A review by magical_mads
The Noticer: Sometimes, All a Person Needs Is a Little Perspective by Andy Andrews

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Overall score: 3.5/5

I’ve never really read self-help books before. So when I started out reading The Noticer, one my grandfather had recommended, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I have to say by the time I was done I was pleasantly surprised by what I had read.

I’ll start by saying that this is obviously a Christian-based book. So if religion isn’t your thing or Christianity doesn’t jive with you you might not enjoy this book as much. However, I do think the lessons about perspective in it are fairly important and definitely needed during times like today.

So here’s a quick summary! Andy is down on his luck when a mysterious old man, lovingly referred to as Jones, teaches him about how to look at life in a different perspective and use that as a way to change his life. The rest of the book follows Jones as he meets with other people around Andy’s small Gulf Shore community and revolves around the lessons that he teaches each individual.

The writing style is some what juvenile I would say. A lot of the dialogue doesn’t seem very realistic but that might be because it seems to be a truth based fiction story. I don’t know if there actually was a Jones in the author’s life but that’s how the narrative is framed. Just simply based off of Jones’s description, an old man whose race seems to change depending on the person that he’s talking to (who also is extremely wise and doesn’t seem to age), he almost seems too good to be true. This being a Christian-based narrative I could make the argument that Jones might be a stand-in for God or Jesus. To me personally, this seemed to make the story a bit stiff and very predictable. I enjoyed the lessons that I learned from Jones’ character, but it’s hard to fully believe that he was a real person ands seems way too good to be true. 

My second biggest issue had to do with mental health in the story as well. In particular there is one scene where a man is contemplating suicide and Jones shows up out of nowhere and basically tells him to look at life in a different perspective and he won’t feel so miserable. While that’s decent enough advice, it also carries with it the cliché of “just stop feeling sad.” With mental illness especially it’s not a good idea usually to tell someone to just get over it. And to some extent that’s what Jones tells the man. Although the advice he gives is ultimately good advice, I wish there had been some indication that he was telling this man to get further help and that what he is feeling is valid, rather than just tell him to get over it and change his perspective. I honestly probably would have given the book a better score if this scene had been handled more appropriately, at least in my opinion. 

So what about the things that I did like? Like I said before I think the lessons in the book are very important. With what’s going on in the world right now and all the craziness that surrounds us sometimes we do need a shift in our perspective in order to get a more positive outlook. And, while I did find his character infuriating for the most part, the story does a great job of just teasing you with who or what Jones might be and certainly adds an air of mystery to the narrative that is quite enjoyable. Not to mention, it’s a fairly quick read. So if you need to cleanse your palette between books in a series or you just want to try out a short book I think this one would be perfect for you. I literally finished it in a day.

So if you’re looking for a self-help book with a creative narrative and useful enough advice, I would recommend at least giving The Noticer a shot! It’s definitely not for everyone but I think it’d be easy to get an enjoyable experience out of it, at least for an afternoon. 

Tl;dr: The Noticer has some problematic elements but an overall wonderful message.