Untamed

I've had Glennon Doyle on my radar for a while, but hadn't got around to reading any of her books until now.  This is, I believe, in a similar memoir style to her other books.  In this book, she shares the aftermath of her divorce from her unfaithful husband, meeting and marrying her wife Abby, and all that she has learned about herself, finding her voice and being a mother along the way.

I really enjoyed hearing about Glennon's past struggles - her addictions, her eating disorder, and the breakup of her marriage - and how she had overcome them.  She dives into the root causes of her behaviours, and I am always really interested in that.  I was a little disappointed that dealing with her husband's infidelity and their subsequent divorce weren't discussed in more depth, but I think that is covered more in one of her previous books.  What is given a lot of time, sometimes ad nauseum, is her relationship with Abby.  It was lovely to hear of two people finding one another and building a life together, two people being so in love and supportive of one another.  But I'm not a big romance reader, and I did find some of it a bit overdone or sickly to read.  I was more interested in how a woman who had identified as religious, straight and had been married with kids felt and approached being attracted to and marrying a woman...but there wasn't much in terms of insight when it came to that.  I suppose that made it feel more natural, they simply met and fell in love, but I'd have liked to know a bit more about the internal thoughts Glennon had at that time.  

And the lack of that was a bit at odds with the rest of the book, because really this is a memoir of how Glennon thinks and processes the things she goes through.  She has a really unique voice and is able to really express not only her own thoughts, but apply them to all woman.  Some of her insights were really powerful to me, they hit the right note or even direct to the core of things I've been grappling with.  As a spiritual person, she can swerve quite often into a hippy zone that I'm not always equipped to follow her into, but it was still interesting to her.  I do think that she suffers from overthinking - I think she readily admits that herself - and so sometimes I was like, "really?  You got that from THAT Glennon?  Maybe you should chill."  And often the taint of privilege was obviously colouring her experiences and how she dealt with them, which could get grating. But even then, there was often a good, if spurious, take away from her insights.

I get that Glennon may not be for everyone, but I really enjoyed this.  I listened to the audio, which is narrated by Glennon herself, and I think her humour and self-deprecation comes across better in that format judging by some of the other reviews I've seen of the print version.  She has a voice that isn't like so many others I've read in this similar vein, and I really appreciated what she had to say.

I loved this book, disliked it and in the end came back to liking it. 
Overall, it is full of empowering messages with lots of moments that make you stop and go ohhhhh. There are lots of nice little stories about Glennon's life and she uses those to reinforce some of her thoughts behind "untaming". 
The underlying message of the book is fantastic and is one which many people need to hear. It is FULL to the brim of quotes which I probably will come back to, and of course they are very "instgramable".

On a negative note, it's most definitely more a self help book than a memoir and at times it did feel ridiculously preachy and like Glennon just wants the world to know how fantastic she is. 

There seems to be a love and a hate camp for this book and I've found myself camped nicely in the middle. I enjoyed aspects of it and took away a lot but at the same time I spent a chunk of the time rolling my eyes also.

I listened to the audiobook version which Glennon read herself and found her voice really easy to listen to, and I wasn't zoning out.

Even though it's not a 5 star it's definitely a book I would recommend.

3.5/5 (rounded to 4)

I have heard nothing but praise for this book since its release in early 2020 and I wish I loved it as much as I was expecting to. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Untamed but I think I was expecting much more from it.

Untamed tells of Glennon Doyle's life, her marriage(s), children, addiction, sexuality and relationship with religion. The book feels a mix of memoir and self help and it doesn't quite sit in either category, owing to this there is a lot about Doyle's love for her wife which may disarm those who were expecting less romance or first hand emotion - I did not mind this as I believe it added to Doyle's overarching message of bravery and living one's life fully.

Doyle narrates the audiobook of Untamed and I think this really added an extra level of understanding to the book, Doyle was able to use the tone she intended and it allowed for a more rich experience in my opinion.

I would highly recommend Untamed to anyone who is early on in their "journey" to self discovery and / or feminism and equality.

3.5 / 5

Glennon is so engaging and speaks so passionately. I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook, although I'm not sure if I am the target audience. 
Overall I felt the messages in Untamed were very powerful, I especially loved the 'we can do hard things' section, I felt like I really got something from this chapter. Glennon relates her own life experiences to self-help messages for women. I think if you are a parent you might get more from this book that I did but even so, I enjoyed it!

Phenomenal. This was such a brilliant book. I didn't know what to expect but I can tell you I will be recommending this to so many people. Thank you all the people who made this book happen!

Thank you so much to both Netgalley and the publishers for an audiobook of this arc!

I’d never heard of Glennon or her other books before, this book only came on my radar when it was chosen as a Reeses Book Club pick for last year.

I must admit that as a raging atheist all of the god stuff went right over my head but besides that I did learn a lot from this book about acceptance, parenting and how to be your best self. I can see how people would get a lot out of it. Glennon is unwaveringly honest and forward about the things she experienced in life and how she is now the happiest she’s ever been.

Bits of it were cheesy but that’s to be expected with a non fiction self help book. If you are able to see past that then there is a lot you can take from this book. I think what I’ll be taking from it is how to let my daughter to be free to make her own choices in life and to try to worry about her being crushed or hurt by things.

3.5 overall

Glennon Doyle’s ‘Untamed’ is a powerful part memoir, part a call to inspire especially women to stay to themselves. The book explores the inner peace and happiness we can achieve when we stop trying to please everyone around us except ourselves. In ‘Untamed’, Glennon Doyle shares her journey to find herself for the first time in her life and discover what truly matters and how it will affect those around her. For years, she was unhappy, trapped within the society’s expectations, and not trusting her inner voice. ‘Untamed’ is powerful because is raw, honest and full of mistakes. Because it’s essentially human. It shows that we never stop to learn, and that we should trust ourselves and conform things that unsettle us – even if they are thought to be a norm. Audiobook has been narrated by the author herself, and it was a great listen that I would definitely recommend. Although I don’t think I was the target audience or demographic for this memoir, I have enjoyed ‘Untamed’ in most parts, and it gave me some things to think through.