I enjoyed the narrator’s voice and the insights I gained from this audiobook so would highly recommend it.

I have a secret servant
(My rivals knew I must!)
A loyal thing, and fervent,
A daemon I can trust.

He sits upon my shoulder,
Has sat there many a year,
With age, he grows much bolder,
And whispers in my ear.

And oftentime he’s jolly,
Though if at all ignored
He urges me to folly
To keep from growing bored.

And sometimes he’s indignant,
Pretending then to weep,
And twice he’s grown malignant;
More often, he’s asleep.

But when he senses danger,
Or fancies easy meat,
God help the hapless stranger
Who feigns to trick or treat!

He’ll take a prince’s ransom,
And dice it — lose or win!
He’s small and dark and handsome;
(He bid me put that in!)
His motto: ‘Faster, faster!
No! Take the other door!’
But which of us is master,
I’ve never quite been sure.

Yet I’d not be without him,
(Though daemons know no friend);
He tells me, (I don’t doubt him),
He’ll be there — til the end.

The above poem by Felix Dennis keeps circling in my head whenever I think about this book.

I've been a voice hearer since childhood but this isn't something I tend to talk about with other people.

I hesitate to even write this review — lest my voices pay too much attention and start to get ideas above their own station.

Needless to say I'm personally invested in the subject matter of this book and wanted it to deliver the goods.

Scratch beneath the glossy surface of the "turns out" journalism, wipe away all the scientific reasearch, and what you're left with is a powerful message about how to deal with the voices in your head.

Too often we're told to shut these voices up, to deny them, or to explain them away and pretend they're not real.

But what if you decided to listen to them instead?

I'm not talking about when they say that you should wear your neighbour's face like a mask. Don't listen to that. Pretty sure those voices don't belong to your subconscious!

We all have voices in our heads — some of us more than others — but usually it's a hypercritical judgy-pants, manic distraction monkey, or one of the characters of Inside Out like Sadness or Joy.

So why not set them to work for you instead of against you? Transform your inner critic into your inner coach.

This is easier said than done, of course, but it starts with listening objectively to what your voices have to say.

Ethan Kross is a psychologist who has studied this self-talk phenonemon for more than twenty years.

Chatter explores the latest science and scientific thinking about voice hearing, with real world examples about how people live with their voices, and ultimately puts a positive and practical spin on what you can do about the voices in your own head.

Also read 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind' by Julian Jaynes if you want an eye-opening and controversial historical perspective on the same subject.

I listened to Chatter as an audio-book, narrated by the author Ethan Kross, it is a blend of the author's personal story, scientific information, research and facts together with other people's personal stories. Such a great book to listen to; the author has a lovely calming voice and after the last year of the pandemic and spending more time with our internal voice and chatter, this book feels timely.

Not only very interesting but also very useful. I found the research and breadth of examples engaging and the practical tips excellent. We all have inner chatter but do we know how to manage it to be a positive force? Not many of us I am guessing but this book will definitely help me and others.

I really enjoyed this - a fresh new look at what's going on in our minds. The narration was good and clear, I'd recommend this.

Our minds rarely ever keep quiet. Day after day, it dredges up some past events or reminds us of some future. Some of us pay attention to these activities more than the others. Unfortunately, some of us also take these endless mind mutterings more seriously than we should... sometimes to the point of obsession.

Chatter by Ethan Kross brings a topic rarely discussed to the fore. This is an audiobook that looks at the advantages and disadvantages of the voices in our head. It explains ways they can sabotage us and what to do when it happens.

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT THE BOOK
There is a good depth of research that seems to have gone into this book and it shows. I loved listening to the case studies and various other examples of people who were stuck on the voices in there head. It was interesting learning what those voices kept repeating to them and how it affected their outlook on life.

The solutions the author proffers to the problem of overthinking aren't too dissimilar from meditation, but each one of these solutions stands on its own merits and are backed by years of research. Having said that, it is up to individuals to figure out what works for them.

