A review by tiarast
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

Fabulous. The way Gottlieb presents several vignettes— a woman struggling to come to terms with her own mortality after a live well lived, yet cut short, a woman who faces what’s left of her life after a lifetime of sorrow and regret, a man initially an asshole who is really on his own journey of grief and acceptance, and the author herself, a therapist who realizes she needs therapy herself—led me to laugh and cry at various points in this book. Plot wise, the pacing is brisk, but never feels choppy or sudden; I found myself constantly turning the pages to find out what happened next to the lively cast of characters. Gottlieb does a fantastic job of presenting the Hero’s Journey without too much sappiness. It feels incredibly authentic, like it really came from her heart. In a weird way, despite being a 20-something reading about these adults grappling with various life stages, it felt like this book was meant to be read by me at this very moment just because of how familiar a lot of these individuals’ struggles were to my own life and those of the people around me. Beyond the incredibly rich storytelling that I think could really touch anyone’s heart, she also introduces concepts about therapy and insights about what it’s like to be a therapist seamlessly as she is crafting her narrative. The impact this book had on me was so profound that I was inspired to pick up therapy again after overwhelmingly negative experiences. Spectacular all around.