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.

I went into this with some pretty high expectations. The marketing of this has been strong. I am probably not the audience for this book if I reflect on it. I probably tick the demographics but to be honest I’m a bit too cynical for this type of thing.

There were moments that I really connected to, parts of it that made me go - ‘oh that’s cool’ but as memoirs go it felt quite light on content. It was more surface observation from quite a privileged position.

I’ve heard criticism of it saying that it is basically a woman patting herself on the back about how together her life is. I wouldn’t go as far as that but I can see where people were coming from. I probably shouldn’t have read this in the middle of a lockdown, post-Covid and extremely busy with my job in Healthcare, it made me resent it a little.

If you are into a self-help, empowering Ted Talk style of thing then this is probably the book for you.

‘Untamed’ was really an introduction to author Glennon Doyle for me. I enjoyed listening to this charming lady narrate her own words as she talks of the challenges she has experienced in her life. In her talk of not accepting the roles society has ascribed to us and how to challenge these to live our best lives, she is truly inspiring.

There are phrases throughout this book that resonated with me ‘we can do hard things’ being one, I also love how she talks of applying marriage vows to the relationship we have with ourselves rather than to an other.

The story of how Glennon came to be with her partner is breathtakingly beautiful and had me feeling shivers!

This is a really good read for anyone who is questioning their life and needs inspiration to make things better. I love Glennon’s idea of writing our own stories. Its really useful when a book like this gives practical strategies.

Personally I enjoyed the stories Glennon told the most, in parts where there was more analysis and less story telling, my attention wavered a little, but this is more a reflection of me than a problem with the book!

My thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this audiobook in exchange for an advance copy.

An interesting and fascinating listen to start the year off. I always enjoy books read by the author as I think it brings a level of truth which feels especially important for a memoir. Parts of this audiobook had me nodding along and truly connecting to the things Glennon Doyle was expressing, other parts I found less relevant but it will come down to personal experience rather than a criticism of the audiobook. I did enjoy the blend of memoir and wake-up call and it felt like we were accompanying Doyle on her journey of self discovery. The ideas around female empowerment and 'un-caging' yourself were the most powerful aspects of the audiobook. A good listen.

This was a really interesting self- help book. It’s broken down into a number of different sections and it really easy to dip in and out or just read it all in one go. Despite not being a fan of some of the content relating to God I still really enjoyed this book! I really liked it being narrated by the author, her tone is very soothing and easy to listen to.

I had heard good things about this book so when I was given the opportunity to listen to it on Audiobook I jumped at the chance. It's starts off really good, explaining about a wild animal that can never be 100% tame and live in cages without the urges installed inside them that are wild. Humans are the same they are living in cages being what humans are supposed to be.

She had problems with drink, drugs, a bad marriage and only truly finding her inner happiness after meeting and marrying a woman and finding god. I have mixed views about the advice she gives, some is good, some not so good. I'm glad she worked it all out in her own way. As a self help book, I wouldn't recommend. As a memoir I thought it was very interesting and definitely worth a read.

I was very excited to listen to Untamed as it has been highly recommended to me. It is read well by the author and is part memoir and part observation. Using her own story as inspiration Glennon Doyle encourages us to listen to the voice inside us as a way to gain inner peace and joy, instead of the focus so many of us have on trying to meet the expectations of others and society. It is a very accessible and listenable audiobook with short chapters that are easy to dip into. I found some chapters inspiring with insights that I could really take away and use for my own self development. Other chapters seemed to be more shallow anecdotes that I was unable to relate to. However, overall I'd recommend this for an inspiring listen during these challenging times.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital audiobook.

Firstly, I want to thank Glennon Doyle and NetGalley for this ARC audiobook - this was my first audiobook and I definitely did enjoy listening to it. It didn't take me long to listen to it as I had it on for the whole day, in the car and while out for a walk; in the house while cleaning etc. It was finished in one day, just about!

I thought it had a very strong message, we often do try and be someone we are not to fit in with the rest of the world and sometimes, in the process, this makes us unhappy. I love that Doyle's message was to let go and be 'our untamed self'. There is no better message for a world where social media is ruling how we think we should look and feel.

I loved this, so lucky to have been able to listen to this. I will try harder to be more 'Untamed' myself and listen to me before the world.