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A review by livcashmere
Untamed: Stop Pleasing, Start Living by Glennon Doyle
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