A review by cass_lit
Be Not Afraid of Love: How to Stay Soft in a Hard World by Mimi Zhu

This book is not what I expected it to be, which I think affected my personal reading experience. It absolutely has its audience, it just wasn’t as much me as I believed it would be. Mimi Zhu is a survivor of intimate-partner abuse, and this book is heavily about the survival and healing process from that. While it touches on learning to love yourself after and being open to love from friends and others, I found it less about being afraid of love and more about being able to heal from a situation in which “love” (Mimi and I might have different views on how much love there actually is in an abusive relationship) has proven literally harmful. There were some points I found helpful and I absolutely applaud Mimi Zhu for all of the work she’s put into bettering herself, her community, and the world in general, but ultimately I didn’t find most of this book applicable to my own life. 
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