Kayla
Good:
+ I looooove the prose in this. Reading this book felt like dancing and it was so engaging!
+ This book is unlike anything I've ever read, which was refreshing and fun to experience.
+ The premise was really interesting and it held my intrigue the entire time.
Bad:
- The characters felt entirely one-dimensional. I did not feel connected to them at all which is pretty much unforgivable for a romance.
- While I loved the writing, some parts were so melodramatic and over the top that I found myself rolling my eyes and cringing at parts where I should have been moved.
I will start by saying I'm now aware that Dr. LePera has a large social media following, however, I do not have Instagram and have never heard of her or her work before reading this book. That said, I will only be speaking on this book, not the author, her social media presence, or her "SelfHealing" program.
Overall, I liked the idea of this book more than I liked the actual content. When I first began reading it, I was certain this would be a 5-star read and I was excited to continue reading. However, the more I read the more I found myself questioning the validity of what Dr. LePera was touting. There are definitely great parts of this book, but much of this book is controversial at best and outright misinformation at worst. The entire reason I purchased this book in the first place was to learn more about holistic psychology. I'm all for challenging the disease model of mental illness, as I feel this approach robs many individuals of their agency and limits the paths to healing, but this book took things to an extreme that is just as harmful as the disease model. She encourages the reader to take matters into their own hands with her book and, if that doesn't work, join her online SelfHealer community . Still don't see progress in your mental health? Just work harder!... Yes, it's important to be an active participant in your mental wellness, even if you are seeing a professional and taking medications, but expecting readers to do all of the work themselves and if that doesn't work, joining her online community is harmful and disingenuine. What I loved about the book was the insight into other ways to heal yourself through changing your lifestyle. It's important for people to know that they are able to take matters into their own hands, but also (what this book leaves out) that trained professionals can provide support if needed, and medication if things come to that. There are MANY paths to healing which is something that the disease model does not emphasize. Unfortunately, this book doesn't emphasize the importance of modern medicine when it's needed, which is just as damaging and limiting. There were parts of this book I actually found to be very well done, such as the journal prompts at the end of each chapter and the chapter on boundaries. However, that's not why I picked up this book. I also found some of her writings related to medical conditions to be highly questionable. For example, she writes about how leaky gut syndrome is linked to psychiatric disorders like autism, ADHD, and anxiety as if this is an established fact. She cites a book on the topic (Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism, ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Depression, Schizophrenia) which I have never heard of but looked into, and it appears that this book has an entire slew of its own controversies, questionable claims, and misinformed citations. So, while I found a few things in this book to be positive, those things were unfortunately outweighed by the issues I found with this book. I don't even think I could recommend the few helpful chapters to clients, for fear they would want to read more and stumble upon the major problems of this book without knowing any better.
I think I would enjoy this more if I reread it or maybe even if it was my first Murakami book. Like always I enjoyed the atmosphere and the writing style. However, it felt bland, unfinished, and at times a bit pointless. I don’t mind when a book lacks a plot or doesn’t have an obvious “point” but I think because I went into this expecting there to be some big revelation at the end, I felt really disappointed when the book just ended abruptly with no answers. I’m used to his books leaving some loose ends and room for imagination and speculation, but this one felt so unfinished that I don’t even know where to begin to speculate and I ultimately feel dissatisfied. I could maybe see myself rereading this strictly for the atmosphere because this is suuuuuch a great and comforting depiction of the late night hours and the surreal/dreamlike feeling of an all-nighter. I think I would enjoy it more going into it knowing exactly what to expect. But until then, this will be my lowest rated Murakami book to date.
Contains spoilers
There is a big debate of whether or not this book is considered "trauma porn" or "misery porn." (I think it is, but that's beside the point) I don't think there is anything wrong with reading a sad book for the purpose of having a cathartic experience. I also recognize that many see themselves in Jude and resonate with some of his experiences. However, the amount, intensity, and detail of trauma that is displayed in this book is waaayyyy over the top to the point that it is gratuitous and unrealistic. Yes cycles of abuse exist and yes trauma can be complex and people can experience multiple and varied traumatic experiences in their life. BUT, Jude's life is utter misery at pretty much every single possible turn. The few good things he has going for him are ripped away in the most dramatic and upsetting ways possible. And for what? Based on the final few chapters and Yanagihara's interviews about the book, she is trying to make the point that some people are simply "too broken" to ever be "fixed" and that these people are better off just being dead. That is the point of this book. There is nothing deeper than that and THAT is why I dislike this book so vehemently.
Yanagihara has shamelessly revealed multiple times that she has done no research whatsoever into any of the primary topics she touches on in this book. She is a talented writer with uninformed (and wrong) opinions about therapy, trauma, and mental health and, instead of doing anything to challenge her ideas and study these topics that seem to interest her so much, she decided to write this book in a poor attempt to illustrate her (wrong) perception that life can be too hard for some people so they should just die. What good does this do for society, or for human expression, or literature, or philosophy, or anything at all? Every single suicidal person on this planet feels that they have endured too much hardship and that they would be better off dead. So, we should just let them die, then? And this lazily written, two dimensional and highly unrealistic caricature of a person with trauma is supposed to convince us all that life is too unbearable for some people, so mental health professionals should just give them the okay to throw in the towel? This is the primary message of this book, and it is what Yanagihara talks about when she talks about this book.
The praise this book gets is completely beyond me. Even outside of the abhorrent message about trauma and mental health, the characters all felt flat, and it seemed their sole purpose was to either hurt Jude or to show him hope in a very specific way which was to only be challenged or torn away from him eventually. Jude himself felt flat as well, so much so that I found myself rolling my eyes the more I got to know him. This may be my least favorite book of all time.