want to do.
While Aronie’s experiences and heartbreaks are definitely gripping, this book doesn’t actually deliver on its quiet promise of guiding or helping one to write a memoir. Or to heal. There’s very little new or really useful advice. There’s no transformation for the reader. The “healing power” isn’t that evident to me after finishing this.
It’s about 50% snippets of Aronie’s own unpublished memoir, mixed with lots of common writing advice, anecdotes that interrupt the flow, characters who just show up late in the game but we are supposed to see them as very important. With a few gems sprinkled in.
It felt a tinge bait and switch-y, like Aronie draws you in promising you healing, but then just uses much of the space to give you her own memoir bits because the whole memoir isn’t being published.
Ultimately, I guess this book might be a great argument for writing your memoir and getting it out into the world, so that it doesn’t dominate or overshadow other good work you want to do.
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