Untamed by Glennon Doyle Review

I was pleasantly surprised by Untamed. I've been ruminating on how to review it for a bit because I had and have so many varying thoughts, while reading it, in between reading it, and after reading it. There were moments when I thought Doyle is a mad scientist and thinker, others when I cringed, and some when she really made me think about my worldview and question all the labels and categories society has pushed upon me and I accepted as real, just the “way things are” which she refutes. I don’t agree with everything she said, but any book that makes me think as deeply as this one has my respect. I personally found the metaphor behind the title to be great and memorable, but I can see how some may find it cliché. 

I expected this to simply be a motivational sort of book for good intentioned mid-aged women (shoutout Adele, who made an entire social media post about it), but she attempts to cover a vast amount of topics: feminism, addiction, eating disorders, race, parenting, social commentary, sexuality, to name a few. But she is so intentional with her examples and explanations, and she’s able to clearly express and flesh out all her opinions and feelings so effectively, so I didn’t find many faults, she’s obviously quite skilled at what she does. I admired how she’s so raw and honest in this one, and how she does not sugarcoat her history or struggles in her personal relationships, which sounds all too familiar. I rolled my eyes at some of the alleged conversations she recalls that broke the spell of reading for me, due to their unrealistic nature, but I understood that she likely translated conversations she had with her children and other characters that spanned multiple days or weeks, and distilled them into single summative ones. She felt a bit out of touch at times, but never in a ill-intentioned or completely non-self aware sort of way. I especially admired her thought processes and bravery in expressing herself, and ability to analyze herself and life so critically and ability to translate it into words and encourage others to rethink all the ways they live that bring them unhappiness. Overall, this book added value to my life, and that is a wonderful feeling.

This book was also very individualistic. Doyle believes the best way to help those around you and your family is to be yourself and always choose yourself, above all else, constantly throughout the book. there’s some merit to this and I agree with some of her feminist takes on motherhood, but I can’t completely agree with the “all about me” attitude in some scenarios, I hope she played it up for this book. It was definitely an interesting perspective for me to read coming from a household and culture that champions sacrifice as a testament of love. But I liked that she does not bash or hate on generations or parental units that have difficulties expressing their instinctual love, she simply points them out and makes a case for how she believes love and self discovery should be.