DISLIKES
None.

WHO IS IT FOR?
Chatter by Ethan Kross is for people suffering from debilitating self-talk, restless mind, and lack of confidence. This book could be game-changer for them.

Many thanks to Random House UK for review copy.

‘The most important conversation you’ll have is with yourself’.

This book was fantastic! I absolutely love the subject matter the author covered and it was so so interesting. Everyone has an inner voice, but how much do we know about it? What can we understand from it? How can we draw from it? It’s such a common and well spread phenomenon yet individually understood very little!

I love reading psychology books and all about the brain and have very rarely came across our inner voice and the science, psychology and application relating to it. It definitely made the book novel and different! Introspection is such a double edged sword and it was so interesting learning more about what goes on in our brains.

Hearing about the authors experiences in life and career were great as well as examples in the real world, in different people and within ourselves. For example, in athletes. There’s some amazing studies and research included too, which was amazingly communicated and written with plenty of examples of other works by renowned scientists and researchers in their field. I loved learning more about the science and I really learnt an awful lot from this book.

I also thought the narrator was great and was very easy to listen to. I always worry listening to audiobooks of non fiction as sometimes the narration can be hard to listen to/ monotonous however this one was definitely not. It was effortless to the ears and I stayed focused and engaged enough throughout to take in the information and get into the subject.

This is the sort of book that you read, and it continues with you after you’ve finished. You leave with active points for change when it comes to your inner voice and new tools for implementation are included too.

This is such an important book for so many and I left with a completely different perspective on the ‘inner voice’. Both in understanding my own and that of others, how it can be turned to an advantage and learning its applications in things like sport, mental and physical health as well as what’s happening in ongoing research.

Would definitely recommend!

I am always somewhat sceptical of books like this at first, fearing what I think of as 'the Malcolm Gladwell effect', where an author introduces a concept in chapter 1 that they themselves have coined (often their own wording of a phenomenon that other people have discovered) and then spends the next 300 pages listing story after story to show why they were right.

However, where 'Chatter' is different for me is in how the stories continue to deepen the concept and explore it at length, whilst looking regularly at the science that informs it (of which Ethan Kross is a central figure).

Kross' central idea, borne out of years of research, is that the inner monologue we experience in various forms is not only part of what makes us human, but is also what can lead to our greatest failures and successes.

In this sense, it becomes a muscle that we can train to help it become our best ally, and Kross explores both where the inner monologue's 'chatter' is too strong and overpowering, and it convinces us that we are worthless and/or prone to failure, but also how we can use it to reinforce positive messages, or even blank it out at specific moments.

This therefore tips this book into being a bit of a how-to guide as well as a fascinating look into research. For example, he looks at how rituals- whether religious, superstitious, cultural or seemingly bizarre- play an important role in supporting our ability to approach certain tasks at hand, from writing, to complex technical work, to high-pressure situations like fishing in shark-infested waters or playing professional sport.

Overall, I think this book is a neatly digestible joy, that is both quite challenging but also accessible. Experiencing it as an audiobook (with Kross himself reading it) is also quite interesting, as you can sometimes hear your inner monologue being pulled back into focus by the discussions.

Thank you to Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There is still so much to learn about the human mind. It's capable of so much, some good and some bad. So what about when things go a bit wrong? "Chatter" is a light glance at what happens when our inner voice sets out to (it feels like) destroy us, and delivers some simple tools to get that voice back under control. Amazingly, these "tools" can be used immediately - and with immediate results. I really would like a more in-depth exploration of this subject.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

**listened to audio book**

I was really excited to listen to/read this book, as it's a topic I find fascinating! However I was left really disappointed.
Firstly the structure of the book was all overly the place. the author talks about his experiences, and also uses case studies - flipping back and forth between the two. I found it very confusing, and didn't always know the point of some of the anecdotes. They didn't always seem relevant.
I also found the narrators voice very monotone, and it got very dull very quickly.

This wasn't the book I was hoping for.